Spring is supposed to be green, not blue...

My apologies for the prolonged absence - and thank you for all the emails wondering if I was still alive!

I began my private practice 7 years ago with the mission/intent to put myself out of business. At that time I was getting phone calls and requests from families to assist them with their IEP process. It seemed that a lot of the difficulties were in communication between educational teams and families - something that could be easily remedied. Since there is a prescribed 'rulebook' on how the process needs to be conducted I believed that helping families learn the rules would enable them to become better team players who could advocate for their children appropriately.

Fast forward 7 years and now I am helping both families and school districts with the rulebook - but the solutions remain elusive. More families who are dissatisfied with their IEP process find me each year. Sometimes the families need to adjust their approach. Sometimes the districts need to adjust their approach. My original intent/mission seems to be slipping farther and farther out of my grasp.

Many families are rightfully satisfied with their child's IEP. Still, schools struggle to really make the IEP 'individualized.' When they are faced with a child who has complex and seemingly intractable difficulties the school's solutions just don't always fit. Pragmatics come into play and it becomes very difficult for schools to adjust to the special case circumstances that are thrown at them on a daily basis. Parents are not interested in pragmatics - nor should they be.

How much accommodation is reasonable? The parents and the schools may never agree on this issue - and that is why I get busier each spring.

Here in the US the No Child Left Behind act places tremendous pressures on districts for accountability. This is not a bad concept but we are not yet sophisticated enough to solve the complex problems that cause poor academic performance. This is not a statement of surrender; it is simply a statement of fact. Our school systems need to continually improve.

Unfortunately the school systems will never change quickly enough, because Johnny is in 4th grade NOW, and he has to have an appropriate education NOW.

I am eyebrow-deep in meetings and will remain so for the next month. That's my excuse for not writing lately. But boy do I have some new stories to tell...

Comments

knosh said…
i really enjoy reading your blog. By the way, I am a new occupational student and will definitely continue to be a avid reader of your blog :)
10:31 AM
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Deconstructing the myth of clothing sensitivity as a 'sensory processing disorder'

Please note first that there is no formally recognized clinical designation of  'sensory processing disorder.'   It is a term constructed by occupational therapists that has not been formally recognized by the larger medical community. In our clinic we receive many referrals from local pediatricians when parents have concerns about children being overly sensitive to their clothing.  Most often the children referred are from four to seven years old and the families are severely disrupted by the children's behaviors and responses to clothing issues.  Commonly, children will have severely constricted tolerance for certain outfits, want to wear the same clothes repeatedly, complain that clothing is itchy/scratch/bumpy/wiggly/ouchie, and this all leads to disruption of daily dressing routines.  There is no doubt that the behavioral concerns are very real. The pediatricians tend to be appropriately conservative and provide families with good behavioral management suggestions
Read more

On retained primitive reflexes

Each year I receive several emails from colleagues about 'retained primitive reflexes.'  I am also seeing an increased number of reports from local 'health care' providers who are documenting these alleged problems so I thought I would write a summary of my opinion on this topic.   Predatory 'health care' providers including some OTs, PTs, chiropractors, and behavioral optometrists are creating a new 'market' for treating this alleged 'problem.'  Parents should be very wary of these practitioners and other professionals should challenge these practices whenever they are seen. The following is the kind of information that causes concern and was provided to me by a colleague as a sample from a student's IEP: The student continues to demonstrate the following retained primitive reflexes that at times interfere with his ability to demonstrate appropriate adaptive responses: Fear Paralysis Reflex, Moro Reflex, Palmer Reflex, Tonic Labyri
Read more

Twenty years of SIPT - where do we go next?

Standardized tests are periodically discarded or updated because the normative group that the test was developed around may have changed characteristics. I am unaware of any 'industry standards' regarding the life expectancy of standardized tests; rather, professionals in a field tend to come to consensus about the relative usefulness of tests on their own. I would be interested in knowing what other therapists think about the Sensory Integration and Praxis Tests - which were published in 1989. I became certified in the administration of these tests seventeen years ago. At first I found them highly useful but the more I gave the tests the more I understood the limitations. Now it has gotten to a point where I do my best to discourage people when they ask for this test - not just because of the inherent weaknesses of the test construction but also because of how old the norms are. There have been some legitimate concerns with the tests including extremely poor test-retest re
Read more