If you’d like to help children achieve their potential, in easy, practical ways:
Monday, 9/19/2011,listen to Dr. Stephen M. Lange. Learn how to help your child overcome sleep problems, problems that can hurt him socially, emotionally, and academically. Click: http://specialneedstalkradio.com/maximizing-your-childs-potential.
FREE CONFERENCE CALL ON
GETTING AND KEEPING SPECIAL EDUCATION SERVICES IN TOUGH ECONOMIC TIMES: PART II
MICHAEL INZELBUCH, ESQ., SPECIAL EDUCATION AND BOARD OF EDUCATION ATTORNEY
When: Thursday May 26, 2011 @ 9 pm EST
Phone number: Call (661) 673-8600
Use Access Code: 899615# (remember the #)
Length: Approximately 40 minutes
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A Note on Reading Disabilities: Beating the Odds (www.reading2008.com)
From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Here’s why your child’s future is in immediate jeopardy, and why special education and all educational rights may become hollow, unfulfilled promises that hurt rather than help children. In other words, your child may well be hurt by the political and ideological philosophy of “let’s fire teachers and librarians, demonize and demoralize the remaining ones, put children in large classes, cut services, and sacrifice ‘kids who don’t count’ so we can give tax cuts to the richest people in the country, the people who fund our election campaigns (Republican and Democrat).”
From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
To develop IEP goals (and, in some states and situations, objectives) that are meaningful, measurable, and manageable, requires a preliminary step that too many IEP Teams rush though: Writing a quality Present Levels section (“present levels of academic achievement and functional performance”) of the IEP. This section forms the basis and justification for all goals and objectives. In turn, the goals and objectives form the basis for all services and placements.
From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Experts who have long and assiduously studied their field, who know far more than you about their field, deserve your attention and respect, especially when they’re talking about your child. When they’re speaking, you should listen and, if necessary, ask for clarification to fully understand what they’re saying. But they don’t deserve your complete trust and obedience—they can be wrong. This includes us. Like all experts, we have trouble predicting the future; we’ve made mistakes.
Below are the mistakes a few other well-known experts have made:
From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Stephen M. Lange, Ph.D., Psychologist
Pine Ridge, SD
Perhaps you had this experience: You approached your child’s school about your kindergarten age child, expressing concern that he or she may have a learning disability. While sympathetic, your school’s psychologist, reading specialist, or other diagnostic expert responded that learning disabilities cannot be diagnosed until a child has been unable to succeed academically despite conscientious instruction. Several years later, you attended a meeting with your school’s multi-disciplinary team who explained that your child indeed does have a learning disability. Your emotions felt chaotic – a mixture of relief, worry, sorrow – and perhaps frustration or even anger that years had passed since you recognized that your child’s development was not typical, but rather different from his peers in subtle yet important ways.
From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Parents often ask, “Is my child’s teacher competent?” Unfortunately, science has yet to produce an errorless formula for answering this question. And it’s an important one that test scores and the new rage, “value added equations,” can’t answer.
Fortunately, there are legitimate ways to begin assessing the competence of your child’s teacher. One way is to observe how she presents lessons to your child’s class. This can tell you a lot, but not everything, about the quality of her instruction.
From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
In our last post, we described six suggestions for personalizing homework so that children, parents, and teachers benefit. In this post, we offer three more. What’s different about these is that they ask parents to take an active role. But first, to proivde perspective to new readers, we begin with the opening of our last post.
Our Last Post
From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
In our last post, we described the emotional devastation that unsuitable homework assignments can cause children with learning disabilities. For new readers, we present the opening of our last post. For all readers, we then present 6 more suggestions for personalizing homework so that children, parents, and teachers benefit.
Our Last Post
From Reading & Other Learning Disabilities
A Blog by Dr. Gary G. Brannigan and Dr. Howard Margolis
Justifiably, many parents complain that school personnel make them defensive, especially at program planning meetings, such as Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. Some school personnel make similar complaints about parents. No matter who’s at fault, defensiveness can destroy the possibility of developing programs that meet children’s needs. It stymies progress by fostering misunderstanding, distrust, secrecy, resentment, and contempt. Cooperation is one of its first victims.
