Director's Update
What's Going On In Special Education In Bedford
Behavior ≠ Emotional Impairment
Recently, I received questions from community members about the processes and procedures for identifying disabilities. Specifically, the questions were surrounding emotional disabilities.
Does every child who exhibits negative behavior have an emotional disability?
Not necessarily. Negative behaviors in children can stem from various factors, including developmental stages, environmental influences, or situational stressors. Big responses and big emotions in themselves do not necessarily equate to an emotional disability. Emotional responses can vary greatly among individuals based on personality, developmental stage, experiences, and situational factors. It's important to understand that displaying intense emotions or having big reactions to certain situations does not automatically indicate an emotional disability.
An Emotional Impairment, as defined under federal law at 34 CFR §300.7, is when the student exhibits one or more of the following characteristics over a long period and to a marked degree that adversely affects educational performance: an inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors; an inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers; inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances; a general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression; or a tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. The determination of disability shall not be made solely because the student's behavior violates the school's discipline code, because the student is involved with a state court or social service agency, or because the student is socially maladjusted unless the Team determines that the student has a serious emotional disturbance.
It's essential to note that occasional intense emotions or big responses to certain situations are a normal part of human behavior and development. Diagnosis of such conditions typically involves comprehensive assessments by mental health professionals or specialists in child development. It's important to consider various aspects and seek professional guidance to evaluate and understand the behavior's root cause properly.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides safeguards to prevent overidentification of students with disabilities by ensuring:
Child Find: Schools are required to seek out and actively identify children who might have disabilities. This process involves comprehensive evaluations and assessments to determine whether a student qualifies for special education services.
Multidisciplinary Evaluation: IDEA mandates that evaluations for special education services must be comprehensive and conducted by an interdisciplinary team. This helps ensure a more accurate and holistic assessment of a child's needs.
MTSS (Multi-Tiered Systems of Support): Schools must implement a multi-tiered approach, such as MTSS, to provide early intervention and support for students struggling academically or behaviorally. This helps identify whether the student's difficulties are due to a disability or other factors.
Individualized Education Program (IEP): If a child is found eligible for special education services, an IEP is developed to tailor educational goals and services to their specific needs. This plan is regularly reviewed and adjusted based on the child's progress.
Procedural Safeguards: IDEA includes procedural safeguards, such as parental consent for evaluations and participation in meetings, to ensure that parents are involved in the process and can advocate for their child's needs.
By implementing these provisions, IDEA aims to ensure accurate identification and appropriate support for students with disabilities while preventing the overidentification that might occur without proper evaluation and safeguards.
Overidentifying children with disabilities can have several negative consequences:
Stigmatization: Labelling a child prematurely can lead to stigma and social exclusion, affecting their self-esteem and interactions with peers.
Lowered Expectations: Overidentification might lead to lower expectations academically and socially, limiting a child's potential by assuming they can't achieve as much as their peers without disabilities.
Misallocation of Resources: It could divert resources away from children who genuinely need extra support, causing them to miss out on necessary interventions and services.
Potential for Unnecessary Treatments: Misdiagnosis may result in unnecessary treatments or interventions that might not align with the child's actual needs, causing more harm than good.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Children labeled with disabilities they don't have might start to believe these labels, affecting their confidence and behavior in ways that conform to those expectations.
Balanced and accurate identification is crucial to ensure that children receive appropriate support without being unnecessarily defined or limited by a label.
Bedford's Special Education Programs
Bedford's Speech Team at the ASHA Conference, November 16-18, 2023
By Nadia Trant, SLP, Lane School
The American Speech Language Hearing Association (ASHA) held its annual convention in Boston for the first time since 2019. It is the premier annual professional education event for approximately 15, 000 speech-language pathologists, audiologists, speech, language, and hearing professionals and graduate students. Professionally it was an amazing three days to connect with fellow professionals outside of the work environment, catch up with old friends, learn new strategies and research across the field by choosing from hundreds of offerings about different aspects of our profession. I attend several sessions related to Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) which is pertinent to the many special education students in the SAIL programs in Bedford. A particularly interesting seminar was Cortical/Cerebral Visual Impairment (CVI) and AAC which focused on how to assess the environment and choose targeted tools to help students with visual challenges (although not blind) access the curriculum to level the academic playing field. Providing support and therapies for neurodiverse students was also a topic that resonated with me. The take-way was that neurodiverse individuals are not so much impaired socially, as they learn and interact with others differently, and we as clinicians and educators need to recognize them for their uniqueness and help them to blossom. I also attended several sessions in professional ethics. The ASHA board recently (March 2023) updated the code of ethics to address new and complex therapeutic changes especially with the increase in teletherapy. All licensed speech/language pathologists and audiologists are required to take ethics training to maintain our licensure. Speech/language pathologists not only provide services within schools but in the clinical, medical, rehab, higher educational, early childhood and geriatric settings and it was a reminder that we need to be aware of specific needs of the patient/ student and confidentiality. The sessions also addressed supervision of speech/language therapy assistants and graduate clinicians to which I am very fortunate to be able to provide supervision. This three-day convention invigorated and challenged my professional knowledge and sparked my interest in try out some new strategies.
By: Olivia Kirsch, Amanda Weaver, Ashley Utrup, SLPs, Davis School
We had a wonderful experience at the ASHA conference earlier in November. It was an excellent opportunity to learn alongside 15,000 SLPs from across the nation! The SLP Team at Davis was fascinated by an incredible seminar titled Screen Time, The Pandemic, and Development: What SLPs Need to Know (presented by Angie Neal, MS, CCC-SLP). Both screen time and the pandemic have had a significant impact on our kids. Research shows that daily screen time has increased from 1.4 hours pre-pandemic to 2.7 hours during the pandemic (Plamondon et al, 2023). More screen time typically results in less social interaction and less opportunities for a child to practice and develop their language skills. Children with more than two hours of screen exposure are demonstrating speech delays, difficulties in communication, behavioral problems, and a poorer vocabulary acquisition compared to children with less than two hours of screen exposure (Bibi et al, 2022; McAarthur et al 2022).
We know that parents are busy. However, there are many tools that parents can use to support their child's language skills at home. According to this presentation, research shows that conversation is the most efficient early-learning system that we have (Christakis, 2016). In fact, early play and conversational turns is related to anatomical connections of the brain correlated with reading proficiency (Torre, McKay & Matejko, 2019). Parents should aim for 25 minutes of conversation per day or 40 conversational turns. This can be supported by reading and playing with your child. Try to ask your children questions that cannot be answered by one word to increase conversational turns. For example, "tell me three things that you did at school today." Support your child’s play by engaging in self talk and parallel talk. Self talk involves describing what YOU are doing, while parallel talk is describing what your CHILD is doing in play.
Bedford's Occupational Therapist attended the Therapies in School Conference
By Elizabeth Larrabee, OT, OTR, Lane School
I went to the Therapies in School conference sponsored by Education Resources. There were many great presenters, but the two that stood out for me were Judy Endow, LCSW and Kristen Jones, Occupational Therapist OTR/L.
Judy talked about the neuro-affirming model and how it embraces diversity. Some of my takeaways included using Autistics as experts, thus getting first hand input is crucial when learning about neurodiversity. Some of her key points were that neurodiversity is a viewpoint where brain differences are normal rather than deficits; neurodiverse people experience, interact with, and interpret the world in a unique way. Judy also spoke about Ableism, which she noted is a bias, prejudice, and discrimination against people with disabilities. Another term Judy referred to was Autistic Masking, which is suppressing autistic neurology to meet school/societal expectations. It made me contemplate how we can support our students with autism to minimize masking in their school environment. As we try to make this shift to a more “social model,” it’s important to include some of our past understanding with a new approach.
Along with Judy's insightful talk, Kristen spoke about how important it is to "Reframe School Based Therapy to Embrace Strengths and Cultivate Autonomy in Autistic Students." She further noted that neurodiverse students need opportunities to connect to their interception sensory system. This system helps a student interpret and feel what is happening inside their bodies (hunger, thirst, tired, sick, etc...). Additionally, interception allows us to feel emotions, and therefore when this system isn't working well, it can impact performance and participation at school because it can result in being distracted, anxious, and/or confused. Kristen noted that we need to shift our perspective to a strength-based approach in order to view such differences as "strengths" and not as "challenges." It is vital to find ways for students to share their passions with their peers. Kristen also referred to Neurodiversity populations as "Neurospicy" because they often think out of the box, which can be such a powerful skill.
The Equality/Equity/Justice visual below highlights how we have to reframe our approach when working with neurodiverse students and how we can facilitate in taking down the barriers for our students. Sometimes we are so busy accommodating that we miss opportunities to see the whole person and afford them opportunities for justice.
SEPAC ANNOUNCEMENT!!! Lynn Lyons, LICSW is coming to Bedford!
Modeling Matters: What Parents Need to Know (and Do) to Decrease Stress, Worry, and Anxiety
When: January 10th, 2024
Time: 7-9 pm
Where: Bedford High School
The current news about young people and mental health has created warranted concern, but the information can be overwhelming and hard to sort through. Parents need strategies to help their children manage their anxiety, moods, and social pressures. Based on current research and over 30 years of clinical experience, Lynn Lyons will talk about the common traps adults fall into and the key adjustments needed to prevent and help mental health challenges in our kids.
Lynn Lyons is a licensed clinical social worker and psychotherapist in Concord, New Hampshire. She has been in private practice for 30 years specializing in the treatment of anxiety disorders in adults and children.
Lynn travels internationally as a speaker and trainer on the subject of anxiety, its role in families, and the need for a preventative approach at home and in schools. She is a sought after expert, appearing in the New York Times, Time, NPR, Psychology Today, Good Morning America, and other media outlets. Lynn is a featured expert in the new documentary Anxious Nation.
With a special interest in breaking the generational cycle of worry in families, Lynn is the author/coauthor of several books and articles on anxiety, including Anxious Kids, Anxious Parents: 7 Ways to Stop the Worry Cycle and Raise Courageous & Independent Children, and the companion book for kids, Playing with Anxiety: Casey’s Guide for Teens and Kids. Her latest book for adults and teenagers, The Anxiety Audit was released last October.
Lynn is the co-host of the popular podcast Flusterclux.
Email: lynn@lynnlyonsnh.com
Website www.lynnlyons.com
Facebook: Lynn Lyons, Psychotherapist,
Anxiety Twitter: LynnLyonsMSW
What I'm Listening To
There are two podcasts that I listened to recently that really resonated with me regarding our students and mental health.
1. Feel Better, Live More with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee
Episode #408 How Changing Your Lifestyle Can Fix Your Mental Health & Why Depression and Anxiety Are Not Disorders with David Bilder.
2. Lynn Lyons Flusterclux
Depression's Treatment And Prevention: A Series of Mic Drops with Dr. Michael Yapko
Special Education Parent Advisory Counsel (SEPAC)
BEDFORD SEPAC (Special Education Parent Advisory Council)
SEPAC is a group of parents & caregivers of children receiving special education support and/or children with disabilities. All parents & caregivers welcome! We meet for support, education, networking and resource sharing.
Bedford SEPAC General Meetings: Virtual
Come and discuss special education programming in Bedford and how we can best support our children.
Thurs, Dec 14, 2023 at 7:30 PM
Thurs, Jan 18, 2024 at 7:30 PM with guest Marianne Vines
Thurs, Feb 15, 2024 at 7:30 PM
Thurs, Mar 14, 2024 at 7:30 PM
Wed, Apr 24, 2024 at 7:30 PM with guest Marianne Vines
Thurs, May 16, 2024 at 7:30 PM
Join Zoom Meeting:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/4172275285?pwd=OTZaeHZOM3lSY1h4Z0J5SndVMTk0Zz09
Meeting ID: 417 227 5285
Passcode: 333333
Email: bedfordmasepac@gmail.com
Web: bedfordmasepac.org
Facebook group: https://www.facebook. com/groups/BEDFORDMASEPAC/