Working Together to Keep Our Most Challenged Students in Traditional Schools

By Michael Kaufman Ph.d, Special Education Advisor

Special Education Articles

With an alarming increase in Autism and other disabilities in the United States, as well as evolving curricula that increasingly focuses on individualized learning, parents are looking at private specialized schools as viable options to help students with learning challenges and behavioral issues.

In an environment in which students benefit from catered instruction in much smaller classes, it is the hope of public school officials that these children can be put on a path to high school graduation and college so they can learn a valuable profession.

Decisions to send students outside the school district are not taken lightly; most school districts only consider it when there are no other options. This demographic is tiny, representing only 100,000 students among the 60 million now enrolled in America’s public schools. Tuition and transportation costs are expensive for these placements, and there is the stigma that each student must bear among his or her friends for being “sent out.”

Just as public schools continue to evolve, so do private specialized schools.

My company – Specialized Education Services Inc. (SESI) – now operates 48 schools in 12 states; most of which are in partnerships with local public school districts. There is a common misperception that we take special-needs students from the public schools and then try to keep them in separate schools for as long as possible.

Rather, it is the direct opposite. The focus of specialized schools should be to work as closely as possible with the public schools, even encouraging the students to participate in after-school clubs and sport teams with their friends at their local public school.

Why? Because at SESI and at other similar specialized schools, our goal is to have special-needs students return to their mainstream classrooms as quickly as possible. Often, we are working with students who are up to seven years behind their grade level. So, through intensive learning, we need to accomplish more in a few weeks than most public school district would accomplish in a few months.

We use our limited time with the students to identify the real issues, work with their families, outside professionals and the school district to devise workable solutions and then return these kids to their sending schools – hopefully within a year or two.

Toward this lofty goal, we always try to open our schools in the same neighborhoods where our students have attended public schools. We have schools in the center of such cities as Pittsburgh, Washington D.C. and Baltimore to ensure the kids remain in the community fabric, which is a key strategy to easing their transition back into the public schools.

Moreover, in 12 of the schools that SESI operates, our teachers are actually placed in public school classrooms. In schools in Maryland and Connecticut, SESI students spend class time with our teachers during the day to learn the core curriculum, such as math and science, but then mingle with friends for lunch, recess, gym and all other aspects of the school day. Such an arrangement is a win-win, as tuition costs are considerably lower and students have an easier time transitioning from SESI back to the regular school cycle.

To help special-needs students as much as possible, we need to build a solid bridge between public schools and specialized schools, creating a true public-private partnership across the U.S.

A key component is the in-district partnership, where our specialists can work hand-in-hand with teachers and administrators in the public school, sharing best practices and working together to enhance the students’ overall educational experience.

As the students are our shared priority, this can never be about pointing fingers or focusing on who is responsible for perceived failures. Each side has their own experts and assets that need to be leveraged for the best interest of the child. And there needs to be dedicated professionals on all sides who truly enjoy working with these students and collaborating with fellow professionals.

Educators often say that every student has the potential to make contributions to society, no matter what disabilities they face. But they cannot be expected to succeed when they are simply handed off as someone else’s problem.

It’s become trite, but, yes, it does take a village to serve our most challenged students. And that begins with the entire education team pulling together to ensure at-risk kids stay within the mainstream for as long as possible.

Specialized Education Services Inc. (SESI) is one of the nation’s premier and fastest growing providers of specialized education for children with learning, language and social challenges. It operates 48 schools in 11 states and the District of Columbia. You can learn more about Specialized Education Services Inc. (SESI) at: www.sesi-schools.com.

17 Ten Reasons that Individualized Education Programs Matter

By Doug Goldberg, Special Education Advisor

1. Every child deserves to have their rights protected even if they have a disability;

2. Every child deserves to have a chance to lead a productive and independent life;

3. Every Child deserves a chance to be taught life skills that will help them gain employment in the future;

4. Every child deserves a chance to continue in post-secondary education;

5. Every child deserves to be taught based on their unique needs;

6. Every child deserves a chance to learn and not at a pre-determined pace but at their own pace;

7. Every child deserves a chance to learn how to interact with people and make friends. Socialization is a big part of the curriculum and don’t ever let anyone tell you any different;

8. Every child deserves a chance to be inspired and not feel like an outcast for being different;

9. Every child deserves a chance to find their own voice and self-advocate for themselves; and

10. Because every child matters!!!

The Need for a Good IEP Strategy From Special Education Advisor

The Need for a Good IEP Strategy
By Dennise GoldbergSpecial Education Advisor Blog
One of the benefits of being an advocate is when you attend a lot of IEP meetings in the same District you start to see patterns. Usually, these patterns are designed by the School District to manipulate the outcome of an IEP with a set agenda. As a parent, you probably won’t even realize this is happening because you only attend one or two IEP meetings a year, but as an advocate they are easy to spot.

For years, my local school district has been paying behaviorists from non-public agencies (NPA) to help children in school who need more behavior support than a paraprofessional can provide. Due to the cost and shrinking budgets, the School District has decided to try and eliminate NPA behavior support from ALL IEP’s. The elimination of NPA behaviorists isn’t a written policy that a parent could find in the School District’s Special Education manual but it’s still happening none the less.

In my local School District the administrative designee for an IEP, for an elementary age child, is always the Vice-Principal (VP). Whenever the conversation turns to either requesting or continuing with an NPA behaviorist the VP always responds the same way:

“Having a behaviorist in a general education setting with a student is a more restrictive environment than placing them in a special day class”.

By the 2nd time you hear this it sounds fishy, by the 20th time you hear this it’s clearly an unwritten School District policy. Just for the record, I don’t agree. The legal definition of Least Restrictive Environment is:

“In General. To the maximum extent appropriate, children with disabilities, including children in public or private institutions or other care facilities, are educated with children who are not disabled, and special classes, separate schooling, or other removal of children with disabilities from the regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of the disability of a child is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and services cannot be achieved satisfactorily” 20 U.S.C § 1412(a)(5)(A).

My opinion is a behaviorist would fall under the category of “supplementary aids or services” but I better have a good strategy going into the meeting to prove my point. This is why preparation and a good strategy are essential to IEP meetings. The best way to illustrate the importance of preparation and strategy is to share with you a recent example.

I attended an IEP in November for a child with ADHD and a Specific Learning Disability (SLD) who has had a behaviorist with him in class for the past two years. He had three behavior goals and although he was doing better, one of the goals he was only able to accomplish 5% of the time. This goal was about staying on-task during academic class-time, and he just couldn’t do it. At the same time we were given his achievement test results and he scored well below average in writing fluency. He also scored borderline in academic fluency, reading comprehension and written expression. At this point, The VP suggested we adjourn the IEP to perform a Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA) and reconvene after it’s finished. Everyone agreed, the assessment plan was generated, and the parents requested copies of the FBA prior to the next IEP which was scheduled for the beginning of February.

Two days prior to the reconvened IEP we received the FBA from the school. What we received was nothing short of shocking. After almost two months of work the school wrote a two page FBA. I am not a behavior specialist but after seeing hundreds of FBA’s I have never seen one this short. This FBA did not include a record review, a description of the negative behaviors, a parent interview, a behaviorist interview, a behavior chain of events (ABC’s) and a hypothesis for the behavior. What it did have was a two page description of the child’s ability to access the curriculum without a behaviorist. As I mentioned, I am not a behaviorist, but it seems to me that a child who has low achievement scores and can’t stay on task during academic teaching might be trying to avoid work he doesn’t understand.

I talked to Mom and we came up with a strategy. We showed up at the meeting and the first thing we noticed was the behaviorist was not in attendance. Turns out the VP did not invite her. So we required the VP to get the behaviorist on the phone while we went over the FBA. We quietly listened to the explanation of the FBA and why the School District felt the child no longer needed a behaviorist, and then it was my turn. I started by asking Mom and the behaviorist if they had been interviewed for the FBA, which they had not. I then went through everything we normally expect to see in an FBA that wasn’t in this one and ended by explaining our hypothesis of the behaviors being an avoidance mechanism due to academic levels.

I then suggested to the VP that Mom would never agree to reduce services based on the School’s FBA and most likely would require anIndependent Educational Evaluation for behavior at the School District’s expense. Once all of this occurred the District knew we were prepared and had a strategy so their whole demeanor changed. They have now asked for another adjournment for two weeks to work on a better offer that will include additional outside of school help for the academic troubles and a fading plan for the behaviorist. Catching him up academically will hopefully reduce many of the lingering behavior problems. If the offer still doesn’t fit the child’s needs we can still ask for the IEE but at least we have now kicked started an honest dialogue.

Not all School Districts have an agenda but as the old saying goes, “Prepare for the worst and hope for the best”. By preparing and having a strategy, you have a way of derailing any School District agendas that might come up.

Noah's Dad Blog - A Dad's Perspective Raising a Child With Downs Syndrome

What a loving blog! Noah's dad relays from the perspective of a parent what it's like raising a child with Down Syndrome through video clips. photos, comments, etc. What I love is how loving and real this really is from day to day, outings, therapies, etc.

Take a look you might relate to this too http://noahsdad.com/

Educational techniques for ADHD – What are executive function skills?

From Special Education Advisor

Individuals with ADHD and ADD often have difficulty with Executive Skills, also called Executive Functions. These are the skills that help us manage and direct our lives. They are analogous to the activities that an executive engages in to manage and direct a company or business.

Executive skills allow us to plan and organize our behavior, make well-considered decisions, overrule immediate desires in favor of longer-term goals, take conscious control of our emotions, and monitor our thoughts in order to work more efficiently and effectively.

There are a number of different theories and definitions of the skills that constitute executive functions. The following is a compilation that illustrates the full range of skills needed to effectively manage our lives.

Executive Functions

Planning and prioritizing
The ability to create a plan to complete a task or to develop an approach to achieving a goal. This skill includes making decisions about what to direct attention toward and the ordering of the steps needed to achieve the goal.

Time management
The sense that “time” is an important concept, the ability to accurately estimate how much time a task will take, knowing how to apportion your time, and how to stay within time constraints to meet deadlines.

Organization
The ability to arrange ideas or objects according to a defined structure.

Working Memory
The ability to remember information while using the information to perform complex tasks.

Metacognition
The ability to take a top-down view of your problem solving approach and to self-monitor and evaluate performance.

Response Inhibition
The power to resist the urge to say or to do something; taking time to think before acting.

Self-regulation of Affect
The ability to deal with emotions so that they don’t get in the way of completing tasks or achieving goals.

Task Initiation
The ability to start a task at the appropriate time without delay or procrastination.

Flexibility
The ability to adapt your responses, behaviors and plans when necessary in order to achieve toward your goals.

Goal-directed Persistence
The ability to follow through to complete tasks and achieve goals.

Sustained Attention
The capacity to pay attention to a task, particularly if the task is not interesting.

Disengaging Attention
The ability to stop directing your attention towards one thing and direct it towards something else.

Regulation of Processing Speed
The ability to make a conscious decision about how slowly or quickly to perform a task based upon its importance to you.

Dr. Kari Miller is the Director of Miller Educational Excellence, an educational therapy center in Los Angeles. Her informative and inspiring collection of articles, “Success Strategies for Students with Special Needs Such as ADD, ADHD, Autism, and Learning Disabilities” can be downloaded here http://millereducationalexcellence.com/newsletter-signup. She is the host of two stimulating educational blogtalk radio shows: Special Kid School Talkhttp://www.blogtalkradio.com/specialkidschooltalk and Education Revolutionhttp://webtalkradio.net/shows/education-revolution/

Educators walk a tightrope between academics and young children's developmental needs

We ran into this very challenge with our youngest once we were done with Early Intervention now what? What preschool could accomidate her needs? We LOVED our oldest daughter's preschool, teachers, director everything but was this the right fit for our youngest and what she needed? After countless tears and the realization that we needed to go a different path I reluctantly but open minded-ly decided to go with our district's Early Childhood Program called Connecting Kids here in Wilmette. All I can say is WOW am I glad I did as she received the services, attention and care that she needed not to mention the love and support. Although this looked differently than the other preschool I found that what the children were learning was equally important. The most important was what it was like to be in a blended classroom. Our daughter has adapted, transitioned and embraced her transition thankfully to Kindergarten because she was prepared for this thankfully by her preschool. Take a look at this article below from Education Week and see if this helps. Also, if you know of someone who is addressing this very issue currently...share this post with them I think this should help them get their arms around the issue.

Educators walk a tightrope between academics and young children's developmental needs

By Jaclyn Zubrzycki

Although the common-core standards are calibrated to ensure that students leave K-12 schools ready for work and college, they are also posing challenges for the educators who work with children just starting out their school careers.

As 46 states and the District of Columbia work this year to put the new curricular guidelines in place, preschool and early-childhood educators are determining how to balance the common standards' emphasis on increasing and measuring academic rigor with research findings on young children's developmental needs, which place a high value on play, the arts, social skills, and integrated instruction.

"We have to be careful that those standards, particularly as they extend downward, appropriately recognize these important social, communication, and self-regulation skills that are really as critical for kids' learning in those early and later years as whether they know the alphabet," said Robert C. Pianta, the dean of the Curry School of Education at the University of Virginia, in Charlottesville.

Every state has guidelines outlining what preschool-age children should be able to do in a number of developmental domains, according to a 2007 review of states' policiespublished in the journal Early Childhood Research & Practice. But in the 2011-12 school year, fourteen states rolled out the common-core standards for kindergarten, K-1, or K-2, according to Carrie Heath Phillips of the Council of Chief State School Officers, and that puts issues of school readiness and the content of those preschool skill guidelines in the spotlight.

The latest Race to the Top competition from the U.S. Department of Education also supports the idea that college- and career-readiness has to start even before a child enters kindergarten. It's offering $500 million for states with plans to improve early-learning programs. Thirty-five states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico have submitted applications. Most of those states or territories have adopted the common core, which means their early-years plans must reflect the new standards' expectations.

The federal Head Start preschool program for disadvantaged children has also felt the influence of the Common Core State Standards Initiative: It recently aligned its Child Development and Early Learning Framework with the common core.

Mari E. Blaustein, the director of early-childhood initiatives at the Source for Learning, a Virginia-based nonprofit that develops educational resources, which partnered with the National Head Start Association on the task, said correlating the Head Start framework with common-core standards made sense, as both sets of guidelines are used in multiple states.

Still, there are no plans to create nationwide common-core standards in the mold of the K-12 standards for early childhood, said representatives of the National Governors' Association and the Council of Chief State School Officers, which coordinated the common-core initiative.

"There's no doubt that what goes on in early-childhood programs needs to be informed, shaped, and aligned with what students are going to start with in kindergarten, but there's not a national plan," said Michael Cohen, the president of Achieve, a Washington-based organization that helped design the common-core standards for English/language arts and math.
A Pivotal Time

As they look on their own to improve their pre-K programs, states have started to write common-core-based guidelines for early childhood, attempting to balance existing guidelines, the common core's higher academic standards, and the Head Start framework. But standards for early childhood are also shaped by knowledge about child development, society's values, and goals for what children should be able to do at the end of their education, said Sharon Lynn Kagan, a professor of early childhood and family policy and a co-director of the National Center for Children and Families at Teachers College, Columbia University.

"It's a pivotal time for early childhood. Early childhood has got to rise to the occasion and really think hard about what its values are and what it wants to transmit," she said.

Just what those values are and which standards and assessments best reflect them is the subject of research—and debate. There is an increasing focus on preparing children for rigorous, college-bound English/language arts and math standards, but many early childhood researchers and advocates say that time for play, the arts, and developing communication and executive-function skills are more important for young children—and that young children's irregular development patterns make assessing specific academic skills difficult and even misguided.

Gillian D. McNamee, a professor of teacher education at the Erikson Institute, in Chicago, said: "With young children, art and physical movement aren't a frill. They are the disciplines that offer resources for the expression and the development of ideas."

The common-core standards only address math and literacy, but Ms. McNamee said even adding science, social studies, or fine arts standards wouldn't reflect how profoundly integrated learning is in the early years.

Ms. McNamee also said children's irregular development cycles argue against testing them against a rigid, even progression of standards. Head Start Executive Director Yasmina Vinci said that is why her organization's framework doesn't lay out specific academic requirements for its young students.

Assessing young children's performance also presents a unique challenge in and of itself. "Observational methods [appropriate for assessing young children] require more training," said Samuel J. Meisels, the president of the Erikson Institute.

Mr. Meisels said it is important that the early-childhood community's voice be heard as new teaching guidelines take shape.

"People are happy to say early childhood is important. But when it comes time to sit down around the table, I'm not sure they remember to invite early-childhood folks," he said.

Many of these issues are relevant to early elementary students, too, some educators say.

Edward Miller, a senior researcher at the Alliance for Childhood, an advocacy group based in New York, said, "We feel that the early-education [K-3] standards—particularly the kindergarten standards, but also the early elementary grade standards—in the common core are a disaster, and are going to greatly worsen what is already a crisis situation in early-childhood education."

"I'm not opposed to the idea of standards," Mr. Miller said. "We know a lot about what children need in order to be successful. But it has very little to do with very narrowly defined bits of knowledge. . . . If you expect every 5-year-old to be able to read and drill them on reading skills, the ones who don't get it are defined by the schools and by themselves as failures."
Complex System

Educators around the country are grappling with these same issues as they put standards into practice: "What does rigor look like in a 1st or 2nd grade classroom? How do you support students while achieving rigor?" said Mark Baumgartner, the director of professional issues for the Cleveland Teachers Union. Cleveland has initiated a professional-development effort to help teachers answer those questions as they transition to the common core, Mr. Baumgartner said.

The approach to alignment with the common core—or with K-12 education in general—varies from state to state.

"Right now as it stands, most states say that their early-learning guidelines—which could be for birth-to-pre-K or just 3- to-5-year-olds—align with K-12, or at least with kindergarten. But the depth of that alignment varies," said Laura Bornfreund, a policy analyst for an early-education initiative begun by the New America Foundation, a think tank and policy institute based in Washington and Sacramento, Calif. Some states have undertaken detailed rewritings to link up with the common-core standards, as in Maryland, while others, like Arkansas, have designed charts showing how their frameworks connect to K-12 standards or Head Start.

States may also face challenges in creating assessments for early-childhood curricula and standards.

"Assessing and evaluating children's outcomes is expensive and tricky. It's with a workforce that's less trained than any other education workforce," said Karen J. Cadigan, the director of the Minnesota education department's office of early learning. Ongoing budget concerns mean that money for that kind of professional development and program components can be hard to come by.

Ms. Cadigan also pointed to a challenge peculiar to the early-childhood world: "Even if you tried, you couldn't find every 4-year-old in the state." Because early-childhood education is not funded or regulated in the same way as K-12, providers range from tiny, private, home-based daycare centers to fully aligned, state-funded programs. Even programs like Head Start serve only a small portion of the population that qualifies.

In a few states, all licensed providers must use state guidelines, but more often, the guidelines are required of state-funded programs and voluntary elsewhere.
Ahead of the Curve

Despite the difficulties, some states have been working towards aligning pre-K standards and curricula with K-12 standards since the early 2000s, even before the common core.

Jim J. Lesko, the director of early development and learning resources for Delaware's education department, said his state's efforts to do so had been well-received.

"People do want their children to be ready to be successful in kindergarten, and we understand much better now what we need to do to help support children's learning prior to kindergarten so they come to school with skills they need." Mr. Lesko emphasized that Delaware's early-learning guidelines "focus on all domains of learning, not just reading and math."

Maryland has also already aligned its pre-K standards with the common core and is in the process of outlining an updated pre-K curriculum. At least one district, Montgomery County, tied its pre-K standards to the common core before the state. The district'sCurriculum 2.0 went into effect last year.

"We worked to make a fully integrated elementary curriculum, then took a step back to make sure pre-K was integrated," said Janine Bacquie, the director of the district's division of early-childhood programs and services.

Martin Creel, the director of the school district's department of enriched and innovative programs, said that when the 144,064-student district hosted "parent academies" to demystify the new curriculum, many parents' concerns were linked to the name: "They thought 'common' meant low and 'core' meant basic." But when the standards were presented as part of an effort to learn from international best practices and embedded in a curriculum that also focuses on skills like cooperation and critical thinking, parents got on board, he said.
Beyond Academics

Montgomery County kindergarten teacher Juliet D. Wolf said that the common core has been a positive change, allowing teachers to be more rigorous and focus on fewer topics, but said other parts of the curriculum have been even more important.

"It changed the way we're delivering content," she said. "We're spending more time on creative-thinking skills, getting kids to think about how they're thinking and collaborating more."

In most places, however, thinking P-12 is not the status quo, according to experts. But, said Shannon Ayers, an assistant research professor with the National Institute for Early Education Research at Rutgers University in New Jersey: "Having some alignment between pre-K and K in the future is important for teachers, kids, and parents. It transforms pre-K and says, this is real school. Because what we're doing in pre-K is leading and connected to what they'll do in K, 1, 2 and beyond."

"What never served early childhood well was when we were seen as a separate entity," said Shari Ostrow Scher, an early-childhood specialist in Frederick, Md., who has been in the field for 20 years. "You can't have really meaningful early-childhood education and not have it tied to the entire flow of curriculum and what children learn."

The Treatment of Executive Function Skills Using Equine Assisted Therapy and Hippotherapy - From Special Education Advisor

Equine Assisted Therapy (EAT) and Hippotherapy (HPOT) can be used in the treatment of Executive Function problems. Therapists who utilize these therapeutic methods know that a therapy horse can facilitate learning, and, with children, it has long been known to help activate language. HPOT uses the movement of the horse to facilitate language, while EAT uses riding activities to promote goals; both are directed by the treatment principles and goals that apply to the particular profession of the therapist. (Macauley, 2004) Because the horse can provide stimulation to the whole body, including the nervous system and brain, the client can be helped to integrate and process language in a whole new way. HPOT and EAT can often encourage progress that cannot be achieved through other strategies or methods.

Executive Function skills are those competencies that an executive must have to be successful in the workplace. Coincidentally, these are some of the very same abilities which allow children to be successful learners, the “how to learn” knowledge which permeates daily life and classroom academics. Because a classroom is linguistically based and language driven, the ability to use language is intimately connected to Executive Functioning. All day long children are listening, talking, reading, and writing. Without Executive Function skills, children will not be able to absorb and use the information they need to carry out language learning tasks.

Children with Tourette’s Syndrome, Asperger’s Syndrome, Nonverbal Learning Disabilities, and Language Learning Disorders have been found to have various degrees of Executive Function deficiencies. Students with poor Executive Function skills do not naturally bring to the learning environment a sense of self-awareness, reflection, and task analysis that will encourage success in academic tasks. (Wong, 1994; Wong, and Blenkinsop, 1989) The difficulty with such a learning problem is that it disrupts all phases of learning and social interaction; further, the diagnosis is mostly derived through extensive behavioral observation. There is no particular “test” for executive Function ability, not to mention the fact that, because it can be highly influenced by memory and overall language development, the problem is often not identified until a student experiences repeated failure.

Children use language to talk with their teachers, each other, and even themselves. They learn, as language develops, how to make plans, discuss, evaluate ideas, participate in groups, reflect on their work, change their minds, and edit their written material. They remind themselves to finish their work on time, ask for help when appropriate, wait to speak until they are called on, and go back to find information from various sources (Cazden, 1973). Particularly after fourth grade when independence of learning is emphasized, language becomes even more intertwined with Executive Function skills (Singer, 1999).

The following list of competencies, although by no means exhaustive, make up those considered necessary for adequate Executive Functioning (Packer, 2004). These skills are dependent upon language, working memory, and attention.
Goal: ability to identify goal or set goal.
Plan: ability to develop steps toward goal – materials needed, completion date.
Sequence: arrange steps in proper order spatially or temporally.
Prioritize: establish ranking needs or tasks.
Organize: obtain and maintain necessary materials.
Inhibit: stop oneself from responding to distraction; delay gratification in service of more important long term goal.
Pace: establish and adjust work rate so that goal is completed on time.
Shift: move from one task to another smoothly and quickly.
Self-monitor: assessing one’s performance and progress towards goal.
Emotional control: regulating and modulating responses to situations.
Complete: reaching the set goal.

Hippotherapy and Equine Assisted Therapy can be the perfect tools in the treatment of clients with Executive function problems. A well chosen therapy horse can be the vehicle for helping reach goals for planning, organizing, sequencing and verbalizing these areas that cannot be taught through other methods. Further, these treatment strategies are typically enjoyable, where-as academic tasks can be tedious. To engage the “fun” part of using a horse as a treatment tool offers stimulation that cannot be encouraged through most other language therapy methods. HPOT and EAT can keep client’s interest long enough to help them understand the use of “working memory” or “planning”. Bridges can then be made to foster language, learning and academic growth, i.e., “Do you remember when you made the plan out in the arena to take the horse from ________, to _______, around ________, then came back? Make a plan for your book report. What do you need? Tell me the steps you might take.” Because working with a horse is enjoyable, the treatments are more easily attuned to the client’s sense of self, helping them understand that they do have the capacity to learn.

In my practice, Speech and Learning Services, HPOT and EAT are treatment tools that are offered to clients who might benefit from such approaches. “Three dimensions of interventions are critical to effectiveness. Interventions should be 1) responsive, 2) systematic, and 3) intensive.” (Butler, 2002) To be responsive, the student’s reaction to intervention will determine how future intervention is provided. To be systematic, the student and therapist must constantly review structured and connected goals. The intensity is determined by the amount of time spent on the goal. HPOT and EAT can meet these therapeutic requirements in a fun and challenging way. The programs, Animal T.A.L.K. (Teach And Learn Knowledge) encourages learning and language development with the use of a selected horse/pony based on either goals I have set during assessment or pre-established IEP objectives from public school testing. What follows is a session with a client we will call Annabelle, a fifth grader in a private school, with a documented language learning disability primarily in the area of Executive Function. Of particular importance in defining an expressive language treatment program for Annabelle in Executive Functioning was that she was mostly deficient in establishing goals, in knowing where to begin assignments, in working memory, and in being able to verbalize clear explanations of her tasks/goals.

Combined HPOT and EAT Session with Executive Function Goals

The Animal T.A.L.K. Skills Checklist/Goals Module was used to establish starting points for the sessions. Annabelle had previously been evaluated and had been found to have expressive language, memory and Executive Function problems even though she scored well academically. The module noted that she was functioning at Level 2 of the Speech and Learning Scale for following directions – Able to process three-step directions with help, and explain the steps. Also included on the module was her NARHA Equestrian Proficiency Level. Annabelle was functioning below L1 – Demonstrates control around arena at walk, change directions, and halt. Although she had had previous riding experience at camp, her actual ability to independently make a horse move forward was very weak. Therefore, the combination of the Executive Function skills of goal setting, planning a sequence, while recounting her specific steps through the HPOT and EAT treatments of moving towards Level 1 of the NARHA Proficiency Levels and explaining what she was doing during/after riding were established. To clarify further, my treatment plan would work on Annabelle being able to control the horse at the walk, change of direction, and halt while making plans for that movement in the arena, and being able to verbalize these during and after she performed them. The therapy horse chosen for Annabelle is a registered 24-year-old Connemara mare named Curry. Curry’s temperament and love of children are well suited for therapy. Annabelle’s size fit Curry’s stride/height and their temperaments matched. It was a combination destined to happen.

The first session was brief, but noteworthy. Annabelle had extreme difficulty moving Curry forward, encountering in each other the “stubbornness” of a pony and little girl with planning problems: How do you keep in mind all of the aides (working memory) while you push to make a very smart pony move forward to a pre-arranged target? That was a huge challenge. I pointed out to Annabelle that Curry “knew” how not to work, something that Annabelle herself knew. I repeated to Annabelle that to move forward with Curry, one had to watch the aides, look toward the target, and, at the same time, “visualize” Curry walking forward. After several failed attempts, Annabelle finally got the 14.2 pony to move forward, but that was only after I got on and demonstrated, something that often has to happen in a classroom with a student who has Executive Function problems – the demonstration (do it this way) helps the student then be able to visualize what they must do, and then re-explain to the therapist the steps involved. Often this means that a therapist must also exhibit several parts, and then help the student put it all together. I had Annabelle tell me the steps she had to go through before, during, and after she completed the tasks. At each passing point, she was required to tell me the next target until she had completed the entire set of directions. Then she was asked to tell me the sequence of what she had done, and how she had gotten Curry to move forward.

After two of three sessions with Curry, Annabelle had made it to the first NARHA level and was able to move Curry forward at a walk, change directions, and halt. She also could follow 3-step directions while riding and could explain the sequence when riding and from memory after the task was completed. Therefore, she was able to plan, execute, and explain the steps needed to accomplish her goals. Then it rained, and Annabelle went on a family vacation. Interruptions from therapy, particularly in the early stages, sometimes similar to breaks or vacations in school, may have negative effects on learning. The necessary transitions accompanying them often have the effect of setting the student back while he/she tries to regain what was lost. For a student with Executive Function issues, these breaks or interruptions can take a longer transitioning time. For Annabelle, the results were at first disastrous. She had forgotten classroom assignments, could not explain how to make Curry move forward, and when questioned, could not even seem to verbalize where to begin. However, once these difficulties were discussed, because she loved the pony and learning about riding, not to mention her stubborn streak, she quickly picked up where she left off. The breaks were then used to help her understand the value of sticking to a plan, making explanation for the plan, and of routinely carrying these out.

Annabelle is now moving into trotting while accomplishing the same Executive Function goals. After a time, I will move here into further planning. Eventually, she will be required to write an essay about what she has learned, an essay that will be carefully planned and sequenced, one that will require her first to verbalize, then plan in writing. The working memory portion will be Annabelle’s recalling of how she learned.

Bio-

Carol Murphy, MA, CCC-SLP, is a licensed speech/language pathologist and board certified educational therapist. She was trained at the National Center for Equine Facilitated Therapy. Her business, Speech and Learning and Psychology Services, is located in Santa Cruz County for 23 years, with a division called Animal T.A.L.K., that uses horses for Equine Facilitated Therapy. Currently she is serving on the CA State Speech-Language Pathology, Audiology and Hearing Aid Disperser’s Licensing Board and supervises graduate Speech-Language Pathologists for California State University Northridge in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties. Carol can be reached by phoning 831.234.4181, or email her at admin@carolmurphy.org.

A protocol for assessing Equine Facilitated Therapy riding ability and appropriate levels has been developed.

References

Butler, Katherine G (Ed.) (2002). Enhancing Academic Performance of Students with Language

Learning Disorders, Topics in Language Disorders, Vol 22, No.2

Cozden, C.B., (1973). Problems for Education: Language as Curriculum and Learning Environment Daedalus, 102, 135-148

Cozden, C.B. (1988). Classroom Discourse: The Language of Teaching and Learning. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

Denckla, M.B., (1996). A Theory and Model of Executive Function: A Neuropsychological Perspective.

In Gr.R. Lyon and N.A. Krasnegor (Eds.) Attention, Memory, and Executive Function (pp. 263 – 278). Baltimore, MD: Paul Brookes.

Macauley, Beth, (2004). Hippotherapy and Equine Assisted Therapy: Who does what?, Hippotherapy, 13, 1: 10-11

Packer, Leslie E. (2004) Self Evaluation Form, from Tourette’s Syndrome “Plus”www.tourettesyndrome.net

Singer, Bonnie and Bashir, Anthony S. (1999). What are Executive Function and Self-Regulation and what do they have to do with Language-Learning Disorders? Language, Speech and Hearing in the Schools, 30, 265-273

Wong, B.L. (1994). Instructional Parameters Promoting Transfer of Learned Strategies in Students with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disabilities Quarterly, 17, 110-120

Wong, B.L., Wong R. and Blenkinsop, J. (1989). Cognitive and Metacognitive Aspects of Learning

Disabled Adolescents’ Composing Problems, Learning Disability Quarterly, 16, 320-322. www.narha.org North American Riding for the Handicapped Association.

www.asha.org American Speech Language Hearing Association

Ten Steps to Writing Effective IEP Goals - From Special Education Advisor

The Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) requires that all Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) include:

A statement of measurable annual goals, including academic and functional goals, designed to (a) meet the child’s needs that result from the child’s disability to enable the child to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum; and (b) meet each of the child’s other educational needs that result from the child’s disability.

While many parents focus their attention on placement and services they inadvertently overlook the goals section which is one of the most essential components of an IEP. The discussion of the proper amount of services and placement will be decided directly based on the written IEP goals. This is why it’s important to write effective IEP goals. The following ten steps will help you write effective IEP goals:

1. Start at the beginning with present levels of academic achievement and functional performance. Just as IEP goals drive services and placement, the present levels of performance drive goals. This will be your road map to writing all of the goals. Accurately written present levels of performance will provide you with key information on both 1) what goals to write, and b) what strengths the child has to help compensate for the disability. If your present level of performance doesn’t include strengths then it hasn’t been written appropriately;

2. Familiarize yourself with your State’s Academic Content Standards. At this point 44 States have adopted the Common Core Standards. You can review the Common Core Standards website to download the standards. If your State is one of the 6 that doesn’t follow the common core you will be able to find the standards on your State’s Department of Education Website;

3. Make sure you write a goal for every area of need. This may include writing more than one goal for every subject area. By familiarizing yourself with the academic standards you will have a better understanding of what types of goals to write. For instance, math can be broken up into subsets such as math fluency, math facts, math computation, math comprehension, statistics or algebraic functions. If you are writing goals for a modified curriculum the standards for lower grades may still be useful in writing goals. Goals also incorporate more than academics and should include social/emotional and other related services needed to help the child access the curriculum;

4. Spur conversation using the Six W questions; Who, What, Where, When, Why & How. Asking and answering these questions will help make the goal more specific. For instance, “Jimmy will learn to read”, can be made more specific by saying, “When given a second grade passage, Jimmy will read 75 words per minute correctly using proper decoding methods”;

5. Make sure the goals are easy to understand, if you can’t understand the goal in the first reading neither will anyone else. Considering the amount of turnover seen in school personnel making sure a new therapist or teacher can understand the goals is very important;

6. All IEP goals need to be measurable so that parents and school personnel can establish how much progress has been made on reaching the goal. Make sure the measurement is being conducted using a specific method of data collection. Allowing an IEP goal to be measured by teacher observation alone is too subjective;

7. All goals should be attainable. Set up goals that will gradually get your child up to grade level. You want to instill confidence in the child so that they are reaching milestones that will eventually catch them up;

8. All goals should include a timeframe in which the goal will be accomplished. The maximum length of a goal should be no longer than one year to match the requirement to hold at least annual IEP meetings;

9. All goals should be realistic. A realistic goal is a goal that can be achieved with the implementation of a well thought-out IEP; and

10. When writing goals for a transition plan these goals should not be a repeat of other goals in the IEP but should be based the student’s interests and preferences based on 1) specific age-appropriate transition assessments and, 2) transitions services needed to assist the student in achieving their post-school outcomes.

Tales from a mom from the heart

If some of you wonder what it's like being a parent with special needs sometimes it's just nice not knowing a diagnosis for what your child might have with the hopes that you don't have that label stamped forever on your precious child. For other parents out there that suffer not knowing a condition that could be life altering literally this can be the most challenging experience of them all. Not only is the test fees a challenge to the pocket, the trauma of the test is challenging and often times heart breaking as no parent ever wants a child to have a series of blood drawn, cat scans, MRI's, sleep disorder studies just to name a few. I have met and LOVE many dear parents out there that are in the trenches loving, supporting, parenting, teaching, explaining and forever hoping that their child's life will be one of peace and that others will love them as much as we/they do. One of my friends has a blog she's writing about her plight of forever waiting, forever testing and forever hoping that the news is good about her dear child  whom I love dearly. This child always has a giant warm hug and the most infectious smile that warms my heart each and every time I see them. Please help me support my dear friend in her journey.

http://lifelovelessonstolearn.blogspot.com/2011/12/waiting.html?spref=fb

Great Video on Special Education Teachers - We Need More!

I love educators especially those that work with children. Since our daughter has special needs I have a deep love and appreciation for those wonderful people out there that work with these special kiddos. Take a look at this video clip - we need more talented individuals with giant hearts to reach, teach and inspire our next generation of learners.

Visit  http://www.teach.gov/why-teach/make-impact

Great Holiday Book Suggestions For Your Children

I am very passionate about literacy for children. We have a tradition in our house come December 1st once a week both girls receive a Christmas book leading up until Christmas we add to our ever expanding library of great books. I love a good book and found PBS Kids is thinking like me. Here's some book suggestions for Hanukkah and Christmas. Enjoy, have fun and READ with your kiddos!

Visit http://www.pbs.org/parents/special/article-holiday-books.html