Have you ever felt dismissed, talked over, or doubted in your intervention? When I walked out of the school after my first IEP meeting, I had this awful feeling of defeat knowing that I wasn’t taken seriously, but worse, I wasn’t able to advocate for my student they way I wanted to and knew I could. Keep reading to learn about the key to advocating for your students in IEP meetings.

So if you have or know of a child who is struggling academically - hopefully they’ve been able to move through the first step of our 3 Step Assess - Design - Implement process.

Once a student has been assessed, we can begin to design an appropriate plan.

In order to close the gap, we need to have appropriate goals based on individual student needs. As part of an IEP goals are set in specific areas. If a student is struggling in a specific area (e.g., language skills, motor ability, reading, writing, math, etc) they should receive goals in those specific areas.

As you know, we are obsessed with helping students reach their highest potential. In order to do this you must follow the ASSESS -> DESIGN -> IMPLEMENT framework. First, we must assess students with a combination of formal and informal assessment measures. Then we must design an appropriate plan and finally, we must implement the plan at the highest level.

One of the most challenging things about walking into an IEP meeting for both parents and educators is that there are so many things you need to be considering.

This Week:

We are so excited to share with you this printable that we have that helps us to organize IEP Services.

As a parent, one of the most important things you need to do if your child is receiving support services from the school is to make sure you are organizing all of that paperwork! Whenever you have formal documentation it can be incredibly valuable long-term for your child.

For example, it can help you qualify your child for ACT/SAT accommodations or college supports if that is the direction they want to go. Alternatively, it can help your child qualify for supports in their job or career later on.

Writing effective literacy goals and tracking your students progress towards them can feel overwhelming. We are here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be hard! Writing effective goals and tracking data can actually be really easy with the right tools in place. Jump in and grab your FREE data tracking system and literacy goal bank inside!

If you are concerned about your child's academic progress, you have a number of options to consider. We talked about the process for getting help from the school here: How Do I Get Help From the School?

So the next thing you may be wondering is:

Unlock the secrets to effective comprehension instruction! Learn how to craft measurable goals that go beyond personal connections and questioning to truly enhance students' understanding of text. Explore practical strategies like using graphic organizers and precise measurement tools to foster deeper comprehension skills.

After you have fought long and hard for your child's IEP - you want to make sure that the goals your child's intervention team are working on actually make sense. It's easy to fall into the trap thinking that once your child's IEP is in place everything will be taken care of, but unfortunately, more often than not - it just isn't the case. In case you missed it - we talked about 3 Reasons Your Child Isn't Understanding What She Reads.

All things change right...from having your little one on your lap to having a moody teenager that believes nothing you do is good or right. Well just as they change - the strategies we use to help them must also change. Unfortunately for many readers, especially struggling readers - the struggle to fly under the radar and just keep up in the classroom, came at the cost of actually developing strategies and supports that would help them really understand their reading.

Now that school is back in session, we are getting this question quite frequently. There is a long answer (which we will begin to get into) but the short answer is that it is complicated but not impossible to get help for your struggling student from the school if you know the right questions to ask.

We wanted to walk you through the steps of getting the help you know that your child so desperately needs. Because this can be a complicated process we decided to break it down in the same way we break tasks down for our students.

Learn about the essential diagnostic-prescriptive approach in Orton-Gillingham lessons. Discover how to assess student progress, tailor instruction based on data, and implement systematic review for effective learning outcomes.

This can be both a difficult and freeing experience. Now, you know the reason that your child is struggling, but you feel lost and alone and aren't sure what to do next.

There is a two-pillar approach for helping your child close academic gaps. These two pillars stand together forming the "bases" of your child's success in the classroom. The first pillar is getting appropriate accommodations and/or modifications put into place within the school. If you need help getting appropriate accommodations we are happy to help.

Once you have intervention in place to be sure your child is closing any skill gaps:

How do you get the right support from the school?

Talking with your child's school team is of paramount importance. You want to be sure that while your child is getting the help they need privately or through school-based intervention, that they are not continuing to fall further behind in the classroom.