Special Education; Parents' Library of Useful Information

IEP Meeting notes; a part of the IEP process that is often overlooked, or does not reflect what the IEP team agreed to. IEP meeting notes allow parties not on the IEP team to understand and effectively implement the special program program. In any dispute between parents and school districts,  the notes help mediators and others who are analyzing the IEP to, again, understand the itent of the IEP...

Interoception, the ability to recognize  bodily signals like heart rate, hunger, temperature..., is often a significant  source of  stress and anxiety in autistic youth.   They may struggle to control the overload their body is experiencing by being unable to recognize the physical symptoms they are experiencing, leading to a potential crisis when the build up becomes too much. Or, an autistic you...

Positive Behavior Support. Maybe you've read all sort of definitions and descriptions, but what it actually is seems still  vague. In under 5 minutes, you will get a clear and understandable description. If you then want to learn more, I have a longer version in an earlier episode, and an hour long YouTube video of a training I do for my employer (Matrix Parents) in Marin County California. H...

It has been clear for years that the school system in the United States is not welcoming to neurodivergent (ND) students.  School is an intensely intimidating and frightening place for many ND kids. As the percentage of identified ND students grow (the percentage of the total student population in California is currently 20%) the number of children damaged by the school system grows as well. Resea...

Many autistic people are twice exceptional learners (2eASD).  This means they have an area of unique talent or intellectual strength along with an identifiable disability. The rates of high school failure are elevated for this population, but some are able to not only attend, but to succeed at highly competitive colleges and universities.   What is the secret to their success?  It probably won&apo...

Matrix Parent Network and the Marin Center for Independent Living funded and supported the production of this podcast.  Pairing students with autism with neurotypical peers is proving to be a powerful tool in teaching the critical life skills of self-advocacy and self-determination. We'll define these terms and explain how they fit together before looking at the research and model programs th...

In this short episode you will learn why the "almost there" times, when a child makes progress on a behavior goal, but there is still a ways to go, those are the times they need to be recognized and reinforeced for that partial success. The episode may be short, but I have found this concept alien to many educators.  You can make sure partial successes are recongized by your child's...

Matrix Parent Network and the Marin Center for Independent Living funded and supported the production of this podcast.  If you are the parent of a child with a disability you have very likely experienced a feeling that you missed something when you walk out of an IEP meeting.  Many parents report that schools seem to go through the steps of the IEP but what comes out is a muddled mix of goals, acc...

Matrix Parent Network and the Marin Center for Independent Living funded and supported the production of this podcast.  S.M.A.R.T. Goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reasonable, Time Bound, are the basis of a good IEP.  Everything either leads to the creation of goals or lead from it in the form or services and placement. Research indicates there is a direct relationship between parental kno...

Matrix Parent Network and the Marin Center for Independent Living funded and supported the production of this podcast.  This month we look at a common barrier to successful transition from school-based programs to adulthood for students with high functioning autism.  The acronym BIMS stands for burnout, inertia, meltdowns and shutdown.  These are the most common reactions many autistic people expe...

Matrix Parent Network and the Marin Center for Independent Living funded and supported the production of this podcast.  Self-Advocacy is a phrase that is used often in special education, but often with little context as to what it means.  What does it mean for a student to be an effective self-advocate  and why it is so important? In this episode of the Matrix Parents Practical Special Education P...

In this episode, the first in my IEP Basic Series, we’ll look at accommodations (and modifications) on an IEP.  This is the first in the series due to the critical nature of accommodations to learning for students with disabilities, and also the complex nature of actually having them work in a classroom.  There are many times a student would have little chance to survive in a general education set...

In this episode, we’ll learn how a group of  successful adults with learning disabilities became successful.   There are identifiable, teachable attributes they have in common that  are instrumental in their ability to lead successful lives. I use a study conducted by the Frostig Center, a well-known and highly regarded school and research institute serving students with learning disabilities. It...

In this episode we'll get into the most important part of a behavior plan, reinforcement.  Learn what it is and what it looks like.    Remember, the more you know about special education practice, particularly how Positive Behavior Support is supposed to work, the better off you will be at IEP meetings and in being a full member of the team.    Here are a couple of links to more information o...

This episode looks at the current state of education for high school students with high functioning autism.  It is not good.  It is not good, but there is hope. The students we are discussing experience exceptionally high rates of intense anxiety in school settings.  A combination of factors including the sensory overload, behavior issues due to social skills deficits, academic struggles because o...

A commom complaint from parents of neurodivergent children is that homework is a nightmare.  The stress and anxiety it creates for everyone in the family is often far more emotionally costly than any benfit that comes from practicing academic skills. There is a better way that can include work from school, but in a way that will reduce stress, reduce anxiety, and hopefully help you get rid of that...

In this, the third episode in the Positive Behavior Support (PBS) series, the importance of teaching a socially appropriate behavior to replace a maladaptive one a child has been using is discussed. As described in the initial PBS episode, there is a linear sequence to teaching a child what is acceptable behavior in social environments, of which replacement behaviors fill a central role. However,...

To understand how to create an effective behavior plan* a crucial piece is to understand why a behavior occurs.  Without this piece of information, accurately determined, a behavior plan will simply not work. It is more complex than it might seem to figure out why a child does what they do, obvious answers can often be wrong.  The IEP team needs to know how and what to teach as a replacement behav...

Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a method of teaching that embeds accommodations for all students into general education settings.  Students who are visual, or auditory, or tactile/sensory learners are taught, and the student can show mastery, in the way that uses their strengths.      UDL has been successfully implemented in thousands of classrooms around the country and its efficacy has be...

Positive Behavior Support (PBS) - the Basics (Behavior Series Part 1) Over the past three decades Positive Behavior Support (PBS) has become the gold standard for school-based behavior prevention and intervention.  It is based on the ethical and moral recognition that aversive responses to problematic behaviors are no longer viable.  PBS emphasizes and reinforces behaviors that are pro-social and...

 A study conducted in Great Britain examined potential cognitive gifts that people with dyslexia may possess.  It found, that far from being a limiting condition to life success, in fact dyslexic thinkers are our future. Dictionary.com defines dyslexic thinking as, "“…an approach to problem-solving, assessing information and learning often used by people with dyslexia that involves pattern re...