The IEP

Cue the scary music.........The IEP has been known to strike if not terror, at least unease and severe discomfort into the hearts of parents whose children require them. IEP stands for Individualized Education Plan. Various situations warrant a child having an IEP. Autistic kids, mentally challenged kids, and of course deaf kids have them which is why we know all about this process. I worked at one time at a residential treatment center for troubled teens and they all had IEPs.

The reason parents find IEPs so frightening varies. It usually boils down to this: if your child is on an IEP it is because they need special or extra help and as a parent, you want your child to have the services they need and want honest analysis from the school on what those services are. As a parent you study what it is your child needs and then you have to rely on the school district to administer many of those services. Sure your child is deaf and you know they need help hearing, but how much speech therapy is sufficient to get them where they need to be?

As a parent of a child on an IEP you also face the daunting task of facing a school district that does not always want to tell you what your child needs because of the fear they will be expected to provide it. What is provided by each district varies within states and there are huge differences between what each state offers. A deaf child in one state will get their $5,ooo.oo FM system paid for by the district. Other states will require a fight just to get the proper amplification into the classroom of a deaf child let as well paying for a device such as a FM system.

There are also no hard and fast rules to be found. How much speech therapy does a deaf child require for instance? I have talked to deaf adults who are out in the hearing world who talk about having constant speech therapy throughout their school years. They have gotten emotional as they talked about the role that their speech therapist played in helping them acquire the language they needed. Sometimes these same people absolutely hated speech therapy, but they admit that it got them to where they are today...being able to talk and communicate as well as they do. Advances in technology make it easier for deaf kids to hear in many instances than the hearing aids of 20 years ago. But the need for speech therapy in a deaf child's life remains vital.

Speech therapists in Utah are hard to come by in the schools and have huge caseloads. Chance was tested by a speech therapist in the school district before the IEP and she determined that Chance did not need speech therapy. This did not make us as parents happy at all. Chance is doing very well, but he has speech errors and we know that they need to be corrected. He has come a long way, but there are holes in his vocabulary and his speech needs fine tuning with a focus on articulation. We as parents have a responsibility of helping Chance at home and are willing to do our part, but Chance needs the extra help of a professional who is trained in aiding those with speech issues.

Since we were concerned about Chance's speech needs at this time and where we should go from here, we had Chance tested by a speech therapist before the speech test at school was administered. We did not realize it at the time, but the exact same test was administered by both speech therapists. The speech therapist not affiliated with the school determined that Chance did need speech therapy and diagnosed him as having a moderate articulation disorder and a mild expressive language disorder. As his parents, we knew that there were some things to work on with Chance and were looking for guidance as to which direction we should be headed.

Needless to say, the difference in the test results was troubling to us. Was the school telling us what they offered or what was needed? As a parent you ask yourself these kind of questions over and over to assess if you are giving your child what they need to succeed.

The fact of the matter is, as Chance's parents we know that he is capable of absolutely anything. We see no boundaries for Chance and what he decides to do. Our fears lay not with what Chance can't do, but if we as parents are doing what needs to be done so that Chance gets what he needs to excel. How can we make sure that he is provided with all he needs to be all that he is capable of?

We have a good IEP team that works with us to help Chance. With teachers that care about him and an administrator that has been with Chance from the beginning and is concerned that Chance succeeds. And he is succeeding. There is still some work to do.

So, in our IEP meeting, we requested that Chance get speech services from a speech-language pathologist. We brought up the testing we had done, and had a letter from our audiologist stating that he felt Chance needed speech therapy. Chance will be now be getting speech therapy once a week along with some other therapy services. We feel good about this and will be assessing if this seems to be getting Chance what he needs.

As parents, we are willing to do our part at home, it is a team effort. I have been jotting down words that Chance does not know when he reads books or when words are used in conversation. One of his teachers thought it would be a great idea if I sent in the lists of vocabulary words that I note Chance does not know and they work on them at school as well. This is a fabulous idea and will help Chance learn faster and more thoroughly I think. One of my concerns was that I would be loading Chance with vocabulary at home and they would be loading Chance with new vocabulary at school and his little brain would explode from overload. With all of us working together, we can help Chance fill in those holes he has.

We'll see how Chance does with speech therapy and if he is getting what he needs. And we'll continue to work at home with Chance and expose him to what we think will help him reach his potential.

This is a journey that never gets boring and continually highlights what an incredible little person Chance is.