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The ABC’s of Special Education

The beginning of a new school year brings an alphabet of abbreviations for parents of children who have special needs. If this is the very first school year that your child has been connected with a special education program, things can get a little confusing. Here is a quick list to help you understand what all the abbreviations mean. Special education teachers, and the paraeducators that work with them, tend to shorten many of the terms that are used in “Special Ed”. This is because they use them so often, that it it becomes easier to put these terms into … Continue reading →

Getting Your Special Needs Child the Best Education

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It is time to go back to school. You want your child to have the best year yet and to learn and grow. Perhaps your child needs more than pens and paper to get through the year. You’ve heard of plans to help children with special needs succeed in school but perhaps you thought they were only for kids with learning disabilities. The truth is, if your child has a chronic condition that can affect their performance and attendance at school, he or she can qualify for one of the two plans. First there are individualized education plans (IEPs), legal … Continue reading →

Children with Speech or Language Impairment

Using our voices to speak, and communicating with others is a vital part of being a human being. A child who struggles with speaking needs special assistance to improve her quality of life. As one of the thirteen recognized disabilities, Speech or Language Impairment in children is a condition qualifying for special education services. What Constitutes a Speech or Language Impairment? The child may stutter or have problems with word articulation. He might have a lisp, or voice impairment. Typically a child with any level of hearing loss will have difficulty with speech. A child who has selective mutism (refuses … Continue reading →

Mental Retardation – Criteria and Lingering Questions

I must admit, I hesitated to write this blog. Experience has shown that some parents are extremely sensitive to the use of the term “mental retardation” when describing their children. I absolutely understand this. There can be very negative connotations with those two words, especially when neuro-typical kids use “retard” as a playground slur. I considered calling the blog “Cognitive Disabilities” or “Cognitive Delays,” but all the current literature I ran across (as recent as 2006) still use “mental retardation” (MR) as the diagnostic term to describe intellectual ability that is significantly below average. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of … Continue reading →

If Your Child is Diagnosed with a Hearing Loss

What will happen if my child has a diagnosed hearing loss? Your child will meet regularly with a pediatric audiologist and may have repeated tests to get a very accurate understanding of the level of deficiency. Then, the most likely course of treatment is that your child will receive hearing aids in either one or both ears. Hearing aids come in a variety of styles and can be worn in different ways, inside or outside the body, depending on the age of your child and tolerance to wearing them. It also depends on your child’s level of hearing loss and … Continue reading →

What Qualifies as a Disability?

According to IDEA (The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004), there are thirteen recognized areas of disability. When your child has an assessment by a team of professionals, he or she will be eligible for special education services if he falls into one of the following categories: 1. Autism 2. Deaf-Blindness 3. Deafness 4. Emotional Disturbance 5. Hearing Impairment 6. Mental Retardation 7. Multiple Disabilities 8. Orthopedic Impairment 9. Other Health Impairment (ADD/ADHD) 10. Specific Learning Disability 11. Traumatic Brain Injury 12. Visual Impairment Including Blindness 13. Speech or Language Impairment I will discuss these areas of disability … Continue reading →