Thriving in the Midst of Chaos: Parenting With Special Needs Kids

Episode 36: Self-Care For Parents and Advocating For Your Special Needs Teen With Guest Britney Dent

In this episode, we discuss self-care for parents and advocating for you special needs teen. Guest Britney Dent started off as a social worker and teacher. When she started staying home to take care of her children, she chose to start a coaching business for teens and their parents. Self-care is so important to parents. If we don't take good care of ourselves, we won't feel well and it will impact how we are able to take care of our children. Self-care often falls by the wayside due to lack of time, guilt over taking time for ourselves, having other priorities, and traditions. Some ways to do self-care include exercise, listening to music, or taking a nap. Britney started the 260 movement, meaning finding the time to enjoy with your children and also to take care of yourself on Saturdays, the day we are most likely with our children. To find the time, you have to look and see what needs to happen and what can wait in order to try to take care of ourselves. It is important to prioritize the time to do self-care. To minimize feeling guilty about taking time for yourself, you have to change your mindset. If you don't have the money for self-care, free events are awesome! Facebook can be a great resource to find free events. You can also go to the dollar store and get crafts to do for fun. Sometimes, you have to get creative in order to find ways to do self-care. If you don't have the energy for self-care, make sure you are intentional about what you do. Drinking water, taking naps, taking coffee naps, listening to music, mindfulness, meditation, the miracle morning savers routine, yoga, zumba, finding things on YouTube, meditation apps, and coloring apps are some relatively easy ways to get more energy during your day. Sometimes in order to get self-care in, we need to ask for help. College students can be great to help you find more time, by watching your kids.

Regarding advocating for your teen, you should start as soon as possible. The earlier you learn about your child's condition and the more you learn, the better off you will be. The starting place for each parent is different, but it is recommended to read as much as you can about what you are dealing with. There can be local talks and events to meet others and learn additional information. We most often have to advocate for their health and their education. It can be helpful to look into your local laws and regulations to make sure you have all the information you need. Self-advocacy for teens can look like feeling confident that they can handle situations, an understanding of what they want, attending their own IEP meetings, including them in decisions, and preparing them ahead of time to advocate for something. Advocates and coaches can also help the teen self-advocate. A guidance counselor and/or social worker can be excellent resources, but a job coach can also be useful.

Links:

Britney Dent Website Facebook Instagram Email

Miracle Morning Savers Yoga With Adriene Smart Kids With LD Bullet Journals

Bullet Journals

Bullet Journals Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. Check us out on Facebook and join our parent group! Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5 star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music: Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2020 Jessica and Lewis Temple

Episode 35: Beating All The Odds With Guest Linda Smith

In this episode, we discuss guest Linda Smith's story of raising her son, Christopher. At an early age, Linda overcame her childhood abuse. As an adult, she experienced homelessness but also fame with being a dancer, actress, and model. She and her husband were living in Las Vegas during her pregnancy, but at 8 months pregnant, she chose to fly back to Canada. However, she went into labor on the airplane. She landed in Canada and had her baby 3 hours later. Her son, Christopher was born with Downs Syndrome. This meant that he was not allowed citizenship or even entrance in the USA due to his diagnosis. Linda had to fight for 18 years to allow him entrance into and citizenship in the USA. Linda further shares her and her son's incredible story. There were times, in addition to immigration issues, that were very difficult. People often misunderstood the disorder, had lots of misconceptions, or turned away from him. At the time he was born, there was no education available to him and there were no jobs for him. Linda created her foundation Christopher Smith Foundation to help caregivers and to thank them for all of their hard work. Linda wrote Unwanted about her journey raising Christopher. Those proceeds go to the Christopher Smith Foundation.

Links: Linda's Website Email Christopher Smith Foundation Downs Syndrome Organizations Autism Society Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. Check us out on Facebook and join our parent group! Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5 star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music: Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2020 Jessica and Lewis Temple

Episode 34: Financial Planning for Special Needs Children with Guest Zaccary Call

In this episode, we discuss financial planning for children with special needs. Our guest, Zaccary Call, explained that there are many different facets to Social Security. Social security/retirement income is what we think of retirement benefits and starts at age 62 (or later if you choose). Supplemental security income (SSI) and Social Security Disability (SSDI) both have disability requirements when it comes to children.

SSI is a benefit paid based on need, whereas SSDI is based on the child's earnings (if they have worked for at least 10 years) or their parent's earnings. To qualify for and keep SSI, you cannot have more than $2000 in assets, excluding your home and your car. Under SSI, you can earn only $19,000 a year, although they don't count all of the income, as they have some allowable deductions, such as for sustaining life (like housing and food). SSI is funded by general tax revenues. The Federal Benefit Rate (FBR) is $771 for one individual and $1157 for a qualified couple, as of 2019. SSDI is based on someone who is insured, meaning they have been in the workforce for at least 10 years (or 10 years worth of quarters) to qualify for SSI benefits. There is a family maximum of 150-200% of the parent's SSI.

SSDI is not paid due to low income, but it is paid because the child has worked or their parents have worked. Of note, SSDI is often denied the first time, but you are allowed to appeal or reapply. Most children who qualify for SSDI are adults when they become eligible for SSDI. Another, and unfortunate, way to qualify is if a parent passes away, as you can use the SSI death benefit. To qualify for a disability under SSDI, you need to show the child can't do any typical job. They look at current work status of the child, how much money the child and parents are earning, how severe the medical condition of the child is (lasting at least 12 months or expecting to result in death), can the child do the job he/she was doing, and can the child do any job at all. However, if the child is blind, they automatically qualify for SSDI. A state disability agency makes the determination of disability. If this information is confusing, there is a child disability starter kit which can help you figure out where to start.

Social security planning can be very important, as there are a lot of benefits within social security and there is a lot to navigate. There can be a lot of swapping with SSI, so it can be helpful to meet with a financial planner to discuss eventualities and the best option for your SSI. Do not contact SSA for help, as they tend not to give accurate answers. Attorneys can help with this process, but they tend to cost money. Financial planners can be very helpful, however, and less expensive.

Retirement and income planning can be very complex when you have a child who has special needs and is likely to outlive you. Special needs attorneys can help. Special needs trusts may also be helpful. A trust is a document that lays out a set of instructions that are to be carried out. A person with a disability can receive money from with without it hurting their ability to obtain SSI. These are irrevocable gifts from a legal perspective and this should be the amount you feel that family member needs. You can set up a secial needs trust for anyone who is disabled, and rules are not as strict as an ABLE account or SSI/SSDI. The purpose of this is to make sure you can provide additional money to the child without jeopardizing their SSI. To create a special needs trust, you would need to work with an attorney to help you draft the documents. This typically costs $1500-2500. Make sure that attorney is very familiar with special needs trusts.

An ABLE account is easier to set up and less expensive to set up. It is a tax-advantaged account. It is similar to a 529 plan, but for the needs of children with special needs. A family can put money into this account and have the money invested and take it out and spend it on things that the disabled person needs, such as food, medical expenses, and living expenses. For these accounts, you take the money out and use whenever you need it. It can also help avoid losing SSI, while also providing additional money to the child. Max contribution is $15,000 per year. The max lifetime contribution is around $300,000. The first $100,000 (at a time) is exempt from impacting eligibility for SSI. If there is money left after the person passes away, Medicaid can recoup some money, but the rest will go to a beneficiary that was previously designated. To be eligible for ABLE accounts, you must meet criteria for a disability, with similar criteria as SSDI. To set up an ABLE account, find the state that you would like to set up your ABLE account with and follow their instructions.

Links: Financial Planning Firm Podcast/Blog Twitter Instagram

Facebook: Zaccary Call Linkedin: Zaccary S Call SSA disability page Brochure about Disability How do you qualify? Child disability starter kit. Able accounts https://www.able-now.com/ Special Needs Trust Investopedia

Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. Check us out on Facebook and join our parent group! Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5 star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music: Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2020 Jessica and Lewis Temple

Episode 33: Planning for Transition To Adulthood With Autism With Guest Dr. Matt Segall

In this episode, we discuss preparing for the transition to adulthood in teenagers with autism. Dr. Matt Segall discussed that it is important to realize that autism is not a disorder of childhood. He noted that although some teenagers may appear that they have outgrown autism, this is a not a disorder that people can grow out of. Usually, these individuals have learned ways to compensate for the difficulties they have, but work so hard to compensate, that they are exhausted by the end of the day. Even if they appear to function well, developmentally, they may actually be younger than their neurotypical peers.

It is important to plan for transition as there is a lot to plan for. It is important to determine what how to manage inclusion after high school. It gives us a framework for identifying where we see the student after graduation and entering the community, and to identify what skills are missing and take advantage of the years they have to maximize the years. A transition assessment can aide this process. A transition assessment should be focused on identifying where this individual going to live, what are they going to do vocationally, and what do they need to be part of a community. The answers to these should lead to goals to populate into the IEP.

Parents should ideally begin thinking about thinking about transition in 8th or 9th grade. This helps to determine they type of degree they will graduate with, the type of testing they will have. However, the school system doesn't often begin planning for the transition until the last year of high school.

There are numerous factors for parents to consider during this transition process, including your child's social skills, their adaptive behaviors, how they are as a part of the community, psychological status, safety, work, finances, health, independent living, self-awareness, self-advocacy, self-determination, continued or higher education, executive functioning, continuity of service, finding their passion and engaging in that passion, maintaining health insurance, the teen understanding their healthcare needs, and understanding community and social rules. It is important when creating an IEP that functional aspects are just as important to include as academic skills. However, those aspects can be difficult to put into practice in the schools. The children need to be taught the social skills, practice them, and learn from mistakes. Dr. Segall noted that it is important to plan for the transition to make the most of high school, to teach skills, obtain feedback, to determine where we expect the child to end up after high school. This doesn't mean college vs no college. Some teens who are college capable do not have the desire to go to college. We need to be ok with this and assist them in finding the right path for them and create opportunities for them. We want to make sure we are taking into account what the teens want. There are multiple avenues for additional education if the child desires, such as technical schools, dual enrollment in high school, or an Associate's Degree. There are also nondegreed programs on college campuses where the teen could learn academics, social skills, life skills, and vocational skills. Inclusive education is incredibly important to both teens with autism and other teens.

Even if students are capable of managing the academic component of higher education, it is important that the teen is also capable of regulating and managing their day, planing their day, achieve their goals, be goal directed, and manage their own emotions. If the child doesn't have that ability, then these should be IEP goals so that they have a successful start to college. Self-advocacy is a major factor. There are 4 critical skills everyone needs, the first being social skills. Self-awareness skills are very important and are the precursor to self-determination and self-advocacy skills. These skills must be taught in order to develop self-determination and self-advocacy skills. These teens need to be able to know and communicate strengths and interests, know their challenges, know how they see the world differently as a result of being on the spectrum, how the world sees them differently, and what works for them. Self-determination encompasses setting a goal, making a plan to achieve the goal, and having the intention to implement the plan to achieve that goal. Self-advocacy encompasses the ability to communicate about what you need, what you want, and what you would prefer to do.

To assist in preparing the teen for the transition, the IEP goals need to be their own and goals that they want to work on. In order to do this, the teen has to know their diagnosis, even this is uncomfortable for the parent or teachers. This can also help to determine eligibility for the program the teen wants to get into and working on that. It is then important to start working on these goals one by one. We have to realize that it can be overwhelming for them. However, transition will happen no matter what, so making sure everyone is prepared will set the teen up success. Having a support system for both you and your child can help significantly. Independent living skills tend to decline in those who are higher functioning, whereas those who have moderate functioning tend to improve in those skills, because people continue to work with them. Teens can experience anxiety or depressive symptoms around this time, and they may not have the coping skills or communication skills to use a strategy or reach out for help. Poor outcomes in school and work are devastating to them, but are avoidable with good planning. Therefore, the goals should always be about creating or maintaining opportunities for the student.

Parents can cope with this transition by engaging more heavily in the planning process. Toolkits on Autism Speaks about everything related to coping, transitions, and even diagnosis. Connecting with other families helps to not feel isolated during this process. It is important to set up small successes and reinforcing how well the child did with that task. It is important to focus on the positives in the situations, as best we can.

Links:

Think College Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction Transition Tool Kit Waisman Center OCALI VCU Autism Center For Excellence Vocational Rehabilitation Emory Autism Center Education and Transition Services Organization For Autism Research OAR Finding Your Way: A College Guide For Students On The Spectrum

Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. Check us out on Facebook and join our parent group! Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5 star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music: Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2020 Jessica and Lewis Temple

Episode 32: Successfully Homeschooling Children With Special Needs With Guest Cindy La Joy

In this episode, we discuss homeschooling children with special needs, working as a team with your children, and grieving the loss of normal. Guest Cindy La Joy has homeschooled her 5 children for the past 11 years. Cindy adopted her children and when her children came home, they either didn't speak English, or had had minimal schooling, so she had to start back from preschool to educate her children. All her her children had different needs. However, she had to figure out the diagnoses for each of the children, as no one else was assisting her with the diagnosis process. Cindy also had to teach her children English.

Cindy tried various homeschool programs, but no particular program was a good fit for any of the children. Therefore, she tried different programs and used the pieces that worked for each individual child. The did a lot of in person trips/field trips and excursions for hands-on learning. They chose to homeschool year round, and if it was too much, they would take brief breaks and then return to school. They did a lot of activities that taught them real-life skills. Her children adjusted to homeschooling relatively well, as it was a good fit for them, less overwhelming, and more tailored to their needs than public school. Cindy had to educate herself on various special needs, teaching, as well as educating children with special needs.

Their family considers themselves a team, and calls themselves Team La Joy. Her family chose to see disabilities as the outside common enemy, which was something they could work on together. She loves the relationships among her family, as her family works really well together and the kids have never fought with one another. They have a saying "hard isn't bad, it is just hard." This makes anything much easier to cope with. They always put relationships first before challenges.

At first, Cindy felt very isolated, but she worked hard on finding social supports and other homeschooling parents. She had a small social support network and didn't feel like anyone understood or could really help her. However, Cindy noted that although she had a lot on her plate, things piled up gradually, so her "coping muscle" strengthened and she was able to find ways to cope better as time went on.

As time went on, she started to grieve the loss of normal. She grieved not being able to rock her baby and not having the early years with her children. She grieved the fact that her children still need assistance in adulthood and that she and her husband can never go away together. Her life is very different than what she expected it would be, but she loves her life the way it is.

Links: Email Cindy Blue Collar Homeschool Group Blue Collar Homeschool Facebook Group

Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. Check us out on Facebook and join our parent group! Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5 star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music: Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2020 Jessica and Lewis Temple

Coronavirus Update: Part 2

This episode is chock full of recommendations for if your child is having trouble sleeping, trouble keeping a schedule, or trouble meeting his/her sensory needs.

Check out these resources:

Easter Seals

School Closure Toolkit

Social Distancing Social Story

Coronavirus Social Story

Episode 31: Hearing Loss And Achieving Your Fullest Potential With Guest Theresa Harp

In this episode, we discuss learning helping your child learn language when they have hearing loss, as well as helping your child to achieve their fullest potential. When guest Theresa Harp was about 10 years old, her brother was born, who was later diagnosed with Down's Syndrome. When he was in elementary school, he began to experience hearing loss. This coincided with Theresa's college years and her coursework in speech therapy and audiology. This helped guide her to her career in speech therapy with children who have hearing loss.

With kids, she works with American Sign Language (ASL) and spoken language, although this depends on what the family wants to focus on. This can change as the child's strengths and needs change. Each family is different; some focus only on ASL, some focus only on spoken language, and some choose to use a blend of both. The goal is to make sure that whatever approach the family chooses, that the family can communicate with the child and that the child can communicate with the family. Sessions typically look like playtime, and family is always included in sessions. Sessions are flexible and dependent on what the needs of the child and family are that week. The approach is different for each family, because each family is at a different phase of grief, and each family has different needs at different points in time.

To reach the child's fullest potential, Theresa asks parents how they envision their child's life 5 and 20 years from now and what their goals might be. Theresa educates the families on what that child's potential could be, and gaining social supports of other parents in the same situation helps as well. Theresa has noticed that social support has been key for these families, including Facebook groups. It is important to know that you can work on language development very very early on, including talking and/or signing to you baby, using language well, and using language often. Speech therapy strategies can be easily implemented into daily life, without having to have tons of timeout of your schedule.

Links: Theresa Harp Facebook Instagram Signing Time Videos

Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. Check us out on Facebook and join our parent group! Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5 star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music: Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2020 Jessica and Lewis Temple

Episode 30: Raising Twins In The Special Needs World With Guest Cecily White-Cooper

In this episode, we discuss raising twins, one neurotypical and one with autism. Cecily White-Cooper's son was diagnosed with autism at age 4. However, she noticed around age 18mo that he was having delays, and he received services through early intervention early on. He was able to receive speech therapy, occupational therapy, and psychotherapy. He tried applied behavioral analysis, but the family was not able to do 10-15 hours of therapy per week outside of school, and doing one hour per week was not useful, so they discontinued ABA. She noted that her son continues to do speech therapy. She makes sure her son gets the therapies that he needs, but she also makes sure she and her family don't "eat, live, and breathe autism."

Her son is in the public school system in an autism program. However, both children go to different schools. Cecily noted that she doesn't feel he is getting a stellar education in his current school placement, but that homeschooling is not currently an option. However, she works hard with him at home on his schoolwork to compensate. Her son requires more assistance and routines than his twin sister does. Both twins are helpful around the house, but Cecily has to repeat herself a few times with her son before he helps out.

His twin sister initiates play with Cecily's son, as he tends not to initiate play. She stated that he is not overly social currently, but he doesn't appear upset by that. She and her children can go most places together, but he prefers not to go to malls. She does special trips with each child. She noted that her twins act like typically siblings, being sneaky, and fussing at each other at times. They tend to bond over their shared birthday. Her son doesn't have a lot of public meltdowns. However, he does like to touch the hair of other people. For her self-care routine, she listens to podcasts, watches youtube, meditates, listens to sermons, goes to spas, gets her nails done, and exercises.

Links:

Teacher Ces Website

Teacher Ces Podcast ITunes Spotify YouTube Instagram: Twitter: Facebook Yoga With Adriene

Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. Check us out on Facebook and join our parent group! Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5 star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music: Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2020 Jessica and Lewis Temple

Episode 29: Mastering IEPs and 504 Plans With Guest Courtney Burnett

In this episode, we discuss IEPs and 504 plans. Courtney Burnett's daughter was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy at age 4. Courtney began working in advocacy due to seeing parents struggling with the special education systems. She felt the push to help and initially got started through word of mouth, calling people, and emailing people. She completed trainings to become a Master IEP Coach.

In order to have an IEP, a child needs to qualify for one through an evaluation. These are children who have educational goals and require related services, such as occupational therapy, speech therapy, vision therapy, small group interventions, and the like. A 504 plan is created for children who have medical or physical needs who need additional accommodations in order to access their education. A big difference is that 504 plans can follow you to college, whereas IEPs cannot. Courtney recommends considering switching to a 504 plan in your child's senior year of high school, if possible, so the child can continue to obtain accommodations in college without requiring an additional evaluation.

To obtain an IEP or 504, a teacher can reach out to the family and initiate the process of an evaluation, or a parent can reach out to the school (ideally in writing). If the school pushes back, parents can provide a written request to the school for an IEP meeting, which can start the ball rolling to determine if the child needs an IEP or if there are other strategies that the school may want to try first. If you have a young child and are concerned, ask for an evaluation to see if they require an IEP and accommodations. If your child doesn't qualify, keep an eye on the concerns that you have, because your child may meet criteria for services several months down the road.

Before an IEP meeting, it is important to prepare a parent input or vision statement. Having pre-IEP meetings with teachers can also be helpful. Come up with ideas for what you would like in the IEP prior to attending the IEP meeting. Reviewing the prior progress notes can also be helpful prior to the IEP meeting. Also, review their service minutes, so you can compare the prior IEP to the current one. When coming up with IEP plans and goals, it is always important to think about how it will actually be implemented, and how many service minutes vs consultative minutes a therapist would need to work with your child. It is always helpful to bring someone to the IEP meeting who knows the child well, or who is part of their treatment team (such as an outside therapist). However, as a courtesy, let the team know in advance that you are bringing someone. Sometimes, it can be helpful to let teachers know that we don't expect perfection, but that we want to make sure we are all in communication with each other, so we can help and support teach other.

If you are told that something isn't possible that you feel is a reasonable accommodation for your child, always ask if they can point out where that policy is written down. If things aren't moving forward, parents have the right to disagree with the team. If the school still disagrees with the parents, it is time to bring in an advocate or IEP coach. If the IEP team gives you more pushback, you can kindly explain how the accommodation can actually help the school and the other children. Of note, private preschools do not have to follow IEP recommendations. If you do not agree with the school, there are options for due process, and you can always reach out to an advocate or IEP coach who can help you through that process.

She wishes she knew that parents have a voice in the process and that there are different options within the school district with regards to placement. Additional resources include the Arc, Raising Special Kids, and Partners in Leadership. Community networking can also be very helpful.

Links: Courtney Burnett Facebook Instagram Freebies Master IEP Coach Program 13 Categories to Obtain an IEP IEP Coaches The ARC Raising Special Kids Partners in Leadership

Email us if you have any questions or ideas! We are now on instagram! Check out updates on our website. Follow Thriving on Twitter. Check us out on Facebook and join our parent group! Please subscribe to our podcast in the iTunes store, or wherever you find your podcasts, Leave us a 5 star review, to help us know what you like and what you don't like, and to make sure other like-minded people find support through this podcast.

Show Music: Intro Outro: Intro Outro 2 by Mattias Lahoud under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Theme Song: 90s rock style by monkeyman535 under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org) Self Care Song: Green and Orange No Water by Duncan Alex under CC-BY 3.0 License (www.freesound.org)

Hosted by: Jessica Temple and Lewis Temple

Disclaimer: Our show is not designed to provide listeners with specific or personal legal, medical, or professional services or advice. Parents of children with health issues should always consult their health care provider for medical advice, medication, or treatment.

Copyright 2020 Jessica and Lewis Temple

We are sick, overwhelmed, and losing our minds. No show notes this time ;)