Writing IEPs that Work for Students who are DeafHard of Hearing and Exhibit Multiple Disabilities

1
Writing IEPs that Work for Students who are
Deaf/Hard of Hearing and Exhibit Multiple
Disabilities

• GDEAF 2004
• Tuesday, July 20, 2004
• Melody Stoner, PhD Student
• Georgia State University

2
Who Am I? (Part 1 of 2)

• Teacher of high school students at AASD
• Special needs
• Language delayed
• Functional curriculum
• Vocational objectives
• Doctoral student at Georgia State University in
  Special Education
• Concentration in language development of students
  who are deaf/hard of hearing
• Former secondary English teacher in general
  education setting

3
Who Am I? (Part 2 of 2)

• Mother of a beautiful two year old daughter

4
Who Are You?
5
Why is this information important to you?

• As a teacher of the deaf, you will teach students
  who have additional disabilities
• Softer disabilities (i.e., learning
  disabilities) tend to remain unidentified in our
  population, while more obvious disabilities
  (i.e., cerebral palsy) are identified and managed
• Additional disorders have a synergistic effect
• Disabilities work together to compound effects of
  individual disabilities

6
Gallaudet Research InstituteRegional and
National Summary, 2002-2003Students who are
D/HH with identified additional disabilities
7
GRI Summary of the South RegionStudents who are
D/HH with identified additional disabilities
8
Gallaudet Research InstituteRegional and
National Summary, 2002-2003Functional
assessment of students who are D/HH (Part 1 of
3)
9
Gallaudet Research InstituteRegional and
National Summary, 2002-2003Functional
assessment of students who are D/HH (Part 2 of
3)
10
Gallaudet Research InstituteRegional and
National Summary, 2002-2003Functional
assessment of students who are D/HH (Part 3 of
3)
11
GRI Summary of the South RegionFunctional
assessment of students who are D/HH
12
What do all those numbers and charts mean?

• Recall why this is important to you
• Your students most likely have other
  disabilities, perhaps unidentified
• A functional assessment of your students will
  provide more information than a label will

13
Consider the following statistics (Part 1 of 6)

• 3 and 1.8 identified as low-vision or blind
• 13 difficulty with vision

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Statistics, continued(Part 2 of 6)

• 8.7 identified as having MR
• 35 difficulty with thinking/reasoning
• 58.8 difficulty with expressive communication
• 59.1 difficulty with receptive communication
• 29.9 difficulty with social interaction/classroom
  behavior
• 38.7 difficulty with maintaining attention

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Statistics, continued(Part 3 of 6)

• 3.5 identified as having CP
• 12 identified as having difficulty with hands,
  arms, or legs
• 10.3 identified as having difficulty with
  balance

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Statistics, continued(Part 4 of 6)

• 6.8 identified as having LD
• 35 difficulty with thinking/reasoning
• 58.8 difficulty with expressive communication
• 59.1 difficulty with receptive communication
• 38.7 difficulty with maintaining attention
• 29.9 difficulty with social interaction/classroom
  behavior

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Statistics, continued(Part 5 of 6)

• 6.5 identified as having ADD
• 38.7 difficulty maintaining attention
• 29.9 difficulty social interaction/classroom
  behavior

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Statistics, continued(Part 6 of 6)

• 1.7 identified as having ED
• 29.9 difficulty with social interaction/classroom
  behavior
• 35 difficulty with thinking/reasoning
• 58.8 difficulty expressive communication
• 59.1 difficulty receptive communication

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What do you think?

• Are these your students?
• They are mine
• They exhibit difficulties in these areas without
  always being identified
• What can you do?
• Observe, collect data, write a great PLOP, and
  meet their needs with a well-thought out,
  comprehensive IEP

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Case Studies2003-2004 School Year
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Antonio Alanis(Permission granted to use real
names of all students)

• 16 year old Hispanic male
• Attended school in Mexico without services
• Moved to the U.S. three years ago
• Began school in a self-contained classroom for
  students who were deaf within a large metro-area
  public school
• Moved to the Atlanta area two years ago
• Began attending AASD at age 14
• Placed in special needs classroom
• Limited English and ASL skills
• Primarily used gestures and home-based signs

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Antonio, continued

• Spanish spoken in the home
• Communicates with parents and siblings in the
  home and peers in community via gesture and
  limited writing
• Additional challenge faced by Antonio
• Suspected MID
• Result of limited language input in formative
  years or is this a true estimate of Antonios
  ability?
• Placed in language-delayed classroom for
  2004-2005 school year
• Emphasis on concept development and
  language/communication skills

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What is the functional impact of Antonios
challenges in the classroom? (Part 1 of 3)
(Suspected MoID)

• Easily distracted and needs structure in
  instruction and activity
• Needs cues for relevant information
• Has a limited concept of theme
• Needs instruction in organization of new
  information within a thematic structure
• Easily forgets new information
• Needs repetition and organizational structure
• Difficulty generalizing
• Needs multiple repetitions of new information in
  various settings

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What is the functional impact of Antonios
challenges in the classroom? (Part 2 of 3)
(Suspected MoID)

• Poor question comprehension/response
• Needs cue to attend to question and type of
  response required
• Difficulty taking turns
• Needs cue to wait for others acknowledgement
  before speaking
• Difficulty admitting role of participation in
  argument with peer
• Needs assistance reviewing issue and effects of
  his actions
• Uncomfortable communicating with unfamiliar
  others in community
• Needs assistance advocating for self

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What is the functional impact of Antonios
challenges in the classroom? (Part 3 of 3)
(Suspected MoID)

• Unfamiliar with community services (i.e., grocery
  store, hospital)
• Needs multiple CBI trips with prior instruction
  and follow-up to clarify theme of specified
  community service
• Authoritative in classroom, but follower in
  community
• Needs specific support moving from being a
  follower to being a leader with teacher removing
  supports as he develops
• Little sense of self-direction for future and
  limited concept of what he could be
• Needs vocational instruction with community trips
  to investigate options

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Sheama Atteya

• 17 year old Yemeni female
• Attended schools in Kansas and Colorado
• School for the deaf
• Self-contained classroom for the deaf within a
  larger public school
• Moved to Atlanta area around five years ago
• Began attending AASD
• Placed in special needs classroom
• Native language in the home is Yemeni

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Sheama, continued

• Communicates with mother using some signs and
  English print
• Communicates with siblings and father using
  gestures
• Additional challenges faced by Sheama
• Low-Vision
• MoID
• Heart disorder
• Placed in special needs classroom for 2004-2005
  school year
• Emphasis on vocational training and
  language/concept expansion

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What is the functional impact of Sheamas
challenges in the classroom? (Part 1 of 6)
(Low-Vision)

• Difficulty determining depth and distance
• Difficulty scanning and matching
• Needs direct physical hand-over-hand instruction
• Needs instruction in types of designs and colors
  that match and dont clash as well as what fits
  and doesnt fit
• Limited spontaneous learning from immediate
  visual environment
• Needs to be physically cued that something in the
  environment is important to her
• Limited direct eye contact and seemingly
  uncontrollable eye movements
• Appears not to be paying attention nor care if
  communication partner is attending to her
• Needs instruction in critical nature of eye
  contact in effective communication within
  functional communication curriculum

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What is the functional impact of Sheamas
challenges in the classroom? (Part 2 of 6)
(Low-Vision, continued)

• Easily tired and needs low lights on difficult
  days
• Needs frequent breaks when doing text-intensive
  work
• Needs reminders to make written work neater
• Needs to be seated close to the board
• Needs a minimum of visual distractions
• Doesnt always see others, so assumes they cant
  see her
• Needs to be reminded that others are present and
  can see her actions/words
• Doesnt always follow group conversations
  conversation may be quick and she misses critical
  information
• Needs to be cued as to who is speaking and to
  attend to that person
• Teacher also needs to summarize conversations for
  her

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What is the functional impact of Sheamas
challenges in the classroom? (Part 3 of 6) (MoID)

• Difficulty generalizing
• Needs multiple practice opportunities in a
  variety of settings
• Simple concepts must be taught with multiple
  opportunities for practice
• May need physical hand-over-hand instruction,
  gradually reducing to gentle touches to guide
• Poor mental and physical organization, seems to
  miss half of information presented
• Needs structured environment as well as
  instruction in how to structure new concepts
• Needs lots of repetition in short chunks
• Needs to be cued as to what is critical in the
  message
• Needs to be cued as to who is speaking and to
  attend to that person, and a cue for the next
  speaker

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What is the functional impact of Sheamas
challenges in the classroom? (Part 4 of 6) (MoID,
continued)

• Limited understanding of importance of personal
  hygiene
• Needs a structured system for personal hygiene
• Needs instruction in taking the point of view of
  another person
• Little concept of the whole
• Needs instruction in thematic constructions
• Needs instruction in how to organize new
  information into the overall theme
• Needs instruction as to ways different themes can
  be interrelated
• Has difficulty carrying on a conversation of more
  than two or three exchanges as well as limited
  understanding of turn taking and basic
  conversational etiquette
• Needs more instruction in topic and relevant
  vocabulary for various topics
• Needs instruction in higher order thinking skills

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What is the functional impact of Sheamas
challenges in the classroom? (Part 5 of 6) (MoID,
continued)

• Poor question comprehension/response
• Needs cue to attend to question and type of
  response required
• Uncomfortable communicating with unfamiliar
  others in community
• Needs assistance advocating for self
• Little sense of self-direction for future and
  limited concept of what he could be
• Needs vocational instruction with community trips
  to investigate options

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What is the functional impact of Sheamas
challenges in the classroom? (Part 6 of 6) (Heart
Disorder)

• Chest pain may cause fear
• Teacher needs to reassure
• Consult with physician to determine what degree
  of chest pain is life threatening
• May manifest self as indigestion
• Collaborate with nurse to determine how to treat
  various episodes
• May become light-headed and faint
• Collaborate with nurse to determine best response
• Becomes tired easily
• Have built-in break times
• May malinger
• Need to consult with nurse to determine when pain
  is real and serious
• Always treat an event as real with experience,
  you will learn the characteristics of a real
  event

34
Eric McGruder

• 15 year old African-American male
• Began school in Macon, GA with interpreter
• Transferred to AASD three or four years ago
• Placed in special needs classroom
• English language used at home

35
Eric, continued

• Communicates with parents and siblings in the
  home and peers in community via some English
  signs and limited writing
• Additional challenge faced by Eric
• MID
• Placed in special needs classroom for 2004-2005
  school year
• Emphasis on vocational training and
  language/concept expansion

36
What is the functional impact of Erics
challenges in the classroom? (Part 1 of 2) (MoID)

• Has a limited concept of theme
• Needs instruction in organization of new
  information within a thematic structure
• Easily forgets new information
• Needs repetition and organizational structure
• Difficulty generalizing
• Needs multiple repetitions of new information in
  various settings
• Redirect attention
• Needs to be cued as to what is relevant

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What is the functional impact of Erics
challenges in the classroom? (Part 2 of 2)
(MoID, continued)

• Poor question comprehension/response
• Needs cue to attend to question and type of
  response required
• Uncomfortable communicating with unfamiliar
  others in community
• Needs assistance advocating for self
• Little sense of self-direction for future and
  limited concept of what he could be
• Needs vocational instruction with community trips
  to investigate options

38
John Albert Smith

• 18 year old white male
• Began attending AASD at age 3
• English language used at home
• Communicates with parents and siblings in the
  home and peers in community via gestures and some
  English-based signs

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John Albert, continued

• Additional challenges faced by John Albert
• MoID
• Cerebral palsy
• Seizures
• Placed in special needs classroom for 2004-2005
  school year
• Emphasis on vocational training and
  language/concept expansion

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What is the functional impact of John Alberts
challenges in the classroom? (Part 1 of 4) (MoID)

• Has a limited concept of theme
• Needs instruction in organization of new
  information within a thematic structure
• Easily forgets new information
• Needs repetition and organizational structure
• Difficulty generalizing
• Needs multiple repetitions of new information in
  various settings
• Difficulty maintaining attention and rehearsing
  new information
• Needs to be cued as to what is relevant
• Poor mental and physical organization, seems to
  miss half of information presented
• Needs structured environment as well as
  instruction in how to structure new concepts
• Needs lots of repetition in short chunks
• Needs to be cued as to what is critical in the
  message
• Needs to be cued as to who is speaking and to
  attend to that person, and a cue for the next
  speaker

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What is the functional impact of John Alberts
challenges in the classroom? (Part 2 of 4)
(MoID, continued)

• Little concept of the whole
• Needs instruction in thematic constructions
• Needs instruction in how to organize new
  information into the overall theme
• Needs instruction as to ways different themes can
  be interrelated
• Has difficulty carrying on a conversation of more
  than two or three exchanges as well as limited
  understanding of turn taking and basic
  conversational etiquette
• Needs more instruction in topic and relevant
  vocabulary for various topics
• Needs instruction in higher order thinking skills
• Poor question comprehension/response
• Needs cue to attend to question and type of
  response required

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What is the functional impact of John Alberts
challenges in the classroom? (Part 3 of 4)
(Cerebral palsy)

• Difficulty using left hand
• Needs assistance in communicating efficiently and
  effectively via writing and signing
• Sometimes uses a communication board
• Needs additional time to complete assignments,
  often work with a partner/group or less work
  requiring use of hand
• Often tired
• Needs frequent scheduled breaks

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What is the functional impact of John Alberts
challenges in the classroom? (Part 4 of 4)
(Seizures)

• When loses consciousness, will be exhausted and
  confused
• Be ready to provide support and rest
• If a lesser seizure, may seem to be daydreaming
  and will miss information
• Need to pair with another student to rein back in
• May need to guide student away from hazards in
  some seizures
• Need to know what types of seizures are possible
  so can document
• Description of seizure
• Time of day
• Length of seizure
• Be aware of different protocols in place to
  address different types of seizures when they
  occur
• Sometimes there is no treatment if there is no
  injury

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How should you assess a student for the purpose
of developing a good PLOP? (Part 1 of 2)

• What are your ideas? What kind of information do
  you think you should gather on your students?
• How should you gather information on the student?
• Multiple opportunities
• Formal and informal
• Where should you gather information on the
  student?
• Multiple locations
• Multiple situations

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How should you assess a student for the purpose
of developing a good PLOP? (Part 2 of 2)

• How should you record/present the information on
  the student?
• Videotapes
• CD-Roms
• Pictures
• Photocopies of written work
• Bar graphs and line graphs for demonstrating
  improvement over time
• Portfolios to show an accumulation of work
• Standard testing material record keeping forms
• Modify as necessary to fit your needs, but make
  note of this

46
Writing

• Multiple samples in a variety of settings
• Formal and informal classroom assignments and
  interactions
• With peers, parents, and larger community outside
  the classroom
• If working, with co-workers on the job site
• Multiple genres in a variety of settings
• Narrative
• Expository
• Persuasive
• Functional (i.e., completing forms)
• Topic given versus no topic given
• Picture support versus no picture support
• Lots of guidance, some guidance, minimal
  guidance, or no guidance at all
• Multiple raters

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Reading

• Word recognition in isolation
• Graded vocabulary lists
• Functional vocabulary lists
• Word recognition in context
• Comprehension
• Multiple texts, multiple genres, multiple tests
• Fiction and non-fiction
• Picture support and no picture support
• Background knowledge versus no background
  knowledge
• Practice versus no practice
• You will be able to provide a grade level range
  for your student, depending upon the context and
  text, rather than a static grade level

48
Listening

• Multiple texts, multiple genres, multiple tests
• Students are generally able to perform at a
  higher level in listening than in reading
• You will be able to provide a grade level range
  for your student, depending upon the context and
  text, rather than a static grade level

49
Social/Emotional/Behavioral Skills

• Observe in formal and informal interactions with
  a variety of partners and groups
• Determine where breakdowns in communication are
  and establish situations to support effective
  communication
• Determine what social skills are lacking and pick
  the most critical
• Theyre not all critical
• Set up situations to teach formally, always look
  for the teachable moment, people watch and
  discuss, and model yourself

50
Mathematical Calculation and Reasoning

• Multiple formal grade level assessments
• Lots of assistance
• Some assistance
• Minimal assistance
• No assistance
• Informal assessments of problem-solving
  strategies
• Provide opportunities to use math reasoning in
  real-life situations independently and with
  assistance

51
Communicative Competency

• Collect data on multiple occasions in multiple
  situations with multiple communication partners
• Consider if academic or casual
• Highest level of language will be seen at play
• You will be pleasantly surprised and amazed if
  you observe them with their friends at lunch
• How many different ways do they attempt to get
  their message across
• Are they accessing all available options
• Provide opportunities to learn about all options
  that would be successful for the student
• ASL to SEE continuum
• Communication boards
• Drawing
• Gesturing
• Writing
• Eye gaze/blink
• Head nod

52
ASL Skill Competency

• Will not be standardized
• Provides good information for the parent and
  teacher for future instruction
• For example
• Role shift
• Negation
• Pronominalization
• Classifiers

53
Vocational Skills

• Only if age-appropriate
• Especially if on functional curriculum, needs
  experience in a variety of job settings
• Observe to determine weaknesses
• It is rarely the job itself that presents a
  problem
• It is more often the lack of communication, lack
  of initiative, and lack of social skills that
  cause an employee who is deaf to lose a job
• Set up realistic problem-solving situations
• Communication with others
• Collaboration/cooperation with others
• Speed and care with which work is completed
• Work ethic
• Following rules of the job site
• Following directions
• Asking for assistance in a timely manner of the
  right person

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How do you write a PLOP with useful information
in it?

• There should be a direct relationship between the
  PLOP and the objectives selected for the next
  years IEP.
• In other words, the PLOP and IEP should address
  the students weaknesses.
• What are the components of a good PLOP?
• As age appropriate
• Reading
• Writing
• Listening
• Math
• Social/emotional
• Communication
• ASL
• Vocation

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Here are some examples of well-written PLOPs.

• Look at Antonios PLOP.
• What are his weaknesses?
• Look at Sheamas PLOP.
• What are her weaknesses?
• Look at Erics PLOP.
• What are his weaknesses?
• Look at John Alberts PLOP.
• What are his weaknesses?
• Hold on to the weaknesses you identified and we
  will see if the IEP addressed them later.

56
How do you write an IEP with useful information
in it? (Part 1 of 5)

• Where do you get your objectives?
• Georgia Performance Standards (GPS)
• Functional curricula
• Both
• Depends on the needs of the student
• How do you clarify your objectives for next
  years teacher to teach what you intended?
• Write all over the IEP
• Cross out what you dont want and add in what you
  want
• Collaborate if you are in the same school, for
  you are the expert on that child

57
How do you write an IEP with useful information
in it? (Part 2 of 5)

• What are the areas in which you should have
  objectives?
• Communication
• Reading
• Writing
• Math
• Social/Emotional/Behavioral
• Vocational
• How many objectives are too many? Too few?
• Is there a magic number?

58
How do you write an IEP with useful information
in it? (Part 3 of 5)

• You have been with the students for a year and
  know what they are capable of learning in a
  school year
• Look at the current years IEP
• What type of concepts were covered
• How expansive were the concepts covered
• How did the student perform this year
• What are the few critical things the student
  should learn
• Carefully pick the most critical objectives in
  this manner

59
How do you write an IEP with useful information
in it? (Part 4 of 5)

• It is better to have too few objectives than too
  many
• It is better for the student to have a good
  command of a few critical things than to drown in
  too many things
• It is much easier to add more objectives to the
  IEP than it is to subtract the following school
  year

60
How do you write an IEP with useful information
in it? (Part 5 of 5)

• Now were ready to match up the students PLOPs
  with their IEPs.
• Three of you will each take a student and
  determine if the weaknesses identified in the
  PLOPs were addressed in the IEP for the following
  school year.
• You have two or three minutes and be ready to
  share.

61
How do you work off of the Georgia Performance
Standards (GPS), formerly known as the QCC?

• How does a team decide when a student is not a
  candidate for GPS?
• Is student unable to attain average performance
  within GPS with allowable and feasible
  modifications provided by IDEA?
• What documentation does the team use to make this
  decision?
• Formal and informal testing results
• Multiple observations by multiple observers from
  various backgrounds
• Student and parent interviews
• Interviews with current and former teachers
• Where do your objectives come from if the
  student is not following the GPS?
• Functional curricula

62
Here are some examples of functional curricula

• Checklist of Adaptive Living Skills (CALS)
  transfers to objectives from Adaptive Living
  Curriculum
• Examples being passed around now
• Can get objective ideas from the Brigance
  Inventories
• Examples being passed around now
• Can use All My Lifes A Circle to teach social
  skills
• See example being passed around now

63
What should happen during the IEP meeting?

• What should you talk to the parents about?
• What are parental concerns for near and later
  future?
• What are parents willing to do at home to support
  life-long learning?
• What do parents need assistance with?
• What do parents reasonably want to see on the
  IEP?
• What type of vocabulary level and language should
  you use with the parents?
• Feel them out and listen to them, you will learn
  what is effective for each set of parents
• Should you be clear about the true outlook for
  the student?
• Yes, but provide positive options several years
  in advance of graduation date

64
What are your questions and comments?
65
Feel free to contact me at any time

• melodystoner_at_hotmail.com
• (home)
• mstoner_at_doe.k12.ga.us
• (work, August-May)
• Please e-mail me with any questions, concerns,
  comments, suggestions, and successes!

66
Assignment? Yes, assignment.

• Make one goal for the 2004-2005 school year based
  upon this workshop and support each other in
  achieving this goal by contacting and replying to
  each other at least once a month via e-mail. Copy
  me to each of these e-mails.

67
Reference

• Gallaudet Research Institute. (December 2003).
  Regional and national summary report of data
  from the 2002- 2003 annual survey of deaf and
  hard of hearing children and youth. Washington,
  DC GRI, Gallaudet University.