accommodations good or bad?

[lisle]

Hi,
I am in the process of having my son certified for special ed, but I have a general question of all of you with more experience than I have. What accommodations have been easy to obtain and implement that are truly helpful for your child? Particularly for impulsive behavior and interruptions, but also academic.

I also wonder if accommodations really address the problem or side step it so that the child never learns coping mechanisms. My son is 12 and in seventh grade. He hates the idea of accommodations so they have to be low key if present at all.
Thanks for your thoughts, Lisle

[eaccae]

I can't answer all of your questions because I am still fighting for a 504 so most of our accomodations are informal - we have had luck with some teachers implementing them and not such great luck with others.

The informal accomodations that have worked for DS are the common - sitting near the teacher - he has dysgraphia so typing a lot of his work - all of this has helped.

One of the accomodations I am trying to get is the teacher initialing his homework assignment sheet (that DS actually wrote the assignments down as this has NEVER happened to date) and then having a checklist with items like reminding him to check his backpack in the morning for his homework (as he often forgets to turn it in). He just finished 3rd grade - this is his last year before going to the 5/6 school where he will start switching classes. The thinking behind it is that the short term goal would require teacher prompting, etc. but the long term goal would be that he actually developed a routine or habit and by the end of the year would no longer need the prompting.

For these types of things - accomodations can be a helpful tool. As for the other accomodations - for example - DS is great in math - BUT he works at one speed - which means that he will get all of his answers correct but he will only finish half of the test in the amount of time alotted. Having an accomodation that he gets graded on the work completed instead of the whole is imperative - not having the accomodation - he would always be failing the tests but his speed wouldn't improve - so it isn't side stepping the problem. Same thing for the typing and the dysgraphia.

As for the impulsive behavior accomodations I'm afraid I don't know much. DS is HIGHLY impulsive/hyper/inattentive combined but he is on medication which controls this quite well. One day this year he spit the pill out and ended up getting sent home from school as he was found scaling the top of the bathroom stalls and then he colored both of his arms in red marker while the principal was on the phone with me. Luckily with his medication - none of these things are an issue.

Hopefully someone else will have some info on the behavior accomodations. It differes from school to teacher to grade level - I know at our school the accomodations are done very low key.

(Just from parents I know what kids are getting what - but in general most of the kids are completely unaware. DS doesn't even know that a boy who has been in his class 3 years in a row has ADD and is on medication and has a 504. So luckily so far it has been very low key).

[rosyred45]

Alright, when mom wakes up I'll give her a call. She teaches 7/8 grade science. And she's also on the school team that oversees 504's and such.......OK I'll give her an hour

I'm trying to think, but I do understand about the coping mechanisms. I was almost embarrassed to say that sending Mikey to the Principal everytime he got in trouble didn't make a difference. But that is what the VP brought up. Him loosing his playtime wouldn't do anything except make him that much more fidgety in class. He needs the here and now consequense of couseling at the time of the incident for him to understand his actions and the consequenses for them. Does that make sense? It does for me, so I hope so.

I'll eb calling mom here shortly.
Have a good day

[rosyred45]

OK, just talked to mom. She said that with the kids that go to study skills, the kids notice, but don't really say anything about it. I know that we never did. The kids around here are pretty good about that kind os stuff. Is that what he is worried about? Being teased or what ever?

She did say that she has all of the inclusion kids in one class, I think because they all need that little extra help, so an aide joins them. I'll double check about the last one, but I think because they are under the special ed. canopy, they have to have an extra aide there.

OK, mom said if I wanted to know anything more specific just ask, she was trying to think of different things, but since I was'nt specific enough, she wasn't sure. She however say that when giving a test, the teacher could make up 3 different test. Test A, B, and C. Two of the test would have exactly the same content, but different answers, and the last could be modified for the particular child(ren) in question. As long as the appropriate child(ren) got the version, the modified one could show the knowledge base pertaining to a subject, but in the way the child can get it out better.

Let me know if you want more detailed things
Kaiti

[Linda]

Oh I like the testing...A B AND C...all our kids learn differently....this way they are getting the knowledge.

[rosyred45]

That's what mom said. She did say that there are all kinds of computer programs out there to help modify or rearrange, but once the tests are done, boom, just whip em out.

Even on that concept, having the different tests, no one knows who got what test. I'm still going over a couple things here, but that one is the most prominent.

While looking around for special ed stuff, I came across this for an IEP. After reading down, I wasn't sure I'd put it here, EXCEPT it gives examples for modifications for an 8th grader.
www.nichcy.org/pubs/parent/pa12txt.htm#theiepdocument
Hope it helps

[lisle]

Kaiti:
You are such a sweetheart. I hadn't checked my post in a while but am dealing with the same things still for my son and I really appreciate your going out of your way for me like this. Yes, my son doesn't want to feel or look "different." He doesn't realize how odd his behavior makes him appear! He is very smart and doesn't want people to think he is dumb. I think he thinks so, unfortunately, because his grades are worse than his friends. I wish he could take a medicine, but the pdoc says it's out of the question with his sensitivity to meds. I like the test idea and the idea eaccae gave about not finishing all the work but counting what's finished. It won't work for my son unless they don't count stuff he forgets and skips. He rushes. I wish I knew what accommodations could be put in place to stop him from interrupting the class, usually with jokes.
He is very disruptive. I am so afraid that he will be suspended. It won't teach him what to do! He already feels bad enough about himself. Any ideas from your mom on teaching self-regulation to a kid with extreme difficulty seeing that he can't just wrench control of the classroom away from the teacher by constantly clowning around?
lisle

[rosyred45]

Do you follow a certain diet for your son? I know that Mikey is really off on days that he goes off diet, as per Feingold.

The impulsivity, arguing, whining, EVERYTHING is abotu 20times worse when he gets into something, or even if I am testing his reactions.

I don't think of it as going out of my way, I just want answers, and the question just happens to be yours ;DThat's all ....besides, the answers might help me when Mikey gets that age.

I haven't talked to mom yet today, but I'll be sure to ask her when I do talk with her. Take care
Kaiti

[finnmom]

Hi Lisle

I dont know if this is any help for you, but here it come´s: ds9 has had opportunity to listen music via headphone´s when doing something: help´s him to consentrate and continue the work. He has had opportunity to skip from one subject to an other if he get´s jammed on something and cant get on. He also has been able to move on more quiet location if his work really get´s jammed.

He is going to 3rd grade, different theacher, different school, so let´s see how it goes. The principal told me that all those could be proseeded in there too, but... it all depends so much of the theacher Keeping my finger´s grossed!

[lllex]

Hi Lisle,

I agree with Kaiti, you might want to seriously give the Feingold diet a try. If your son is sensitive to medicine he could also be sensitive to artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives.

Laura