Some SpED questions I have never gotten a straight answer on...

1) I have SpEd kids who are missing fundamental information and skills. I understand they have cognitive difficulty, but I'll give instruction and the issue isn't the disability but the lack education.

How responsible am I to fill in those gaps? I'm responsible for the contract/IEP, but the issue I see most is one of literacy.

2) How much responsibility do we hand over for their own learning? Many IEPs are very vague as to what to accommodate or modify. One in particular is use of notecard on a test. So I have 16 year olds at the time of the test who are angry I didn't tell them to make a notecard.

This is probably the worst way to say it, but when do we start pooping the teet out their mouth? I had a kid who had a 'preferential seating' accommodation that was added in kinder. But by Junior year, should we encourage the skill of autonomy. Practice being away from the teacher?

3) I have SpEd kids who outperform regular ed kids. So what am I to actually accommodate? The kid's pulling a C but needs help pulling an A? I work with all of my students, but if a kid has a bad hip, he's not going to place 1st in my competition. The expectation is to push all students, but how much for SpEd?

4) it seems like many cognitive issues have to do with bad conditioning. I see kids who need prompting like every 3 minutes. but if we were to somehow put in their face a reminder and a reward, they'd do great.

They put a non-grad track senior in my history class just to see what he could do. There was no way he was going to make it. But apparently the kid was a genius when it came to car engines. He could take them apart and put them back together (which you could expect with repetition and reward), but he could troubleshoot. He could predict and provide reasoning and be correct. That is some higher level cognitive skills. I knew enough about engines to converse with him. But he was at a 3rd grade level.

So either he memorized every scenario possible with a car or this kid could function at a high cognitive level, but just with a specialty.

5) SpEd kids being teenagers. If you treat teens different they call it being unfair. If you reason why they should act different, they'll agree, but slip right back into the same behavior. This is expected because of their lack of cognitive ability and experience.

But how do I accommodate a SpEd kid who is a teen and has an executive function issue. I can sit down and explain they have X issue. But that issue is going to be compounded by errant teen behaviors. Where do I come in? They're at a greater disadvantage than their peers but they act like their peers. Which means they can't act like their peers. We talk about inclusion, but they have to self-select out of it to be successful. I have SpEd kids who do this. Rise above their peer group and do very well, so it's not impossible.

It's summer, and I'd really like to be pointed in a direction where I can get these issues addressed.

Submitted June 23, 2017 at 02:11PM by anonoman925 http://ift.tt/2szOnFr