SSD Lindbergh Schools
February 2022 Community Engagement Newsletter
Love Yourself First
February brings us Valentine’s Day which is a holiday celebrated in the U.S. that gives us a special opportunity to show others how much we love them. Children with disabilities may have a hard time with this emotion. In part, it may have a little to do with their self-esteem and how much they love themselves. If a child with disabilities compares themselves to neuro-typical students, they can begin to doubt themselves and think their different performance means they are not as smart or good as other children. As educators and parents we want to make sure they know that is not true. We work together to build up their self-esteem and help them to see all of the things they are capable of doing.
Some signs of low self-esteem may include: not finishing school work or homework assignments, avoiding social activities with friends or kids their age, and displaying inappropriate behaviors. There can also be psychosocial issues at school such as trouble being motivated, anxiety, depression, having a fear of failure, and poor social skills.
There are many ways the adults in a child’s life can help to increase self-esteem and confidence. First, provide students an open space to discuss their feelings without judgement or feeling the need to have an answer. Next, look up role models that look like them and may even have the same disability. People such as Stephen Hawking, Daniel Radcliffe (yes, Harry Potter has dyspraxia), Ty Pennington, Howie Mandel, Magic Johnson, and Millie Bobby Brown are just a few. Also, have celebrations for the child’s strengths. We are all talented in some way, help your child to find their passion and celebrate what they are able to bring to the world. Lastly, teach coping mechanisms. Some coping strategies may include mindfulness, taking deep breaths, going for a walk, listening to music, slowing down, highlighting important facts, asking questions, among many others. Ask your child’s teachers if you need help with these strategies.
Don’t forget to take a break. Your kiddo is working hard all day long to manage the school day. Make sure you stop and take a break with him. Do things at home that your child excels at and enjoys. Taking these breaks and realizing the potential for success helps to build self-esteem and confidence at home which can work its way into the school setting. We all like to succeed. We all have a desire to win or be the best at something. Supporting your child in recognizing his strengths can have tremendous impact on self-esteem which can translate into greater success in the classroom.
L-PAC Is Planning For You!
With a focus on providing hope and community, Saturday morning April 9th will be the first annual SSD-Lindbergh Hope, Family & Community Special Education Resources Fair. Ink it in: 9:00 - 12:30 at Concord Elementary School. We will offer booths and presentations to address such topics as executive functioning, self-esteem, guardianships, and even special needs financial planning. But wait, there will be plenty more! Watch your email for your invitation. Worried about child-care? Not any more. If you RSVP and let us know your need, we'll have that covered at Concord for you as well.
In response to Lindbergh family interest in information and transparency around the special education evaluation process, Thursday evening, April 28 we are planning an in-person presentation with special guest speakers to share information and answer your questions. Watch for details coming in the March newsletter.
Interested in joining this committee of talented parents? Join us as we begin planning for the 22-23 school year by contacting me: Dr. Joy Doyle - Director of Special Education jmdoyle@ssdmo.org
DISABILITY ADVOCACY
We have many exceptional professionals on staff at SSD-Lindbergh, and Steve Meloy is a notable example. Mr. Meloy is more than just a Speech and Language Pathologist at Truman Middle School. He is also a passionate student advocate and leader in teaching about many different types of disabilities. On February 15th at Sperreng Middle School and on February 25th at Truman, Mr. Meloy will present on the topic of Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (commonly referred to as ADD/ADHD). His presentation will cover definitions, characteristics, and educational impact while also highlighting celebrities that have this diagnosis.
Mr. Meloy has participated in outreach to inform staff and students for many years, and he loves to help educate people about these "hidden or invisible disabilities". An invisible disability is a physical, mental, or neurological condition that can’t be seen from the outside, but it can impact someone’s movements, senses, or activities, according to the Invisible Disabilities Association. For more information about Hidden Disabilities or Mr. Meloy’s presentation to staff, check out the links below.
https://www.understood.org/articles/en/understanding-invisible-disabilities-in-the-workplace
Community Activities to Engage Families
Music Speaks
Variety Summer Camp
ATA Martial Arts
Therapeutic Horseback Riding for the Disabled
Advocacy, SSD-Lindbergh Key Contacts & the Information Navigation Ladder
There are two main goals in advocating for your child with disabilities. First, you want to ensure that the school provides your child with a “free appropriate public education” that includes “specially designed instruction . . . to meet the [child’s] unique needs . . .” (20 U.S.C. §1401). An important way to advocate for your child is to be educated on the laws and policies that are created for students.
Second, build a healthy, working relationship with your child’s school, teachers, and service providers. When the partnership between school and parents is a functional relationship, studies show it improves a child’s performance, grades, and overall attitude about school. Follow the Three C’s to ensure the best possible relationship with your child’s school and educators. They include: Communication, Consistency, and Collaboration. Consistent collaboration with clear lines of communication, entered into with positivity and the goal of improving mutual understanding, is a proven way to support your student’s educational experience.
Follow this link to the SSD-Lindbergh website page where you can download the Information Navigation Ladder to personalize with the names of your child’s teacher. Your child’s teacher and case manager are the starting point for this consistent, collaborative communication. On this web page, you’ll also find the contact information for other individuals at Special School District who can support you as you seek the best educational outcomes for your student. https://www.ssdmo.org/Page/192
Practical Practices to Support Literacy at Home
Supporting your child’s literacy development at home can be enjoyable! Here are a few quick but effective reading activities that can have a big impact on your child’s literacy development. In this article you will find a few creative practices to create a positive learning environment for your child to grow in literacy. The hope is that this additional support will be fun, interactive, and inviting so that your student wants to participate and is engaged in reading with you.
Repeated Readings: Whether your child is reading sight words, fluency phrases, paragraphs, short stories, poetry, or otherwise, repeated readings help to build confidence, accuracy, and automaticity. To practice reading, you can use any grade appropriate reading materials such as homework, sight words, workbooks, stories, or leveled passages that your child is using in the classroom or material of your choice. Once you have the material selected, provide your child with multiple opportunities to read and re-read the same passage throughout the week. For added fun, play "radio show". Imagine an audience is listening and you need to communicate through your voice alone. Model for your child how to read with a variety of voices: angry, goofy, exhausted, or even a foreign accent.
Have FUN: Turn reading into a game! Use index cards or cardstock to make your own flash cards with sight words, vocabulary words, spelling words, or testing terms. Memory, Go-Fish, or matching are just a few of the possible games you can make. Any words your student brings home can be made into a game to create opportunities to reinforce concepts presented in the classroom. Even high school students benefit from this type of study.
Use Technology to your advantage: The timer on your smartphone or tablet can be an excellent tool. One activity is to time your student reading, and then make a game so they can try to beat their previous time; or graph their progress throughout the week. Also, the video or audio recording tool can be used to have students record themselves reading aloud and then listen to how they read. One way to think about this is the “Goldilocks” principle; focus on material that is not too easy or too hard, but “just right.” It’s important that students have opportunities to practice reading with a focus on appropriate speed and accuracy; use caution when reading too fast or too slow. It’s more beneficial to read at an average pace with accuracy than with speed and an abundance of errors.
Efficiency: It’s important to try to create fun and low stress opportunities for your child to hone their reading skills; you might break larger tasks down into smaller chunks of time and teach your student to do this as well: start with 5-10 minutes and then increase by 5 minutes when your child is ready. As time goes on, students can increase their reading time. The goal is to provide productive, efficient, and enjoyable reading activities that reinforce concepts learned at school in a fun and supportive way.
Included are a few links filled with high quality resources for reading materials and games to help your child continue learning at home.
https://fcrr.org/student-center-activities-games and resources
https://www.readworks.org/ leveled reading materials
Happy Reading!
Navigating the Special Education Process
Although Special School District has its own Parent Advisory Committee (PAC), Lindbergh Schools in partnership with SSD continues to hold our own L-PAC meetings three times a year. It is a local opportunity to improve communication between families and both school districts, to become informed about special education services within SSD, and to create positive understanding and awareness of students with disabilities.
If you weren't able to join our January 26th L-PAC meeting Navigating the Special Education Process presented by the Special School District’s Parent Education and Diversity Awareness (PEDA) facilitator, you can still access the information presented.
The recording of the presentation will soon be available on the Lindbergh website.
Click here for the Navigating the Special Education Process SlideShow presentation.
The Slide Show includes the links below to a wealth of information that will help you to be an informed member of your student's IEP team.
DESE Parents Guide to Special Education
We are excited that L-PAC has three parents who are helping to plan and facilitate our meetings this year: Dr. Jennalie Blackwood, Mrs. Erin Stone, and Mrs. Cassie Rickard. We value their input and ideas on providing educational opportunities for parents who have students with IEPs. If you're a parent or caregiver who is interested in joining the L-PAC planning team, please contact Dr. Joy Doyle (jmdoyle@ssdmo.org) and/or Dr. Jill Lawson (jlawson@lindberghschools.ws).
SSD PAC New/Renewal of Membership Self-Nomination Forms information
SSD PAC New/Renewal of Membership Self-Nomination Forms information: Hello, SSD PAC members and potential members! We are approaching that time of year when we prepare to hold elections and renew membership. Nomination is through self-nomination. The self-nomination form is available to all parents of students receiving services through SSD.
Per the SSD PAC Bylaws, potential members must consent to make their names and contact information available to the public. Notices requesting self-nomination forms shall be received by parents no later than January 10th. Completed nomination forms must be returned to the Executive Committee no later than February 15th. The election of new/renewal of SSD PAC members shall take place no later than May 31st. We will hold the election at the April 13th General Meeting.
Elections are rotated each year. The following districts will hold elections in even numbered years: Affton, Bayless, Brentwood, Clayton, Ferguson-Florissant, Hancock Place, Ladue, Mehlville, Normandy, Rockwood, University City and Valley Park.
Please complete and submit the self-nomination form linked above ASAP. Please note that even if you recently submitted a self-nomination form and were elected as a member of the SSD PAC, but are in a district that has an election in even numbered years, you will need to submit another self-nomination form. Please reach out to us at pac@ssdmo.org with any questions.
Love and Light,
Dr. Camesha Carter, SSD PAC President
The Family Resource Hub
Variety Club
Recreation Council Flyer
Fun With Spelling
“Anyone who can only think of one way to spell a word obviously lacks imagination.”
-Mark Twain
Knowledge of phonology (speech sounds), orthography (the visual patterns), morphology (the meaning units), and semantics (vocabulary) are all necessary for spelling words correctly. However, students with special needs often struggle with one or more of these linguistic abilities. While trained teachers work to implement structured reading programs, spelling is a skill that, for some students, takes time to develop.
When students struggle to spell, they may also struggle to get their ideas on paper. One way to support students who struggle with spelling is to collaborate with their teacher to identify “high frequency” writing words that they can practice at home. Or, you may want to refer to the Sitton Spelling Word List to identify key high frequency writing words. This list is especially powerful because it lists words in order of their frequency of use in everyday writing. The first 25 words on the list are used in 33% of everyday writing. The first 100 words appear in 50% of adult and student writing and the first 1,000 words are used in 89% of everyday writing. Knowing how to spell even the first 25 words can help students feel more confident when writing.
Although there are excellent spelling strategies and resources that teachers can provide or that can be found on the internet, fingerspelling with ASL is a fun possibility. This added activity can make learning to spell sight words easier and more engaging. To get started, check out the free resources below.
Videos:
American Sign Language Font for building flashcards or making worksheets:
ASL Printable Chart:
Youth Mental Health Training
For Staff: Kickup Registration Link: https://pulse.kickup.co/events/browse/SKSWHzR83mUrJ7gpEPUpeh
For Families: Google Link: https://forms.gle/28CzBcceYgadDhJk6
Assistance for families who may have challenges accessing the FREE Covid Tests
Family and Community Engagement
Spotlight
Mental Health First Aid Training for SSD Families - Youth Mental Health First Aid is designed to teach parents, family members, caregivers, teachers, school staff, and others to help adolescents experiencing mental health and/or addictions challenge or crisis. It is designed for adults who regularly interact with young people. The course introduces common mental health challenges for youth, reviews adolescent development, and teaches a 5-step action plan for how to help young people in both crisis and non-crisis situations.
Nationally this course is valued at $170; due to a grant from Missouri's Department of Mental Health and a collaboration with the Ferguson Community Center, you have the opportunity to attend at no cost.
Saturday, March 19th from 9 – 1:30 PM at Ferguson Community Center. 1050 Smith Ave, Ferguson, MO 63135
Space is limited. To register click here. Registration will close on Monday, March 7th or when all seats are filled.
Parent Leadership Institute will be held via ZOOM
If you have always wanted to participate but life made it too hard to get away from home, NOW IS THE TIME TO ENROLL!!!
If you are a parent or family member who makes the educational decisions for a child with a disability, investing the time to attend these four Wednesday evening sessions will provide:
• Vision for the future of your child.
• Knowledge to help you to effectively participate in your child’s education.
• Leadership skills to improve the educational climate for all children.
• Access to new resources, friends and experts to help you on your journey.
The Institute will be held on Wednesdays from 6:00 pm-8:00 p.m. on February 16, March 2, 9, and 16, via zoom.
Learn more about this opportunity or download the application at: Parent Leadership Institute
Virtual Workshop: Meeting your child's needs using Charting the LifeCourse Tools in the IEP process
When: Tue, March 15, 6:30pm – 8:00pm
Description: Your child’s school Individual Education Plan (IEP) can be intimidating and overwhelming at times. Find out how to utilize LifeCourse Tools to help prepare and communicate effectively with your child’s IEP team to determine the most successful goals and interventions to help your child reach their potential.
To register for this workshop, click here: https://SSDPEDA.as.me/CTLCwithSTLARC
PEDA would love your feedback!
Please complete are PEDA Communications survey here: PEDA Survey
Lunch & Learn with SSD
Special School District’s Family and Community Outreach, Social Work, Communications, and Parent Education and Diversity Awareness (PEDA) departments have teamed up to offer a virtual Lunch & Learn series for SSD families and stakeholders. The series, which will involve community organizations sharing information about their work, will take place on the first Wednesday of each month during the 2021-22 school year, from 11:30 AM - Noon.
Representatives from nine community organizations will participate in order to increase awareness about their agency and make connections with those in our SSD community who may benefit from their programs and services.
We hope to "virtually" see you there!
Organizations represented in the Lunch & Learn series include:
- Team Activities for Special Kids (TASK) – March 2
- St. Louis ARC – April 6
- St. Louis County Library – May 4
Special School District of St. Louis County
Email: jmdoyle@ssdmo.org
Website: ssdmo.org
Phone: 314-989-8463