Getting to Know Your SLP and IEP Team

I will just say up front- I am "that mom". I ask so many questions that I initially though I would be very annoying to my daughter's teachers and therapists, but I was surprised to find out that the teachers and therapists love involved parents! Finding new private therapists scared me at first- I had no idea what to look for, and when I got there to see how they interacted with Chelsea, I would get scared and forget what I was going to ask them.

To remedy this, I came up with a list of questions to ask SLPs and IEP team members when getting to know/ selecting a service provider. These questions are to find someone who would work well with a child with apraxia/ SATB2 associated syndrome.

SLP Questions                              

What is your favorite/ least favorite part of your job? Why did you decide to become an SLP?  Tell me a little bit about yourself

Are you trained in apraxia? What training specifically do you have? (Seminars? By whom? Webinars? Books? Videos? Conferences? Workshops?) How recently was that training?

Are you familiar with SATB2-Associated Syndrome? Have you worked with a child with a genetic disability before? Do you feel like you were a good match for that child? Why?

What is your idea of how to work with a child with severe apraxia of speech, an intellectual impairment, and dyspraxia of limbs?

What professional development training have you most recently attended? When was that? How often do you attend trainings?

Are you open to watching other DVDs/ Videos/ reading books I have from conferences?

Are you familiar with the K-SLP method? Are you willing to learn? (Chelsea responds very well with this method)

How many other children with apraxia have you worked with? Was the cause genetic, idiopathic, or stroke-induced? How severe was the apraxia? Do you feel like you made progress with them?

How will you address receptive language? Would you normally do this 1:1 or in a group setting? Are you trained specifically in how to treat neurologically based motor planning disorders in a group setting?

Are you familiar with global apraxia and the effects it has on signing?

What STOs (short-term objectives) will you be putting into the goals? Let’s discuss them…

Prompt cueing? What visual cues do you generically use? (your own/ a specific method?) Will you use the cues Chelsea is used to for best results/ least confusion?

Will you be collaborating with me and Chelsea’s private SLP to provide a consistent therapy approach for Chelsea? By what means? How often?                 

How much sign do you know? How will you communicate with Chelsea?

How would you like to communicate? Daily binder sent with Chelsea, email, etc?

How would an SLP be able to address severe oral-motor needs of a child in a group setting? (hint: they really can't. Never accept group speech from the school for a kid with apraxia or SATB2)

What are the short and long term goals/ objectives that are specific to nature of my child's apraxia?

Is there a separate place for individual speech therapy? Chelsea is easily distracted by other children and activities

What sort of activites will you be doing with Chelsea? Play-based? Oral-motor drilling? Can you give me an example of some target words and how you will work them into a play-based session? Do you think you can get an adequate number of repetitions from Chelsea in that short time?

What “homework” will you have me do with Chelsea? What are your expectations for us at home? What do you expect of me for communicating/ home practice, etc.? (We carry over things at home)

How will you measure progress?

 

Preschool Teacher

What is your favorite/ least favorite part of your job? Why did you decide to become a special needs preschool teacher? Tell me a little bit about yourself. Experience, etc.

What is your daily lesson plan/ schedule?

What does “Circle Time” include? Small group? Work Time? Skills Time?

What do you do to deal with undesirable behavior? How do you address negative behaviors being copied/ imitated? How do you manage a very disruptive child? (Chelsea is not, she is a sweetheart, but I don’t want her learning to be stagnated by a child with bad behavior)

How do you teach and encourage socially acceptable behavior from your students?

How will Chelsea be able to participate in group settings? (she is on the shy side, and “bad behavior” kids take priority, so she gets ignored. And she won't speak up unless directly addressed)

What is the balance between using augmentative communication and signing versus encouraging speech in your classroom?

How much sign do you know? How do you plan to communicate with Chelsea, who primarily communicates via ASL?

What special education strategies and techniques have you used to help your students?

How do you motivate your students to persevere with challenging assignments and tasks?

How have you encouraged parental involvement in student learning? Do you use parent volunteers? (Tell them that you are happy to come in to help whenever and however needed)

What do you expect a parent’s role to be? Do you advocate for your students, or do you leave that to the parents?

How have you ensured that each student receives the right type of support?

Will the class take field trips?

Do you do show and tell? What day?

Will you be sending out a way for parents to connect? (Like my contact info if anyone wants to do a play group, etc)

Is there facilitated play to help teach Chelsea social skills? Who facilitates? Does the SLP come in to help?

Are you a nut-free classroom? .

 What is the most recent professional development training you have attended? What was it on and when was it? How often do you attend trainings?

How do you stay current with special education best practices?

I don’t anticipate this being a problem with preschool, but is there an anti-bullying curriculum in place? Please tell me about it

Will there be parent/ teacher conferences? How often? To you, what is most important to discuss in those meetings?

Do you believe that the goals you have proposed would qualify as SMART goals? (Specific Measurable Attainable Relevant Time-sensitive)

 Request: I would like the qualifications of all the teachers/ aides/ paraeducators/ therapists working with my child

How will the school measure progress? How often? How will I be informed? What tests/ assessments will be used?

When will we know if the team’s plan is working? What happens/ what does the team do if not much progress is being made?

How have you managed to keep up with all the paperwork required of a special education teacher?

75% of children with apraxia also have reading difficulty, and dyslexia is very common. What is the school doing to ensure Chelsea is preparing to read? What is you plan for helping Chelsea with reading?

How have you collaborated with general education teachers to benefit your students?

What is your opinion/ philosophy on mainstreaming children with special needs? Should they be mainstreamed as far as possible? What is your definition of LRE?

 

Physical Therapist/ Occupational Therapist

 Will there be a physical therapist aide to work with Chelsea, or is a licensed PT?

 What specifically will the OT be working on with her?

 In group settings, how is the PT able to track each child’s progress? How do you work on skills in a group setting?

I also ask many of the above questions about training, personal background in special ed, etc., to the PT/ OT.