Gifted Issues Discussion homepage Forums Twice Exceptional Your favorite accommodations?

I know a lot of our kids have IEPs or 504s or at least some sort of system in place to help them stay on track if they're in a traditional school setting.

As we have a MET team meeting coming up (again), I have another opportunity to review my DS12's IEP and I'm wondering if you can share your favorite school/classroom accommodations.

My son has a lot of issues with executive function (specifically: organization, prioritization, memory, auditory processing, and focusing) and I'd like some good accommodations in place to help with basic school functions, expectations, and tasks.

So far, we have duplicate textbooks, written notes, posted homework assignments, consistent communication with teachers, permission for a scribe, peer note sharing, preferential seating, separate test-taking, extra time, and assignment limitation consideration.

Those are all great, and I hope they work (they just started this past quarter and seem to be helping), but if there's anything we're missing, I'd like to write it in sooner rather than later!

D14 gets each math problem on her tests on a separate page. She has similar executive functioning issues (suspected non-verbal learning disability, still getting some testing done). This accomommodation is also available on the SAT.

In regard to assistive technology, I think an Alphasmart or laptop would be great, except that Son still hates typing and despite our efforts in this area, he still reverts to the "hunt & peck" method. I think that until he gets that under his belt in a more second-nature fashion, it would be more of a distraction than anything else.

The only other thing I can think of AT-wise is a recorder, but again, in Son's case, I think this would serve as more of a distraction than anything else. He's never been one that "fidgeting accommodations" has worked with. He tends to want to show off to the other kids that he has something different...whether it be a pipe cleaner the teacher gave him to fidget with under the desk or a rubberband. He's just bad about that.

I like the idea of using the SPED resource room (or whatever) as a check point for his organization, but I'm a little worried about the VERY scattered SPED teacher. I swear, her ADD symptoms are worse than Son's! I don't think it would be worthwhile for him to go there for her help. I'd like to have help with his organization, but his teachers are already so overwhelmed, I feel like they'd resent one more thing this intrusive on their time, and I really want to keep them on our side.
I'm definitely filing this one away for a later date (as with the AT).

intparent: I'm wondering exactly what you mean by the problems being on a separate page?

Right now, Son's math teacher creates an entirely different, shorter version of her tests for Son and puts each question on an index card. When he finishes a problem, he takes that card to her and gets a new one. She came up with this system herself, and he got his first "B" of the year on a test last week with this new system! I was pretty impressed with her initiative.

I like the idea of no deductions for spelling, as that's HUGE with Son and I know it affects his Language Arts grade. I'm not sure what a "skills section" is or what "out or the box responses" is, but I'd like more information!

As for the IEP envy, I know how lucky we are. I absolutely LOVE his GT teachers and am SO glad we pushed to make the district keep him in the self-contained GT program, when their inclination was to push him out and into exclusively regular ed with pull-out SPED services once his special needs became apparent this year. It was a struggle to make them see that we had to address his GT issues in addition to his special needs and that we needed to give Son a chance to perform with appropriate accommodations to see if he could get his FAPE that way.

I'm so grateful for all the help I've gotten from people like all of you here, because without your input, I'd never even have known that accommodations and IEPs and dysgraphia existed. I've learned so much and I feel like there's finally a lifeboat in sight after years of being adrift in an ocean of worry with Son.

D's Algebra II/Trig teacher noticed that D was turning in her homework (when she can find it -- sigh...) with one problem per page in the notebook. She thought that D might be having trouble on tests because of the clutter on the page of a lot of problems, and created special tests for a couple of chapters where she put one math problem at the top of each page. So on a 10 problem test, D gets 10 pages with a problem at the top of each. Her math grades when up about a full grade on tests once this was done. Shortly after that we started discussing the possibility of a non-verbal learning disability (NVLD) with the school psychologist and study skills specialist, and one of them said they had seen this accomodation for NVLDs in the past. And that the CollegeBoard will offer this accomodation on the SAT (like all SAT accomodations, though, we need to have recent test results backing up the diagnosis AND the student needs to have been using the accomodation in the classroom).

eema- Ah, the skills session sounds fantastic. I think such an animal IS offered at my son's middle school through the SPED services, but unfortunately, that's one of the things we chose to forego because it didn't fit with the self-contained GT program (they're on a different schedule and it would've disrupted his classroom structure too much to pull him out in the middle of a block/period to go to the resource room).

I LOVE the out of the box accommodation. That's an awesome idea because my son sounds much like yours with the "quirky responses." See my "quark" story under the "you know you have a 2e child when...." section and you'll agree. LOL. It's very in line with your C4 explosives story.

intparent: Ohhh, okay. I get the math test bit now. It sounds like the current solution we have in place sort of resolves that problem in a similar way. Your story does make me wonder though, about the "clutter" on the page. I guess I can see why that could be overwhelming to these kids.

A friend's middle school son gets all his homework assignments for the week the Friday before they're due, so he can set up a schedule for the following week of when to do the work and when to turn it in. That was as opposed to extra time to hand things in late without penalty, which was the original suggestion by the case manager. The former teaches him to organize, whereas the latter is more of an after-the-fact bandaid.

Another option for visual clutter is to teach him to use a blank paper to cover part of the page.
I don't know if anyone here has seen a Harcourt & Co math book, but...ye gods! My head explodes when I look at it.