Upcoming IEP meeting: any tips for advocating for 1-on-1 rather than group therapy?

[Guinevere]

Hi all,

Looking for advice/tips from BTDT parents....

My DD Sophie, who will be 4 soon, has her IEP meeting coming up in a couple of weeks. This is only the 2nd IEP meeting I've ever been to, so I'm still a relative newbie at this whole navigating-the-public-school-special-education-system thing. To top it off, due to child care conflicts, I'm going to be going to this meeting completely solo, and I'm concerned about being her only advocate and doing a good enough job for her.

Last year's IEP, when she transitioned out of EI and into public school, I had a whole slew of people present to help me advocate for her: DH and I, as well as her wonderful PT and SLP from EI. As a result, I felt we got some really great goals written for her and we were able to push hard enough to get her the services she needed: PT, OT, and SLP.

HOWEVER, all 3 services are being provided to her in a group setting, with several other children. I understand completely why they're doing this, as it's far easier and more cost-effective for them. But given the degree of some of DD's delays, it's really not been the best deal for her.

I'm willing to let the PT part slide, b/c gross motor skills are her strongest area of development, so having group PT isn't a bad thing. But Sophie is extremely delayed in fine motor skills, and therefore 1 hr. of OT a week with 4 other kids and 1 therapist isn't helping her much at all, especially b/c the OT told me herself at our last conference that Sophie requires hand-over-hand support to do pretty much anything fine-motor-wise, and that's not really doable in a group setting.

Group speech therapy is also an issue, b/c Sophie not only has Down Syndrome, she also has apraxia, AND is the only child in her preschool who communicates via sign language. Therefore, the group lessons, which are geared to the needs of the other children there who may have speech delays, but don't sign and don't have apraxia, don't really meet her individual needs or give her the level of support that the apraxia, in particular, requires.

Okay, so I know the group therapy isn't the best thing for her and would love to see her get more 1-on-1 attention. Now, how do I go about making it a reality? Is there any particular argument I can use or wording I could employ to change the new IEP in favor of this?

Any input would be soooo helpful!

Kind regards,
Guin

[2boyzmama]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

Group speech therapy is also an issue, b/c Sophie not only has Down Syndrome, she also has apraxia, AND is the only child in her preschool who communicates via sign language. Therefore, the group lessons, which are geared to the needs of the other children there who may have speech delays, but don't sign and don't have apraxia, don't really meet her individual needs or give her the level of support that the apraxia, in particular, requires.

Okay, so I know the group therapy isn't the best thing for her and would love to see her get more 1-on-1 attention. Now, how do I go about making it a reality? Is there any particular argument I can use or wording I could employ to change the new IEP in favor of this?

Any input would be soooo helpful!

Kind regards,
Guin

I'm right with you here, except that Connor's therapy is a mix of group and 1-on-1, and he doesn't have T21, he has 22q. But he also has Apraxia and uses sign language.

Does Sophie have any hearing loss? I found out that under IDEA, Hearing Impaired is the only diagnosis that allows the parents to choose the mode of communication (ASL vs verbal vs assistive communication) and it also grants the child the right to direct peer to peer interaction. That second part might not be as important to you, or might not be as relevant to your issue of therapy, but if she is labeled as hearing impaired (vs just speech and language impaired) then you as the parent have a little more "say" in how her IEP is written.

ALSO...the IEP team has to show how her current placement and therapy is meeting the goals they set for her previously. Is she progressing in speech and OT? If not, then there's your argument for a change. If she is progressing, but not as quickly as you'd like, then you'll have to write goals that are a bit more ambitious, then wait for her to not meet them, then you can argue for a change (stupid, I know, wait for her to fail before giving her what she needs, but that's kind of how it's written).

So I'd ask the ST and OT to describe the progress they've seen in her current placement, then ask for the entire team to discuss pros/cons of 1-on-1 therapy vs group therapy.

It's supposed to be a team decision, the team is supposed to discuss the various options then agree on one. That's the problem I have with Connor's IEP team, no one seems to be discussing alternatives until I bring them up, then they're always saying "you're not giving us a chance to see if this way works" which I keep saying "you aren't even willing to discuss options to explore?" It's taken 3 meetings in 3 weeks to get the team to start discussing things with me, but we're getting somewhere now finally.

[Linda on the move]

I think you did a great job in your post of explaining * why* she needs one on one for speech and fine motor.

<< But Sophie is extremely delayed in fine motor skills, and therefore 1 hr. of OT a week with 4 other kids and 1 therapist isn't helping her much at all, especially b/c the OT told me herself at our last conference that Sophie requires hand-over-hand support to do pretty much anything fine-motor-wise, and that's not really doable in a group setting. But Sophie is extremely delayed in fine motor skills, and therefore 1 hr. of OT a week with 4 other kids and 1 therapist isn't helping her much at all, especially b/c the OT told me herself at our last conference that Sophie requires hand-over-hand support to do pretty much anything fine-motor-wise, and that's not really doable in a group setting.
But Sophie is extremely delayed in fine motor skills, and therefore 1 hr. of OT a week with 4 other kids and 1 therapist isn't helping her much at all, especially b/c the OT told me herself at our last conference that Sophie requires hand-over-hand support to do pretty much anything fine-motor-wise, and that's not really doable in a group setting.>>

Could you get the OT to write this up? I really love our school staff and feel that they try hard with my DD, but they seem to LOVE anything written on paper to back up a decision.

<< the only child in her preschool who communicates via sign language. Therefore, the group lessons, which are geared to the needs of the other children there who may have speech delays, but don't sign and don't have apraxia, don't really meet her individual needs or give her the level of support that the apraxia, in particular, requires. >>

again, I'd get the therapist to put something in writing.

Did she have measurable goals listed in her last IEP and how is she progressing toward them? What does her measurable progress say about how the current plan is working for her?

What do you want her measurable goals to be in her new IEP?

I'd also consider if you want her to have one-on-one in addition to the group or instead of the group. Is she getting something out of it, just not enough, or is it really kind of a waste of time for her to be there?

Last thing ~ while I do feel like I advocate for my DD, I feel like every person in the room wants what is best for her and really cares about her. I feel like we are a team working together, not that we are opposite sides and I need to argrue.

<<I'm concerned about being her only advocate and doing a good enough job for her.>>

Are you really the only advocate she'll have in the room? Who else will be there and what do you think they want for your DD?

[Guinevere]

Thank you both so much for your input!

In answer to your questions:

No, Sophie is not hearing-impaired; she signs b/c the motor planning issues with her apraxia make her speech very unclear. To be honest, her fine motor delays have meant that her ASL isn't always very clear, either, lol, b/c she often has to approximate the true sign (minor beef: ASL was clearly NOT developed for people with fine motor delays!), but at least between the sign approximation WITH the verbal approximation, she is 90% intelligible; without the combo, she's probably 20% intelligible. So I don't think we'll be able to use that as a tool towards arguing for 1-on-1 therapy.

I can certainly try to get the OT and SLP from her preschool to write some things down, although since there won't be any meeting before the IEP, I'm not sure exactly what I'm asking them for? A written progress report which outlines some of the areas in which she's still struggling? This is a bit tricky b/c we just met for parent-teacher conferences a couple of weeks ago, and they already wrote up things then, but of course they weren't worded to include the info. that she needs more individual help. Any thoughts on what I could do about this?

As per the report at our last meeting, she really isn't making much progress on any of her OT goals, although the OT complained that she "didn't like the way they were written." I actually think they are good goals, but it's difficult for Sophie to achieve some of them b/c they are written around activities that she doesn't enjoy -- doing puzzles, stacking things, etc. To be honest, she pretty much hates ANY fine motor activity because she has such a hard time doing any of them, so I'm not sure what the magic solution is.

Speech is a trickier situation, b/c she's actually making HUGE gains right now, due in large part to the intensive, 2x/week, 1-on-1, private speech therapy that she receives. So although she's really not getting her needs met in the school setting, you wouldn't know it to look at how far she's come this year. Of course, none of this is really due to the school SLP's efforts -- why do I say this? B/c when she gives me her reports at our meetings, it's obvious that she doesn't really know Sophie well at all and has little to no idea of what she knows/can say and what she doesn't know. In all likelihood, this is b/c she only sees her 1 hr. a week in a group setting with other kiddos. But I'm not sure how to make the distinction in the IEP meeting on her progress with 1-on-1 versus a group setting. Again, any input on that issue would be helpful.

I honestly don't know who will be attending the IEP on the school's end -- hopefully some of the school therapists and her current teacher? I didn't want to seem as if I automatically lump anyone from the school district as being "the enemy:" I, too, do not wish to have an adversarial relationship with any of the staff. It's just that, at our last meeting, since she was transitioning into the school, no one from the district knew her at all or was familiar with what would be best for her. That's why it was so important for her EI therapists to attend, to give that very valuable input.

This year, I presume it will be her current school therapists and teacher who will be helping to write her IEP goals; does that sound right? Hopefully the whole process will be smoother than last year b/c she's already "in the system," but I just want to ensure that she's getting the level of support she truly needs in order to be as successful as possible.

Guin

[Linda on the move]

Originally Posted by Guinevere

I can certainly try to get the OT and SLP from her preschool to write some things down, although since there won't be any meeting before the IEP, I'm not sure exactly what I'm asking them for? A written progress report which outlines some of the areas in which she's still struggling? This is a bit tricky b/c we just met for parent-teacher conferences a couple of weeks ago, and they already wrote up things then, but of course they weren't worded to include the info. that she needs more individual help. Any thoughts on what I could do about this?

I'd just drop them an email saying something like,

Dear XXX,

As you know, Sophie's IEP meeting is coming up on DATE. Based an our conversation during her parent-teacher conference, I'll be asking that she recieve OT therapy one on one since she requires hand-over-hand support to do pretty much anything fine-motor-wise, and that's not really doable in a group setting. I would appreciate you writing something up for the meeting stating your professional opinion on the value of one on one for her. Would you be willing to send me a copy as well for my records?

Thank you so much!

NAME

As per the report at our last meeting, she really isn't making much progress on any of her OT goals, although the OT complained that she "didn't like the way they were written."

This goes in favour of her getting one on one. What does the OT think would be good goals for her?

Speech is a trickier situation, b/c she's actually making HUGE gains right now, due in large part to the intensive, 2x/week, 1-on-1, private speech therapy that she receives. So although she's really not getting her needs met in the school setting, you wouldn't know it to look at how far she's come this year.

Will the private therapy be continuing?

My DD gets a combo of services through school and privately and I like it that way. If your DD is doing well in speech right now, I'd really focus on that area where she isn't making progress. Pick your battles (unless the private therapy is a problem is some way).

I honestly don't know who will be attending the IEP on the school's end -- hopefully some of the school therapists and her current teacher?

Find out. Call the person coordinating the meeting and ask. If you don't know who is coordinating, call the school secretary and ask who is coordinating the meeting.

My DD's meetings have the school social worker, the special ed teacher, the principal, and one of her regular teachers (she is in middle school and changes classes). It's people who know her and want what is best for her.

[anj_rn]

The only thing I have to add is to have the private SLP write a letter explaining the techniques used and how to help translate those into the classroom. The big catch phrase would be "coordination of care." This has helped several people I know.

[julianito]

If your daughter has apraxia, ASHA the national speech language association. recommends 4 1:1's a week as the standard treatment for apraxia.

The apraxia kids website has this recommendation there or you can probably find it from ASHA's site. I was able to get that for my son by printing the recommendation and bringing it to my IEP.

[SpottedFoxx]

Keep in mind that in some situations, it's not a matter of cost or ease but that it's better to work in a small group setting as the children not only benefit from the therapist but the other children as well.

My son gets speech therapy in both the classroom (large group) and pull out (small group). I spoke with my cousin who is a speech therapist about pushing for one on one and she said in many cases - small group is much more beneficial.