Archive for category Special Education

10 Reasons to Improve Your Negotiation Skills

Posted by in Special Education, Tips on August 13, 2011

By Karen A. Robinson

You are in a conversation with the elementary school principal where you are trying to get him to agree to implement a new instructional accommodation for your special needs child. He is making all kinds of excuses why it can’t be done and you’ve made up your mind that you won’t leave his office until you have both come to a resolution…You are in the midst of a negotiation.

Negotiation is an important part of the advocacy process and parents need make sure that they have the skills to do it right.

Some things are NOT negotiable

Exceptional students may have special education needs in the following categories: academic, health, safety, physical, social, and/or emotional. Once the needs have been identified in each category, they MUST be met. However, the parent and the school may have different opinions as to how to meet them. So we don’t negotiate about which needs should be met (although priorities can be set), but rather HOW to meet them.

Here are 10 reasons to improve your negotiation skills

  1. Choosing a negotiation strategy instead of an adversarial approach preserves relationships and builds trust.
  2. It is better to negotiate solutions than to leave matters in the hands of panels of arbitrators who don’t have first-hand knowledge of the student.
  3. Negotiation ensures that both sides find common ground. As part of the process, you will be surprised to find out how many things you already agree on.
  4. Negotiating solutions saves money because there is no need to hire expensive lawyers.
  5. The negotiation process allows each side to hear and address the other side’s fears and concerns. Once that is done solutions will emerge.
  6. Negotiation allows each side to think about an alternative solution that might be agreeable to the other side.
  7. Negotiation is always more successful than confrontation. The solutions may not be exactly the ones that you had in mind before the process started, but since both sides agree on them, they are more likely to be successfully implemented.
  8. Negotiation ensures that both sides communicate and focus on the important issues.
  9. The negotiation process is quicker at finding solutions than hearings and appeals.
  10. Successful negotiation leads to successful advocacy; meaning that the student’s needs are met and parents/guardians maintain a good working relationship with the school.

Advocating for your special needs child is hard work, and it can be frustrating and emotional but once you have the right tools in your advocacy tool kit, you are more likely to get the programs and services for your child, while maintaining a collaborative working relationship with the school staff.

Karen Robinson at AFASE at school http://www.afase.com provides special education advocacy training and consulting services to parents and guardians whose children are challenged by autism and other developmental disabilities.

I develop my clients into informed, proactive advocates for their children’s educational needs. They are empowered by current, customized information that enables them to articulate their children’s needs to school staff and school board administrators in a way that is both assertive and collaborative

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Gifted Children – Programs Available For Gifted Children

Posted by in Special Education on August 13, 2011

By VMM Milic

The truth is that many parents in the wide world like to consider their children gifted. However, it is very important to accept the fact that true talent and gift are not necessarily synonyms, where neither of the two cannot be measured in a process which would be hundred percent accurate and reliable. Even countless IQ tests for the youngest cannot define gift with a hundred percent certainty. High IQ does not always prove or show itself in real life, in comparison to what ordinary IQ people might achieve.

Throughout the world, at least in the developed parts of it, societies are trying to identify the gifted ones from the earliest stage and provide programs which will further define their specifics in comparison to other children. Along with this, not every society will define gift in children similarly, which is in direct relation to various societies’ cultures and their values. Although gifted children might be acknowledged similarly in various societies, the significance of their future abilities might be even misinterpreted and neglected.

In modern and developed societies, programs for gifted children are versatile, from the early stage of kinder garden to additional programs in schools or even specialized academic curricula which meet their abilities and needs. Most schools will provide programs within existing curriculum with additional time spent after regular lessons, where kids might improve in areas they already showed higher skills or interests than others. It is definitely a necessity to try to spot a gifted child in the environment of others of similar age, so that easy comparison can be made of the child’s true gift and ability to advance faster. Most such after school hours will be in the arrangement of attending pre-school or school systems. Saturdays and programs conducted during spring or summer breaks can serve as excellent time for spending more time with gifted children. This time allows them to show their preeminence, boosting their interests with the ability to go further and even finish the school earlier than usually determined.

However, spotting the true talents requires seasoned and dedicated teachers and psychologists, which will be able to recognize some children’s supremacy towards others through materials and tests which are similar to all kids in one class. This is probably the easiest way of qualifying for attending additional classes with more complex teaching materials. There are lucky societies which can afford versatile special schools of very specific orientation, which allow gifted children to start developing their skills at a very early stage. On the other hand, the individual approach to each child with a special gift is a necessity, since such kids usually require absolutely different standards and treatment. Simply put, a single size never fits every kid, physically as much as psychologically.

Aside from specialized schools with programs developed for further advance of gifted children, there are areas where kids cannot easily attend even the regular schools. For such cases, societies which care for higher educational needs have developed a variety of distance learning programs, which consist of various topics and allow gifted children to see if they are truly gifted for further education in a specialized school, college or university. Geographical distance does not have to be an issue providing distant education is conceptually thought off, where each child might try teaching materials for higher grades, thus qualifying as gifted for further advanced education.

In developed societies, gifted children might earn possibility to start college or university at much younger age than their peers, which might be a great way of wasting their years with teaching material they can deal with in several months only. The programs of students’ exchange are also available for those who prove themselves worthy and eager to develop their gift further. This is one of the most popular ways of learning different languages and cultures, at the same time giving opportunity to accommodate a child from another country the same opportunity. The program of exchanging for gifted children and teenagers is also extraordinary opportunity for parents to travel and see whatever their children are learning, having a great time being either a guest or a host to the family from another side of the world.

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