Bright Feats- Special Needs Resources for Families: Educational ...

In the world of special education, we talk a lot about ?accommodations? for learners with disabilities. Accommodations are defined as changes that help a student overcome or work around the disability. For example, allowing a student who has trouble writing to give his answers orally is an example of an accommodation.? It?s all about changing HOW children access the curriculum, whether it?s Earth Science, Geometry, or Language Arts.

For parents and teachers, this concept of changing the HOW is a relatively familiar one in the context of accessing curriculum, social opportunities and activities of daily living. Many wonderful accommodations are being used in our educational systems, but through the years, I?ve discovered that simply attaching a name to an accommodation does not guarantee its success or how it?s used.

I totally agree that naming accommodations is a good idea; however, I believe it?s critical to take it one (or two) steps further.

Here?s what I mean. Below is a list of some common accommodation names:

?????? Extended time
?????? Visual supports
?????? Use graphic organizers
?????? Organizational support
?????? Word processors for written work
?????? Reducing the number of practice problems
?????? Oral responding.

Great names, but guess what? These names don?t tell me what to do for your child. There?s a lot of guesswork that needs to happen to wisely match ?support with organization? for your particular child.

So what?s the deal? Well, systematized, electronic, individual education plans sometimes don?t seem to provide space to elaborate on the named accommodation. Accommodations are often found near the end of the IEP document, and therefore, may appear to not carry as much weight as the goals and objectives. These of course, are just my observations. But the bottom line is that everyone using accommodations for your child/student needs to know more about the accommodation than just its name.

What can you do? This is a great opportunity for parents and teachers to collaborate. For each named accommodation, describe what it looks like and how it?s implemented. If you can take a photograph of it, I recommend you do that, too. Think of the accommodation as a recipe. List what you need, how to do it and the expected outcome.

With additional information, you can create an easy-to-use supplemental document that clearly defines the named accommodation. Start small and build on it. If parents and teachers work together on one accommodation at time, a usable document is perhaps just a grading period away.

Here are some of the great benefits to creating this supplemental document:

1. ?The hard work teachers and staff are doing is documented once (and revised as needed).
2.? It saves time at future IEP meetings.
3.? New teachers or multiple teachers will have the information they need to be successful from the start.
4.? It takes the guesswork out of interpreting what the previous IEP team intended.
5.? ?The supplemental document can also be used to help teach your child more specifically about his/her learning needs and act as a springboard for self-advocacy.

?Let me know if you give this a try. Share your comments here.

Source: http://brightfeats.blogspot.com/2013/01/educational-accommodations-lets-change.html

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