Jen Newton, PhD is an assistant professor in early childhood/early childhood special education (isn’t that a lot of words for what should be one field??). I talk a lot and have strong opinions – or so I am told.
We have a new article out today. I hope you’ll check it out!
Jen Newton, PhD is an assistant professor in early childhood/early childhood special education (isn’t that a lot of words for what should be one field??). I talk a lot and have strong opinions – or so I am told.
We’re kicking off a new series on IEPs!
Starting with the basics to ensure we have a mutual understanding of what IEPs are and are not.
The IEP is a legal document and every component of special education (beginning with the fact that it exists at all) comes through litigation and advocacy. We are accountable for the things we agree to and despite the fact that oversight and accountability is severely lacking, we, as professionals, must enter into IEPs with integrity and good faith.
IEPs are specific to the child. The tendency is to write goals (more on goal writing later) that are specific to the person responsible for the goal. So we have a “speech goal,” two “OT goals,” and two “academic goals.” We get it . . . BUT is that functional? Does speech operate in isolation from academics? Does OT matter if it isn’t applied to a skill of independence or context? The objective would be for us to build collaborative, functional, shared goals supporting the child’s access to the general curriculum.
Remember, an IEP is not a curriculum. It’s a plan for the services and supports the child needs to be success accessing the general curriculum. Yes, we offer adapted curriculum to some kids but an IEP in and of itself is not an adapted curriculum.
It’s also not a behavior plan.
When I teach IEPs, I have the students work through writing one on themselves. On their present levels, current needs, what supports and services would help them be successful. It helps to personalize the language we use, to focus on strengths, to shut down the deficit framing, because when it’s time to write one on a child, we need to see ourselves and the IEP as a support, not a fixer.
What questions do you have about IEPs?
We can’t get into goal writing without working on our PLAAFP/PLOP/PLP writing. All good goals start as clearly written PLAAFPs.
The words “functional performance” are important here. Working together as a team (WITH families) to ensure we’re addressing functional needs rather than isolated skills is truly the heart of the IEP.
I get lots of messages about how, yes, that’s ideal but not practical or what happens in practice. And I know. However, when we know better, we can do better and advocate for best practices. Here’s to the ones shaking it up out there!!
Lots of requests for goal writing strategies so we are working on some resources for that but in the meantime, what are IEP goals? Are they written for specific academic skills based on assessment data and deficits? Or are they written for providing the missing foundational skills the individual child needs to gain access to the curriculum? This is exactly why general ed teachers need to know about goals, IEP specific data collection, and accommodations and modifications. Supporting learners is all of our work!
This gives the IDEA charge for goals. The words here are important.
IDEA has four purposes. 1) equality of opportunity 2) full participation 3) independent living, 4) economic self sufficiency
It helps to keep the big picture in mind when writing goals.
More on this to come but for now, what have you found helpful in writing meaningful goals?
Jen Newton, PhD is an assistant professor in early childhood/early childhood special education (isn’t that a lot of words for what should be one field??). I talk a lot and have strong opinions – or so I am told.
Remember, we talked about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and the 6 principles of IDEA. Now, we’re going to add the legal definitions of each of the 13 disability categories with a little info for each.
Autism is considered a clinical diagnosis. It is determined by a team of qualified professionals generally including a developmental pediatrician, psychologists, and/or neurologists.
If learners present with communication impairments, difficulties in making and sustaining relationships, sensory sensitivities, repetitive or nonproductive motor movements, they may meet the eligibility criteria for autism.
Using terms like low functioning and high functioning communicate more about how the learner’s autism impacts those around them rather than how the learner with autism experiences their autism. Changing our language to reflect the amount of support learners need in specific areas is more beneficial in meeting the learner’s unique needs.
Some states/districts allow school assessment teams to make eligibility determinations of autism without a medical/clinical team assessment.
The needs of a learner with autism are unique to the child themselves. Presuming competence, using the child’s interests to provoke engagement, and putting the child’s strengths in the forefront are critical components of supporting and teaching kids with autism.
Deaf-blindness is considered a low incidence disability as about .03% of those served in special education are eligible under this category.
Approximately half of those .03% have Usher Syndrome. Each child has their own unique combination of hearing and vision loss. It’s not necessary to experience total vision and/or total hearing loss to be eligible in this category.
Strategies will utilize touch cues, assistive technology, Braille, screen readers, TDD with Braille, and more!
The American Association of the Deaf-Blind is an excellent resource!
Deafness is it’s own IDEA category – separate from hearing impairment because the strengths, needs, values, culture, interventions, and decisions of Deaf children are unique. Families engage in complex decision making when raising (D)deaf children and professionals must partner with families and honor their decisions and priorities in terms of language, medical interventions, and educational goals.
Let’s take a look at this category carefully, shall we?
I know it’s wordy! It’s important to see the words included in the law’s definition – and those NOT included.
Emotional disturbance (ED) is an umbrella term. Many many medical and psychological diagnoses qualify for services and supports in this category. Anxiety disorders (🙋🏽♀️), eating disorders, depression, mood disorders such as bipolar disorder, conduct disorders such as oppositional defiance disorder, and the rare childhood onset psychotic disorders such as schizophrenia.
This category is often overapplied in particular to black and brown children and to children living in poverty. The characteristics of children with ED (hoping this category is renamed very soon!) are characteristics exhibited by most children at points along the developmental continuum – the difference for learners with ED is the persistence over a long period of time.
We are challenged with considering the WHY before rushing to an ED determination. Highly qualified child psychologists and mental health experts are necessary partners in determining ED as a primary category.
This is an example of when educators wield great power over the lives of young children. We must be sure we are using that power for the good of the child focused on services and supports for the child’s success.
Why is hearing impairment its own category? Because hearing is COMPLEX!
There are a variety of ways in which hearing can be impaired – conductive hearing loss, sensorineural hearing loss, mixed, and central hearing disorders are all types of hearing loss.
And the extent to which a child’s education is impacted by their loss is complex and unique to the child!
Sound is measured by loudness (decibels) and frequency (hertz). Hearing impairment can occur in just one or both as well as in one or both ears. Do you know we have two ears to allow us to locate sound in space? Loss in one ear makes it very difficult to tell where sound is coming from!
Loss is described as slight, mild, moderate, severe, or profound based on how well a person can hear and differentiate sounds at intensities most common in speech.
Services and supports vary so never assume that one child with a hearing impairment who used an FM system means the next child with a hearing impairment will!
About 7% of kids receive services and supports under the category of intellectual disability. This (like all?!) category is also complicated because there are some genetic disorders, issues during pregnancy, birth complications, and health conditions that result in intellectual disabilities. Background information coupled with multiple means of assessment in cognitive and adaptive development provide the data necessary for eligibility in this category.
Developmental delay (or significant developmental delay in some states) provides an eligibility category to serve and support young kids before age 8-9. This gives time for loads of evidence based intervention before determination of an intellectual disability.
Due to the highly biased and problematic nature of intelligence testing (IQ tests), we have the responsibility to be aware of how kids may be underperforming on assessments for reasons unrelated to their cognitive abilities. Multiple means of assessment in a variety of modes and environments are critical. If we fail to provide a child with a highly qualified teacher and an evidence based curriculum, we cannot make a determination of ID.
Kids with intellectual disabilities can and want to contribute to and be a part of your classroom and school community. Meaningful inclusion is critical. Learn as much as you can about ID and about the individual learners in your classroom and school. Chunking, task analysis, and extended time for learning and engagement are just a few of the many strategies teachers use effectively with kids with ID. Partner with special educators to meaningfully support and include kids with intellectual disabilities in your classrooms and community. Everyone benefits when we do.
When it’s not possible or reasonable to determine a primary eligibility criteria, IDEA gives us the “multiple disabilities” category. The key to this category is that the combination of two or more eligibility categories are causing the student to have significant educational needs.
Every single kid in this category is unique. This is an eligibility determination only. Now it’s time to learn about all the strengths and needs your learner has!
**story time**I asked the class how they would welcome and include a child who uses a wheelchair to access their world. They said the right things – ensure tables are the right height, adequate space between tables, accessible supplies, books, etc. Then I said physical inclusion is not meaningful inclusion and that disabilities that affect a child’s educational opportunities are rarely ones we can see. Ensuring every kid has access to their educational environment is only one of three critical components of inclusion (the other two are participation and supports).
It’s another umbrella term for a number of medical concerns and needs. This one is tricky because the diagnosis of one of the named disabilities or disorders does NOT ensure services and supports under IDEA (remember – it has to adversely affect the child’s education) AND a diagnosis other than the ones named within the law COULD result in services and supports under IDEA. Totally clear, right?
Let’s use ADHD as an example since we’re probably all familiar with it. Child is diagnosed with ADHD. Child is achieving as expected in school, on assessments, and showing adequate growth over time. Does the child qualify for services and supports under IDEA?
It’s usually not that easy but in this clean example, no. If the child needs more breaks, some environmental supports built in, a 504 plan is a better option. This child’s education is not adversely affected.
There are also medical diagnoses not stated that may fit under this category – mood disorders such as bipolar disorder. How do we determine if a mood disorder like bipolar disorder should be categorized under OHI or ED?
OHI allows us to serve and support kids who are experiencing a variety of health and medical needs. It does not mean we HAVE to qualify them under IDEA. Remember – adversely affects the child’s educational performance.
Say it again – adversely affects the child’s educational performance.
Speaking of umbrella terms . . .
First, specific learning disability does not include learning problems that are primarily the result of visual, hearing, or motor disabilities, of intellectual disability, of emotional disturbance, or of environmental, cultural, or economic disadvantage.
That last one is important.
There’s so much to say on SLD, more than we can say here, but know that the discrepancy model (significant difference between achievement and ability) is no longer used and that kids no longer need to fail in order to get support. Eligibility determination can be made through the RTI/MTSS process.
The lack of an appropriate evidence based curriculum or highly qualified teacher cannot be a determining factor in determining if a child has a SLD. Nor is learning English as a second language.
The word SPECIFIC is important too. When we say, “she has a learning disability” we are failing to communicate specific needs we can support. SLD is broad and encompassing category but kids served in this category have SPECIFIC learning and intervention needs.
Speech language impairment is the second most prevalent category under IDEA! (Do you know which is THE most prevalent?)
Communication is critical! No matter how kids do it – words, pictures, gestures, signs, apps, assistive technology, a mixture of all, communication is everything. Make your SLP your best friend and learn with them!
There is no right way to communicate. Whatever works for the child to get across their wants and needs, use it! Keep it always and readily available if it’s a device or a picture book. Not just for direct instruction or teaching time but always! Keep kids voices at their fingertips.
“Traumatic brain injury applies to open or closed head injuries resulting in impairments in one or more areas, such as cognition; language; memory; attention; reasoning; abstract thinking; judgment; problem-solving; sensory, perceptual, and motor abilities; psychosocial behavior; physical functions; information processing; and speech. Traumatic brain injury does not apply to brain injuries that are congenital or degenerative, or to brain injuries induced by birth trauma” (Sec 300.8(c)(12)
The key here is ACQUIRED. This category is specifically for kids who acquire brain injuries after birth. TBI range from mild to severe and the effects of the injury are unique to the individual.
Concussions are traumatic brain injuries.
Keep in mind that the emotional trauma of such an injury is also affecting the child. We can’t just focus on academic and behavioral supports but also emotional supports for navigating the world post-injury.
EVEN WITH CORRECTION
Kids served in this category account for less than 0.5% of kids receiving special education services and supports. It’s referred to as a “low incidence” disability because of how infrequently it occurs. This is important because if you are a teacher educator asking students to create modifications and/or accommodations for kids with specific disabilities and you use visual impairment, TBI, and a child who uses a wheelchair as your target children, you’re doing it wrong.
Kids with visual impairments, including blindness, have unique mobility and orientation needs and skills. Use your resources! Learn from mobility and orientation experts on how to set up your classroom routines in ways that include and support independence for your learner.
Additionally, visual impairments are widely variable – people experience vision in a variety of ways. So, again, teacher educators, stop using blindfold simulations and sighted guide simulations as that is ineffective and inaccurate in representing the experience of impaired vision.
Learn from the child and family! Ask! Ask more! Use color and shade and all the cool adaptations the mobility and orientation experts have available!
This is our 13th and final IDEA category. I know it hasn’t been super exciting but it’s critical we get this right. It’s the work of ALL educators to support and include kids with disabilities in our schools and communities.
What should we talk about next?
Jen Newton, PhD is an assistant professor in early childhood/early childhood special education (isn’t that a lot of words for what should be one field??). I talk a lot and have strong opinions – or so I am told.
Parenting has changed, huh?
Let’s see . . . take me back . . . when was parenting “great”? Was it in the early 1900s when kids were working, earning? Was it before child labor laws and child welfare laws? Was it when many kids didn’t persist past 8th grade? When teachers were simply high school graduates themselves with no specialized training? Was that the time we should aspire to return to?
Or was it post-WWII when families were adjusting to the industrialization of America and women in the workforce? Or was parenting great when moms stayed at home in “traditional” gender roles with men coming home to dinner on the table and quiet children? Is that your image of when parenting was great? When we didn’t have compulsory education for all kids so many simply did not attend and no one cared?
Was parenting great in the 60s, 70s, 80s when kids like me were raised on TV, parents who smoked in the house and in the car, and largely ignored us? We didn’t wear seat belts, no one read to us or played with us? Yes, we left our house from sun up to sun down but do you have any idea what was happening to us when we were banned from our houses for that idyllic childhood you so romanticize? Was that when parenting was great?
Remind me how parenting has changed for the worse? Remind me when it was so great? Families have ALWAYS struggled in this country. Kids have long been neglected and abused. Generational poverty and making ends meet is a struggle for far too many.
Now parents are TOO involved or not involved enough. Very rarely just the right amount of involvement, apparently? What motorized device are parents today? Are they helicopters or lawnmowers? Oh wait is it tiger? It’s hard to keep all the categorizations of ways in which parents aren’t doing it right straight. Maybe . . . just maybe . . . we could stop creating these flawed and insulting categories and start partnering with the families we have.
Don’t tell me parenting has changed. It is incredibly hard to make it in this world and teachers, who are also working side hustles and second jobs to make ends meet, must be partners with families and communities. We don’t make progress when we demonize each other. Fight the systems. Fight the policies. Not each other.
Jen Newton, PhD is an assistant professor in early childhood/early childhood special education (isn’t that a lot of words for what should be one field??). I talk a lot and have strong opinions – or so I am told.
On to Week 2! Articles will be posted here, updated throughout the week. My students are also watching the documentary Resilience this week which is based on the ACES study and the work of Nadine Burke Harris. You can watch her TED talk here.
The School-to-Prison Pipeline- Disproportionate Impact on Vulnerable Children and Adolescents, 2017
A Decade of Disproportionality
Breaking The School-To-Prison Pipeline for Students with Disabilities
The Gestalt of the School to Prison Pipeline
Race_Is_Not_Neutral_A_National_Investigation_of_Af
Action steps using ACEs and trauma informed care- a resilience model
Jen Newton, PhD is an assistant professor in early childhood/early childhood special education (isn’t that a lot of words for what should be one field??). I talk a lot and have strong opinions – or so I am told.
It’s already summer school time and I have a course titled Critical Issues in Special Education. We’re kicking off with some conversations about LRE and inclusion backed by the literature on the topic. I’ll share the articles we read here in case you want/need to learn more or brush up on the nuance of LRE.
Kurth, Morningstar, & Kozleski, 2014
Preventing Double Segregation for Students with Disabilities
Rozalski, Stewart, & Miller, 2010
Primary Pre-Service Teachers’ Attitudes Towards Inclusion Across the Training Years, 2018
Sometimes Separate Is Better, 1994
Instructing Students With High-Incidence Disabilities in the General Education Classroom
Social Acceptance and Paraprofessional Support for Students with Severe Disabilities.pdf
Inclusive education, Beyond Popular Discourse, 2018
Educating Students with Learning Disabilities in Inclusive Classrooms, 2013
Jen Newton, PhD is an assistant professor in early childhood/early childhood special education (isn’t that a lot of words for what should be one field??). I talk a lot and have strong opinions – or so I am told.
Jen Newton, PhD is an assistant professor in early childhood/early childhood special education (isn’t that a lot of words for what should be one field??). I talk a lot and have strong opinions – or so I am told.
I posted on Instagram about the trip my daughter, Isley, and I made to Lawrence, Kansas for a play her former kindergarten teacher wrote based on an experience Isley had with bullying in 7th grade. I want to provide more context to that experience first and then provide some facts and resources related to suicide prevention. I’m hoping the connection between the two will make sense as we work through it.
I know it’s hard to read but it says “Zoe G is a bitch and she is ugly Doanta F said so with those ugly ass long socks.” This was found on a bathroom wall in the middle school and Isley and Zoe knew immediately who had written it. Zoe was hurt, of course, and the girls considered a variety of responses. Ultimately, though, we decided to wear long socks for the remainder of the school year.
Isley and Zoe bought tall socks and we posted about it with a few hashtags. Former students of mine shared the story with their students who then joined in the tall socks movement. One of my former students who is now an extraordinary teacher in Brooklyn sent a box of tall socks for the girls to share with classmates who wanted to participate.
We started getting pics of long socks from California, Kansas, Virginia, North Carolina (one of our sock supporters was in MY prek class when she was 4!!), and more. Zoe felt supported and seen and the message was spreading far beyond our little St. Louis suburb. We kept the long socks going until the last day of school and eventually even the girl who wrote the message came to school in long socks. Seriously.
It was an opportunity to create community from hurt and we took it. However, it did not address the root causes of the hurt nor did we have any luck in motivating the school counseling staff to support the learner who wrote the message to better understand how she was feeling in the school environment. As we often say, hurt people hurt people. Bullying is not a natural and inherent part of educational spaces – kids need our support in navigating big and difficult emotions. Why aren’t we actively and proactively providing those supports?
Fast forward a year and Isley’s amazing kindergarten teacher (middle school theater elective teacher also because of course she is) . . . Ms. Fewins and Isley connected when Isley was in her kindergarten class and they’ve remained close. The best teachers are like that – teachers for life. Ms. Fewins wrote a script loosely based on the tall socks experience and her middle schoolers edited and revised it, eventually selecting it for their spring play. We knew we had to be there for it.
As soon as we got into town, we were greeted with LONG SOCKS!
The cast told a powerful story of the social dynamics and challenges kids are facing and their individual and collective struggles to fit in AND be true to themselves. We know what adolescence brings. Rather than saying “middle school is so hard,” how about we actively work on providing kids the space to work through their emotions, strategies for navigating the difficulties, and opportunities to practice mistake making and forgiveness granting?
Ms. Fewins helped us bring the experience into the light again and to reflect on what we learned from it. Isley and I continue to feel that we didn’t do enough to help the girl who wrote the message – she has gone on to continue hurtful behavior toward Zoe. Rather than punish “bullies” after the damage is done, we should push in as much social emotional support for kids throughout their educational experience. We leave many many kids with very limited problem solving skills to continue doing harm to themselves and others. In fact, in schools we often pile on to those kids who need the most support creating amplified feelings of isolation. Restorative practices are critical for interrupting this cycle.
The mental health of our learners must be on the forefront. Rates of suicidality, suicide attempts, and deaths by suicides are all increasing and are present in very young children.
Suicide is the 2nd leading cause of death among children and adolescents ages 10-24. Nearly one of every eight children between the ages 6 and 12 has suicidal thoughts.
That’s multiple people in your class and in mine. There are no restrictions to who is affected – across genders (girls attempt suicide more than boys but boys die by suicide more than girls), across race, across ethnicity. We do know that LGBTQ+ kids who do not see themselves in others are at increased risk of suicidality. Please know and be familiar with the Trevor Project resources if you teach kids!!
We have a moral and ethical obligation to take loving care of all of our kids.
We teach college students and we are so fortunate to have these conversations with students pretty regularly. I say fortunate because we are fortunate to be a resource and to be trusted and to be able to connect our students with resources. Unfortunately, far too many faculty are not considering the many and heavy demands on our students. In fact, far too often, they’re piling on unnecessarily. We know our courses are not the only or most important thing students are grappling with. We know our deadlines are, for the most part, arbitrary. We accept our students are humans with full lives and our responsibility is to partner with them in their learning. (More on that another day)
We will keep talking about this but I wanted to share a compilation of national resources so you have vetted places to go when you need them.
American Foundation for Suicide Prevention
American Association of Suicidology
Anxiety and Depression Association of America
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline – 1.800.273.8255
You have local resources as well. If you have a resource you want to share, send it to us and we will add it as well as post it on our social media. We can provide a space of hope and of care for each and every kid.
Jen Newton, PhD is an assistant professor in early childhood/early childhood special education (isn’t that a lot of words for what should be one field??). I talk a lot and have strong opinions – or so I am told.
What is this “real world” you speak of?
Who defines it?
Is it the same “real world” for everyone?
I was recently in conversation with colleagues about class attendance. Now, full disclosure, I do not have an attendance policy. I know my class is not the only thing going on in the lives of my students. I know they have to make choices with how they spend their time and I do not sit in judgment of those choices. I encourage open communication, I want to know if you aren’t coming (if at all possible) because I’m a worrier and I care about you. The ‘why’ you aren’t coming isn’t my business. I do not attach points to attendance or the ever elusive but pervasive concept of “participation.” If you’re missing a lot of class, I ask if we can talk. I want you to get the content, the knowledge, the learning, the experiences, and I want to help remove any barriers I possibly can. I want us to work together and I try to be a trustworthy and empathetic person who can serve as a resource.
So, that’s my approach.
My colleague said a student emailed saying they were going through a traumatic breakup and wouldn’t be in class. The colleague said nope. Another colleague said, when you’re a teacher, you can’t just stay home when your heart is broken. The real world doesn’t stop for your break up.
Why not?
We get personal days and sick leave and we can and should use them in ways that support our overall well-being, right? We need to learn how to engage in self care and boundary setting and mental health awareness and care. Teachers are not martyrs or superheroes or angels. They are humans with the wide range of human emotions and experiences.
I wonder about things like perfect attendance awards (why?) and the “in the real world, you’ll be expected to . . . ” framing that builds and reinforces anxiety and this run yourself into the ground, work 24/7 mentality that is literally killing us.
What if we modeled self care? What if we respected boundaries? What if we taught students to ask for what they need?
This week, I had a number of long, stressful days. So, on Thursday, I cancelled a few things and worked from home, caught up on emails, scheduling, feedback, some writing. In all day meetings on Friday, I talked with a colleague who had done the same the day before, took a “mental health day.” We both said “GOOD FOR YOU!” to each other. Where did we learn this was okay?
We didn’t. We both expressed guilt and shame and a feeling of embarrassment about it.
In the words of the perfect Jonathan Van Ness, “who gave you permission to be so amazing?” I’m giving you permission to set boundaries and to teach students to do the same. And here’s the tricky part – respect the boundaries they and others set. We must take care of each other.
How have you learned to care for your own mental health and well being? How do you extend that grace to others?
Jen Newton, PhD is an assistant professor in early childhood/early childhood special education (isn’t that a lot of words for what should be one field??). I talk a lot and have strong opinions – or so I am told.
We often are asked for resources on a variety of topics so I am creating a space here to share readings, books, videos, modules, movies, that we use and love. If you have resources, send them our way!
READING
Bradshaw, W. (2013). A framework for providing culturally responsive early intervention services. Young Exceptional Children, 16(1), 3-15. Bradshaw, 2012
Empowered Educators: How High-Performing Systems Shape Teacher Quality Around the World, 1st ed. Darling-Hammond, Burns, Campbell, Goodwin, Hammerness, Low, McIntyre, Sato, & Zeichner ISBN: 978-1119369608
Troublemakers: Lessons in Freedom From Young Children At School by Carla Shalaby
VIDEOS
Not sure I love this video but it’s assigned in my course this week so we’ll see what kind of discussions come from it.
PODCASTS
@britthawthorne_
@teachandtransform
Jen Newton, PhD is an assistant professor in early childhood/early childhood special education (isn’t that a lot of words for what should be one field??). I talk a lot and have strong opinions – or so I am told.
