Kids may dread homework and tests, but parents of deaf and hard of hearing children often dread the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meeting. I've never liked IEP meetings myself. It is not easy hearing the truth about your child's capabilities, and parents and teachers can sometimes argue over what should be on the IEP. Now About.com readers can share their IEP meeting experiences, and give advice on how to have a better IEP experience.
Jaime, I agree with you in some way that I have hard time to deal with my daughter into IEP program and not make a sense to me very several serous. The school did not realized they do need to hire interpreter for IEP last mintues or difficult time.
Confusion about being evaluation on your own children which they might not need to go to IEP. get my attention with . My only one daughter understand and other daughter struggled about the grade and put us difficult in other path.
One word of warning to all.
As a Deaf teacher who works teaching English in mainstream schools, I’ve observed lots of things which bother me. Unfortunately, there’s very few Deaf people working in mainstreamed education (one reason I’m against it) so a lot of crap tends to happen. Because of this, I advise parents: PLEASE VISIT YOUR SCHOOL RANDOMLY AND OBSERVE YOUR CHILD AND TEACHER IN CLASS.
Kids of perfectly normal intelligence are dismissed because teachers don’t know how to interact with them. Interpreters and notetakers aren’t friends and don’t know how to support their child the way you do. You can make a big contribution towards making the IEP a truly valuable document. Sometimes, however, the risk is that the IEP will reflect the attitude of the teacher or administration towards “Deaf people” and their abilities, not the kid’s actual abilities. Sometimes, the social structure of the mainstreamed classroom is set up against your child’s success (how can you participate in “popcorn” discussions when you’re deaf and the interpreter’s thirty seconds behind current statements? Or when all the kids talk to the TEACHER, not to you?)
Parent observations are VITAL to an honest IEP.
-From a Deaf man and a teacher