Group items tagged

English Learner (EL) and English Language Learner (ELL) These two terms essentially mean the same thing, and they are often used interchangeably.

Additional terms that have been used to refer to ELLs include limited English proficient (LEP), English as a second language (ESL), and language minority students.

Emergent Bilinguals This term promotes the most positive view of English learners by acknowledging their proficiency in another language as a strength, rather than just considering them people who need to learn English or focusing on their limits.

Response to intervention (RTI) is a framework that many schools use to help students who are struggling with academics.

A multi-tier system of supports (MTSS) is more comprehensive. It may include the three levels of RTI.

Understanding how your school uses RTI or MTSS can help you advocate for your child.

The definition of visual impairment is “a decrease in the ability to see to a certain degree that causes problems not fixable by usual means, such as glasses.” Blindness is “the state of being unable to see due to injury, disease or genetic condition.”

Partially sighted means a person has partial vision, either in one or both eyes.

Low vision refers to a severe visual impairment in which visual acuity is 20/70 or poorer in the better-seeing eye and cannot improve with glasses or contacts.

When a child has been identified as gifted and talented, this means that they have a greater potential for learning in at least one subject. GT kids can be exceedingly creative or intensely analytical. They can be socially mature or delayed, they can be introverts or extroverts, goofballs or unusually serious. In other words, you can’t stuff them into a single easy to categorize box.

Gifted and Talented vs Advanced Placement

They need more time to think and explore, not more time doing homework and yet some schools work on the false impression that GT simply means ‘academic superstar’ and pile on the AP classes and maintaining this schedule is expected in order to keep your ‘gifted’ qualification.

A Community Assessment, also called a “Community Needs Assessment,” is a process of collecting, analyzing and reporting information about the needs in a community as well as its stengths and assets. The purpose is to identify unmet community needs and plan ways to meet them.

A community assessment should be driven by community leaders and organizations, and actively involve community residents.

An assessment also builds skills around research, leadership, collaboration, and community involvement.

IEPs are developed by a group of professionals at school. One member of this IEP team typically acts as a case manager and oversees the IEP. You’re part of your child’s IEP team, too. That means you’ll be involved in the process as the IEP is made. The IEP team will use the results of your child’s evaluation testing to design the plan. The scores show the specific areas your child struggles with. Having that information allows the IEP team to provide the individualized instruction and supports your child needs.

Here are some of the things the IEP will include: Your child’s present level of performance in school (PLOP) Individualized instruction and related services , such as occupational therapySupports like accommodations and

Your role in creating your child’s IEP doesn’t stop once the plan is done. In fact, it’s very important that you go over the IEP carefully and make sure it has everything it should have, and that you agree with what the school has proposed.

A public board of education or other public authority within a state that maintains administrative control of public elementary or secondary schools in a city, county, township, school district, or other political subdivision of a state.

School districts and county offices of education are both LEAs.

Under the Local Control Funding Formula, charter schools are increasingly treated as LEAs.

ADD is the term commonly used to describe symptoms of inattention, distractibility, and poor working memory.

ADD (attention deficit disorder) is the term commonly used to describe a neurological condition with symptoms of inattention, distractibility, and poor working memory.

Symptoms of ADD (Predominantly Inattentive Type ADHD)

Occupational therapy is the only profession that helps people across the lifespan to do the things they want and need to do through the therapeutic use of daily activities (occupations). Occupational therapy practitioners enable people of all ages to live life to its fullest by helping them promote health, and prevent—or live better with—injury, illness, or disability. 

Occupational therapy services typically include: an individualized evaluation, during which the client/family and occupational therapist determine the person’s goals, customized intervention to improve the person’s ability to perform daily activities and reach the goals, and an outcomes evaluation to ensure that the goals are being met and/or make changes to the intervention plan. 

Occupational therapy practitioners have a holistic perspective, in which the focus is on adapting the environment and/or task to fit the person, and the person is an integral part of the therapy team.

The Behavior Assessment System for Children (BASC) is used to monitor changes in children’s behavior or emotional status.

There are five separate rating forms that comprise the BASC. These include a teacher rating scale (TRS), a parent rating scale (PRS) a self-report of personality (SRP), student observation system (SOS) and a structured developmental history (SDH).

Scoring

The ADA prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability just as other civil rights laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion

A person with a disability is someone who: has a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, has a history or record of such an impairment (such as cancer that is in remission), or is perceived by others as having such an impairment (such as a person who has scars from a severe burn).

ASD begins before the age of 3 years and can last throughout a person’s life, although symptoms may improve over time. Some children show ASD symptoms within the first 12 months of life. In others, symptoms may not show up until 24 months or later. Some children with ASD gain new skills and meet developmental milestones, until around 18 to 24 months of age and then they stop gaining new skills, or they lose the skills they once had.

Examples of social communication and social interaction characteristics related to ASD can include:

The human brain is magnificent and complex. The brain is made up of many parts, each with a specific and important function. It controls our ability to balance, walk, talk, and eat. It coordinates and regulates our breathing, blood circulation, and heart rate. It is responsible for our ability to speak, to process and remember information, make decisions, and feel emotions. Every brain is unique, ever-changing, and extremely sensitive to its environment.