Understanding School Lingo

Understanding School Lingo When Your Child Is Struggling and Needs Support: Response to Intervention (RTI), Case Study Evaluation, and Special Education

Our children spend many hours away from us as they get older. Much of this time is spent at school. These days, school curriculum has become more challenging. Even by the end of kindergarten, children are expected to read books with two or more lines of print with predictable or repetitive text. As kindergarten is ending, they should be able to write two sentences with phonetic spelling when a prompt is given, count to 100, and understand math concepts including adding and subtracting within 10.

The curriculum challenges may add stress for both your child and you, and especially so, if your child is struggling academically. So what happens then?

When your child has difficulty with reading or math, there should be support offered at your child’s school. These can include Response-to-Intervention (RTI) services. RTI can be given in small groups led by your child’s teacher or by a reading or math specialist, if needed. This should be considered a short-term service. “Short-term” may be as long as a full school quarter. If progress is seen, RTI is no longer necessary. If very limited to no progress is seen, there may be a disability interfering with academic progress. Throughout this process, your child’s teacher should keep you informed.

For children making limited to no progress with RTI services, a Case Study Evaluation may be necessary to determine if there is a need for special education services.

Special Education is for children who have an identified disability that interferes with academic progress and the case study evaluation is the process school systems use to identify disabilities. Not every child who is evaluated is found to have a disability.

It can be difficult to see your child struggle with school work and sometimes it is hard to ask for help or to ask for an explanation about the struggles, however most teachers are very willing to give their perspective about your child’s learning.

If your child continues to have difficulties after support is given, please feel free to contact us for guidance.

Connecting with Kids with Special Needs through Toys and Play

Toys Can Build Connections Between Kids with Special Needs and their Peers

 By Child Therapy Chicago's guest blogger from Lekotek

“Inclusion” is a popular word used around children with special needs. It reflects the emotional need of every human being to be included and the desire to share experiences, and there is, perhaps, no better place to put the concept of inclusion to work than through toys and play. Hot categories of toys this year are electronics, plush, arts and crafts and sports, so let’s explore what’s new in these areas and how they can bring kids together.

Helping Children with Special Needs Cope with Stress through Play

Stress Busters

By Child Therapy Chicago's guest blogger from Lekotek

The pressures of school can be tough on kids, especially those with special needs. Play can help children relax, recharge their batteries and take on new challenges.

It’s hard to remember a time when kids had more stress in their lives. Schools are forced to pressure children more and more to pass tests to keep their stream of funding. Our educational system is also under mounting pressure as the global ranking for America’s schools continues to trend downward. Homework has trended upward with little impact.

What research has proven again and again is that kids learn best through play. Guided play advances cognitive skills like language, as well as social skills such as emotional regulation. Group play experiences also greatly impact a child’s coping abilities, empathy, mood and resiliency. Despite evidence linking play to development, parents, educators and policy makers have allowed children’s play time to drastically erode in the last two decades.

Play functions as an antidote to the pressures of life, including school anxiety. Here are some product ideas to help kids defuse stress and refresh their bodies. These suggestions are especially beneficial for children with special needs who have their share of school struggles:

Children with Special Needs: Sexual Development and Adolescent Disability

Sexual development is a multidimensional phenomenon inextricably tied to self-esteem and the capacity to connect with others. The ways in which children and adolescents develop sexually have a strong impact on their ability to successfully navigate this process as an adult. Sexual development is complicated for adolescents with physical disabilities or cognitive, social, or emotional delays, whose identities are oftentimes erroneously equated with asexuality or reproductive inability. Sexual experimentation and behavior is as common among teens with these challenges as in their counterparts, emphasizing the need to discuss sexuality with these youth and ensuring that societal and psychosocial barriers do not hinder their development.