Special Programs & Services News
March 2023
In This Issue
Family Education Events
Be sure to save the dates for our upcoming meetings! We will send out weekly reminders in our Special Programs Remind classes.
- Wednesday, March 22nd - Family Education Workshop Night
- Friday, March 24th - Coffee Chat
- Tuesday, March 28th - PAC General Meeting
- Thursday, March 30th- LISD Family Support Group
Check out the Parent Meeting Archive's makeover! Save this link for asynchronous access to past family education events.
🎇Department Spotlights🎇
Educational Diagnosticians Week March 6-10th
We appreciate all of our Educational Diagnosticians! These professionals help provide the next generation of leaders with the knowledge and skills that are the building blocks of lifelong excellence by developing and recommending teaching strategies and materials. Educational Diagnosticians ensure that students are evaluated, identified and provided with an appropriate and challenging individualized educational plan(IEP). They are the ones responsible for pulling the pieces of a comprehensive evaluation together in order to help support thorough recommendations. Remember to say thank you to your diagnosticians this week!
Meal Time Fun
Children of all ages learn best through playful everyday interactions. Meal time is a great way to have fun and build independent living skills. Before you start cooking, think about your child's strengths and how can they help in your meal preparation. This can look like gathering, counting, or sorting ingredients and utensils. Consider turning your kitchen into a live cooking show! Talk about what you are doing as you're doing it. For example: “Daddy is getting all the vegetables for our salad. We have cucumber, lettuce, tomatoes, carrots... Now I’m going to wash them and get them all clean." Assign your student a task during your family cooking show. It may be telling the "audience" about the different ingredients, mixing, or acting as sous chef to ensure the chef has everything that they need.
You can learn and play during other everyday activities such as bath time, bed time, in the car, errands, getting dressed and laundry. Check out this parent presentation by our early childhood team to learn more ways to incorporate play in your day!
Behavior at Home
During last month's Family Education Night, our Behavior Specialists shared some cool ideas for managing behavior at home. Many parents found the information very insightful! They reviewed how to reframe your thoughts about behavior, holding the demand, and modeling. One great takeaway was The I.D.E.A.L Response for Correcting Behavior by TCU's Institute of Child Development:
- Immediate: Respond within seconds seconds when possible
- Direct: Engage directly with close proximity, gentle eye contact, and kind touch
- Efficient: use a measured response that matches the level of behavior
- Action-Based: Give an opportunity for a re-do to practice the correct behavior
- Leveled at Behavior: Not the child. Let them know how you are there to support and advocate
Click here to view the presentation and learn other useful tools for managing behavior at home.
Knowledge of Self
This month's Self-Determination skill is Knowledge of Self. This skill focuses on a person knowing about him or herself and applying that awareness to make effective choices. You can help your child learn about themselves through discussing their interests, strengths, and abilities. Help them identify how their disability affect's their life and how to utilize their strength's through different challenges. You can also model your own self-awareness of your strengths, shortcomings, frustrations and how to solve problems in different settings. Click here for more information and tips on Self-Determination.
Have You Heard?
Involving students in their 504 or ARD meetings can be a healthy first step to building self-advocacy skills. Guidance for parents on “How Can My Child Be Involved in the IEP Process?” will guide you on your role in preparing your child for their meeting. Partner with the Case Manager to start including your child in their 504 or ARD meetings. Our best practice is to begin student involvement in their 504 or ARD meetings as early as possible, but no later than 3rd grade.
You can find out more about self-advocacy and other community resources within our Commonly Asked Questions that can be found in the Special Programs Handbook.
World Down Syndrome Day
March 21st is World Down Syndrome Day! Down Syndrome is caused by the unique triplication of the 21st chromosome. This year's theme With Us, Not For Us, is focusing on the right of people with disabilities to be treated fairly and have the same opportunities as others. This includes working with people with disabilities to make their own decisions and not making decisions for them.
World Hearing Day
This Year’s World Hearing Day is focusing on the theme: Ear and hearing care for all! The purpose of World Hearing Day is to raise awareness on how to prevent deafness and hearing loss and promote ear and hearing care across the world. Ear and hearing problems are among the most common problems encountered in the community. Check out their website to view their tools for monitoring hearing health.
Reading Nook
Check out these resources from our team that supports young readers! This month they are covering topics of reading comprehension, learning prefixes and suffixes, and recognizing syllables.