Every child is different, and when you’re working within the bounds of a child’s special education, those quirks and details often hold a great deal of relevance. Every parent should get involved in their child’s educational journey, but even more so with a special needs student. While it’s smart to ask questions at conferences and meetings, you can also reach out with questions throughout the year.
Your child’s teacher wants to work with you just like you want to work with them, and when you create a supportive team surrounding your child, their education will help them flourish and thrive in new ways. If you’re looking for information to form a well-rounded picture of your child’s strengths and needs, there are a few questions you can bring up the next time you talk with their teacher.
1. What Do I Need to Know About My Child’s IEP?
By definition, each child’s individualized education plan is different. You might not be aware of the details, ideas, and materials involved in their education yet, but the IEP may help you guide conversations at home and help them with their work.
Individualized learning doesn’t stop when the school day ends. There is so much opportunity for education outside school. Knowing the details of your child with a disability curriculum can help you expand and support them in your free time together.
2. What Can I Do at Home to Support My Child’s Learning?
Children with a disability, Learning begins in the home, and there’s no shortage of things parents can do to support education outside a traditional classroom environment. Even activities that don’t relate to academics can improve upon their knowledge. Games, activities, and creative pursuits can be excellent learning tools, types of learning disabilities and when you work with your child’s teacher to shape their additional learning, they’ll flourish even more.
3. What Markers Do You Use to Measure Progress?
Figuring out how your child’s school — and teacher personally — measure the progress of their students with disabilities can help you better understand your child’s place in their education. You can figure out not just where their challenges lie, but how they’re struggling. You can learn their needs, encourage your child develop and work with their teacher to meet them.
4. How Can We Keep Our Lines of Communication Open?
While meetings and conferences can be great opportunities to check in and reconvene with your child’s teacher in long-form conversation, it’s vital to communicate throughout the school year, too. Asking about more regular communication can make the flow of information about your child from the school to your home much more intentional. Ask about email, phone calls or systems the school has available to strengthen your regular communication.
When a solid foundation of communication is not built between parents, qualify for special education teachers and school districts, sometimes disagreements or misread can arise — leading to the need for special education mediation, which succeeds in repairing parent-school relationships in more than 85% of instances. While mediation is always an option, it’s better to establish clear communication at the start to avoid any confusion later.
5. What Are My Child’s Academic Strengths?
Instead of focusing on struggles and pitfalls, it’s critical to know where your special needs child succeeds in their academic life. Knowing their strengths can help you work together both at school and at home to foster their talents and lead them to achievement. While understanding their weaknesses can help support them, it’s just as vital to devote a focus toward growing their natural gifts.
Prepare for Your Child’s Special Education
The experience of specialized education is valuable, especially for children with differing abilities. When you get involved and take the initiative in their academic life, it can create a better flow of information and activity from school to home. Sometimes, it can be hard to know what questions to ask, but don’t forget your child’s teacher is there to help them learn and grow with assistive technology just like you are. When you engage in open communication and productive efforts together, who knows what heights your child can reach?