Some supervisors have great relationships with their paras and value them. Other paras are never asked to attend an IEP meeting, are not given any new training, and feel undervalued. Recently I was in a small elementary school and the general education teacher suggested I follow a little girl to her reading group to see if I could figure out why she was having difficulty. After watching her for a full hour, seeing her squint and put her face close to the page on numerous occasions I suggested to her teacher that she may need to have her eyes checked. Little did I know that the para who works with the little girl had suggested this a while back. After I said something the teacher felt horrible and went to talk to the para. She apologized for not listening. This student's reading issue made it to the RTI process without anyone checking her eyes.
She had arrived mid-year after the hearing and vision tests had taken place at the school, but the para saw it. The para did not complain to me but definitely let me know that she felt like no one was listening to her. The teacher met with her privately and apologized, it ended up being a really great scenario and hopefully forged a better relationship between them both. Although paras most likely do not have a teaching degree they are in many cases with students more than anyone else at school. They should be asked to come to the IEP meeting. A fluid communication system should be in place for paras to express concerns about students or ask questions. The para research study we are conducting shows that paras only real training in our district is Crisis Prevention Institute (CPI) training and some outdated paper modules, all the while a greater percentage of students needing a para are coming to school with trauma. Why are paras not being provided training to meet this need? If the para cannot get the student out of the corner of the room there is no learning. In short, paras are indispensable and we should treat them that way, say thank you often and provide them with more training to help them do their job even better than they do. I feel this quote is so true and I hope that every para feels this way because they have a great supervisor: A person who feels appreciated will always do more than what is expected
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A friend of mine has 3 biological children and is also a foster mother. She began to offer respite foster care to a little boy starting at 8 weeks old. His primary foster family was a very experienced older couple. The only difference was that this older experienced foster family always fostered children, not babies. This new little baby boy had been born to a mom addicted to methamphetamines. The foster family was unprepared to see signs of the baby's lack of meeting milestones. As my friend began to notice warning signs, because she raised her own three children from infancy, she insisted that he see specialists and have care to help his development. She ended up adopting him. Each child born addicted to drugs can have different symptoms. Her new son at 6 months could not hold his head up or roll over. She began to advocate for him and he began to receive physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy through feeding sessions. An underlying issue was that her son had low muscle tone. The biggest difference in his progression was removing him from daycare. My friend, his mother, is very proactive and implemented all the therapies he was receiving into their daily activities. At three years old the main concern is his speech articulation. People outside his family only understand about 50% of what he is saying. By age 3, 75% of a child speaks should be understood by those outside the family. During my own observations with him for assignments I have noticed that his fine motor skills are behind. He is unable to use child scissors without assistance, when asked to draw a face he is at a loss for what to put on it. His strengths are gross motor skills. He loves to kick, jump and run. He currently attends a public preschool , 5 days a week, for children at risk. He receives speech therapy in individual and group sessions at school. A new revelation was learned recently at the dentist, a small cleft palate was discovered in his mouth which the dentist said is mostly likely causing his poor speech articulation. They believe it will close by itself eventually. The dentist also said that he sees this type of cleft palate frequently in children born to drug addicted mothers. His adopted mother has also been warned that her son may be show signs of Oppositional Defiance Disorder (ODD) and was encouraged to join support groups to navigate his upcoming years. This story does not end with adoption #1. This little boy has 3 cousins who have been taken into state custody, ages 3,2 and 1. Two of the cousins have varying levels of traumatic brain injury due to being shaken by their father. Because my friend fostered them at different times during their lives she was the person asked first if she wanted to adopt them. She said yes. She is near the end of the adoption process. The two children with TBIs will also need special education services and she does not know the long-term prognosis of their TBIs. While this second adoption group was being processed she was called and informed that her adopted son's mother is pregnant again and in jail. She is still on drugs. This new baby will also be taken away from her. The new baby will also test positive for methamphetamines. Drugs are not just ruining our current neighbors, friends and family members, they are ruining future neighbors, friends, and family members. Our future society will have numerous children and future adults with seen and unseen disabilities due to parental drug use. A quote by Russell Brand about his drug addiction: “The mentality and behavior of drug addicts and alcoholics is wholly irrational until you understand that they are completely powerless over their addiction and unless they have structured help, they have no hope.” A new trend is emerging in special education. Some districts see that special education teachers are being bogged down in paperwork, not able to spend time in the classroom, so they are dividing and conquering. In a group of teachers there might be one that has skill or desire to do more of the paperwork and others desperately want to work closer with the kids. The standard of having each teacher do paperwork and be with students can be very frustrating for some that do not have a natural bent for detailed paperwork. We're all aware paperwork is a part of the job, but most special education teachers go into this profession to be with students.
A rural school near me is succeeding using this new model of dividing duties. A seasoned special education teacher now has all the paperwork responsibilities for IEPs, the other special education teacher is with students all day. This was an amicable agreement for them both. They couldn't be happier to be focused on their work. Other school districts across the nation are also using this new model and finding it frees up teachers to actually be in the classroom while one or two teachers who are talented at IEPs do a great job serving students in that capacity. Does your school do this? Why not? |
AuthorSpecial Education major in a university teaching program. Substitute teacher, previous homeschool mom, wife. Archives
September 2019
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