Jennie Sjursen 0:00
All right, I have the report the diagnosis, I know the specific type of dyslexia my child has, and I understand how it affects them. Now it's time to make some educational decisions.
Jennie Sjursen 0:14
I'm Jenny Sjursen, ex special educator turned dyslexia interventionist. It wasn't so long ago that I too, was overwhelmed by balanced literacy versus structured literacy, education speak, and everything in between. Fast forward after many, many hours of self driven education. And you'll see I've built a thriving dyslexia practice helping students from ages six to 18. My specialties, working with a quote unquote difficult almost always to each student, and breaking down the complexities of dyslexic to everyday language strategies and action steps.
Jennie Sjursen 0:55
Okay, during this episode, we're going to make some small leaps and assumptions. The first assumption I'm going to make is I'm going to assume the school has accepted both your request to begin the evaluation identification process, and your private or sometimes referred to as an outside evaluation. Remember, a school only has to take into consideration an outside evaluation, they do not have to accept it. Even if they do accept the outside evaluation, they're still going to want to collect their own data in formal and classroom assessments, classroom observations, student work, you get the idea.
Jennie Sjursen 1:42
And I P can't be given or denied on a single piece of data. All the data has to be evaluated and considered. If you're still not sure what an evaluation should include, we'll link our evaluation checklist in the show notes below. So go ahead and go check those out. Okay, we're gonna make another assumption here that Yes, everyone in the room agrees your child has dyslexia. Now, a school might not say dyslexia directly, they may say, Yes, we can identify your child as having a specific learning disability and reading SLD and reading SLD is the umbrella term for all the diseases, dyslexia dyscalculia dysgraphia. Okay, so it is there. Now that the IEP team is in agreement, the next step is for the team to start making educational decisions. The results from the evaluation should always drive these decisions.
Jennie Sjursen 2:46
The first decision that needs to be made is because your child qualify for a 504 or an IEP. A 504 provides your child with accommodations. An IEP provides your child with accommodations, and special education services. To qualify for an IEP two requirements must be met. One, your child must have a disability and show a need for services. In other words, just because they have dyslexia does not automatically qualify them for services. To it has to be shown that in order for your child to find success in the general education classroom, they require services, they can't access the curriculum without these services.
Jennie Sjursen 3:39
All right nother assumption in leap here, the team agrees your child is eligible for an IEP. Now we again have to go back to the results from the evaluation to determine your child's goals and services. For example, if your child showed a weakness and phonemic awareness, nonsense or real word decoding, and fluency, the team is going to want to discuss reading services and goals related to those services. If the results show your child had a weakness in receptive or expressive language skills, then the team is going to want to discuss the possibility of speech and language services and related goals. And these discussions are carried on for each area of weakness, whether they be in the academic, social or behavioral areas.
Jennie Sjursen 4:33
I will caution you more goals do not make for a stronger IEP. Goals are supposed to be written to guide the team and provide them with a focus and blueprint for meaningful progress over a one year period. I have seen IEPs with 10 or more goals. Nobody child or adult can make meaningful focused progress on that many goals in one year, pick the areas that have the greatest need and focus on those first. Sometimes when you focus on the greater needs, smaller ones sort themselves out. And remember, I Ps are living documents and can always be amended down the road. You don't have to wait a calendar year to revisit your child's IEP services, goals, or placement.
Jennie Sjursen 5:28
Now, I want to take a step back and return to the conversation regarding reading and writing services. During this part of the conversation, you may feel like the rest of the team is talking in circles around you. They may talk about reading levels, balanced literacy approaches, og based programs, pull in or pull out services and small group or one on one, you may have gotten in ready to demand one on one Orton Gillingham instruction. And there is a wide divide between what they're offering and what you want. There's a lot to unpack here, so let's see if I can break it down a bit. Schools will rarely put in an IEP or specific curriculum or program. Once a particular program is documented in IP, they're required to provide it. And if your child moves from one school or another, there's no guarantee that other school has that program or someone who is qualified to offer that program. So they like to go a little more general in the approach that they're going to take when they put it into the documentation of the IEP.
Jennie Sjursen 6:37
However, you do have a right to know the approach they're going to use. Is it a balanced literacy approach? Or an Orton Gillingham structured literacy approach? You also have a right to know who's providing the services and their qualifications. It should also be noted where the services will take place and how often they occur. Will the provider push into the classroom? Or will your child be pulled out of the classroom for a set amount of time. For example, the team may decide the provider will pull your child out of the classroom for 30 minutes, three times a week. Those are your service hours. Also rolled up in this whole conversation is a lot of misunderstanding about the term or name. Orton Gillingham. Right now, Orton Gillingham is a catchphrase and it gets thrown around a lot or in Gillingham is an instructional approach. It is not a set curriculum or program. That said, there are some curriculums that are based on the Orton Gillingham approach. The two most commonly known and respected are Wilson and Barton. Some of the red flags you should be on the lookout for during this conversation. Our terms like balanced literacy, digital instruction, or the quote unquote instruction is provided by a digital program. The instructor is not certified in this area or program but has taken the basic or classroom training, you're looking for a more individualized versus group approach here. Or the instruction will be given by an aide and overseen by an instructor.
Jennie Sjursen 8:22
If you're already at the point of setting up an IEP and services for your child, they need an individualized structured approach to their instruction. Remember, you do not need to sign or approve anything at the initial meeting, you can adjourn the meeting and set a new day and time to continue the conversation. There is a whole lot that is discussed in this meeting. And is not only overwhelming, but exhausting. You have the right to sit with the information and process it all before you sign off on the finalized version of the IEP.
Jennie Sjursen 9:00
Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of how your child's evaluation guides the setup of their IEP and the educational decisions you make for them. Now, what happens if the school doesn't provide the type of services you believe they need, or they provide the services but not to the fidelity or intensity your child requires in order to make that meaningful progress. Now you need to start looking for outside services. And our next episode, we'll take a look at outside services and ways to find an appropriate outside service provider.
Jennie Sjursen 9:41
I hope you enjoyed this episode of literacy untangled if you love this episode as much as I can head on over and rate and subscribe so you never miss an episode. If you want to continue the conversation or share your takeaways head on over to our Instagram. At literacy untangled and calm It's your favorite part I can't wait to hang out with you again soon bye
