Hand Flapping when Excited That is not Autism Let’s just get this out there–everybody, and I mean EVERYBODY stims. Yes, we all do it. But what it looks like for each person is different. Hand flapping is just one type of stim behavior. But since everybody stims, not every stim behavior is autism or sensory…
IEP Present Levels Ask almost any Special Education Advocate, and they’ll tell you that Present Levels is the most important section of the IEP. Present Levels has several corresponding Special Education Acronyms, depending on what your school or state uses. PL Present Levels PLOP Present Levels of Performance PLP Present Levels of Performance PLAAFP Present…
504 Plan vs IEP I have lots of friends who are teachers. One of the many reasons that I am such a huge teacher advocate is because of the stories I hear from them. They do want to help you and your child. But often cannot risk their jobs. In particular, when it comes to…
504 Plan vs IEP Quite often, parents in our Facebook group will ask what is the difference between an IEP and a 504? Some schools will try to push the family toward a 504 plan instead of an IEP, some will even suggest that the student get both an IEP and a 504. So what…
504 Plan ADHD It is estimated that 5-12% of all American kids have some type of ADHD. If you found this Accommodations Guide, chances are you have a child or student with ADHD. So I’m not going to go into the different types of ADHD and all that. This is going to focus on understanding…
Do IEP Teams have to honor Doctors’ Notes? I won’t ever forget the interaction I had with one of Kevin’s neurologists. We had a regular appointment/checkup. And he was a baby, like 2 years old. We knew he was autistic and I wanted him in an ABA program. The neurologist said to me, “Just tell…
Teacher Shortages I genuinely cannot believe that this story is not getting more press coverage. I just happened upon it while doing research for another project. According to my state’s Dept of Ed website, in 2010, the state was certifying about 17,000 teachers each year. For the 2016/17 school year, that number has plummeted to…
Inference Definition for Kids “Mommy, is that Lady Gaga?” When my youngest was a toddler, he LOVED Lady Gaga. I have no idea why or where it came from, but he did. He would ask me to put videos of her on my computer. So, when we were watching the Super Bowl one year, the…
Virtual IEP Meetings In the first quarter of 2020, we had no idea how much our lives were going to change. Not just for the next couple of years, but forever in some instances. I mean, will you ever eat birthday cake that someone blew on? Eeeuwww, I won’t. Restaurants got better at takeout and…