The Individualized Education Program - Essay Example

The neighbors believe that their son has a learning disability, but they need proof and advice. After realizing that there is a problem with their son, they need to discuss this with his teachers, who will then coordinate with special education teachers who have specialized knowledge of learning disabilities. Schoolteachers organize referrals for the students, but parents of children undergoing special education also have the mandate. These parents must be keen observers of their son’s academic performance and compare it with their age mates before they deduct the problem that needs specialized care from the professionals. They can also refer their son through counselors, be it a private or school counselor. In addition, according to Friend (2014), there are organizations that provide valuable assistance for students or persons with disability such as Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), U.S. Department of Education, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Council for Exceptional Children (CEC), and United Cerebral Palsy Association (UCP).  The student, handled by a specialized team of individuals, undergoes several assessments to verify the need for specialized education, and the areas that require intervention. According to Friend (2014), assessments are necessary on developmental, intellectual, and social behavioral functioning. When a student undergoes assessment on whether they need special education, they undergo a series of assessment tests. The first of these is visual and hearing tests. The screening for this test is necessary to examine bad performance, which may have resulted from difficulties in hearing or clear eyesight. Once this is completed, a test of intellectual ability follows. An intelligence quotient (IQ) test or simply a regular test for students of similar age and class is administered to check the intellectual level and ability. Achievement on schoolwork and even extracurricular activities is carried out to find the areas of strength and weaknesses. Parents provide the developmental history of the student, which is compared against the formal stages of development of other students. Lastly, the social and behavioral functioning is tested, where closer patterns of socialization such as more engagement in extracurricular activities are examined and recommended. In addition, the teachers evaluation is the first step to assess the students performance. According to Friend (2014), teachers have experiences and knowledge of a student’s behavior and weaknesses/strengths in comparison to classmates. The teacher has to collaborate with the Intervention Assistance Team, which includes the general teacher, special education teacher, speech language pathologist, and school nurse. Parents, with guidance and supervision from the special education teacher, are the right party to handle the decision on the setting of the boy’s special education. It is important to have the parents make this decision, as they will feel included in the child’s affair and intensify their input. Supervision will help try to evade the normal barriers facing parents such as logistical problems, language barriers, misunderstandings, and intimidation. In addition, children with learning difficulty face social challenges as well. If parents can support their son, as well as put him in a familiar territory where he can concentrate on one issue at a time, then he can make positive progress through learning and special education. The parents, school, and the Multidisciplinary Team can determine if the student needs to be in special education class or not by a screening process after using the three-tiered approaches test (Friend, 2014). After that, they can refer the student to a Multidisciplinary Team to test the student on many aspects, ranging from mental to physical state. According to Friend (2014), there are many tests that can evaluate the student such as vision and hearing screening, intellectual ability test, achievement test, social and behavioral functioning testing, a developmental history test, and the child’s disability test. These tests will help the Multidisciplinary Team determine the need for a special education class. The Individualized Education Program (IEP) is a special education program meant to assist children with a learning disability to function properly, as well as learn to their ability. It can assist the neighbor’s son if implemented appropriately. The program reviews the progress of the student and updates the parents on general functioning. Goals are set at the beginning of the program and are later reviewed to verify their success. The goals guide the need for a re-assessment. a team of people from the parents of the students, the general educator, an individual to carry out an evaluation, a special educator, a transition agency personnel and a district representative, form the IEP team (Friend, 2014). Each of the team members have a specialized role to play and knowledge to apply to the student. In addition, they will make the decision on student placement in the education program depending on his/her disability. In addition, they need to know the students education placement, if he/she needs to be in general class, a special education class, or both general and special class (Friend, 2014). Monitoring of special education services is done in different ways, most of which are not direct. There is monitoring through speech, language, achieved improvements, and required additions to improve the services. There is also monitoring through recreational services, in which improvements on socialization are monitored and measured. Specialized educational services require mandatory counseling, and this is another way to monitor progress and analyze whether it is moving in the intended direction or not. For the severe cases that might have affected the brain, monitoring is achievable through a thorough medical diagnosis and evaluation (Friend, 2014). Any therapy, whether it is physical or occupational is a way to monitor the progress in specialized educational systems, especially if the therapy is carried out devotedly. Through this change can not only be seen, but recorded as well. In addition, the monitoring of special education services has two strategies, which are an annual review and three year revaluation strategies. The annual review means the general education teacher and special education teacher will have to meet the parents and provide them with their child’s IEP, their childs achievement information, and the next goals for their child if he/she has improved (Friend, 2014). The three-year revaluation strategy evaluates whether the IEP team is still appropriate with the student, or if program needs to change (Friend, 2014). Finally, the students parents and professional team continue collaboration to make the students education process successful. References Friend, M. (2014). Special Education: Contemporary perspectives for school professionals (4th Ed). New York: Pearson Education. Read More