Related Services Corner – Counseling

May 1st, 2012  

Counseling is determined to be a related service when students’ social/ behavioral deficits adversely impact their school performance and relationships. Counseling may include direct assistance to students and/ or consultation to those working with them. In order for some students with disabilities to access and receive benefit from their educational setting comparable to their nondisabled peers (i.e. FAPE) and make adequate progress, their skill and knowledge deficits in the social/ behavioral/ school expectations arena must be remediated. In such cases, teams should enlist the help of their school psychologist in assessing the deficits, designing interventions,  consulting with others, or directly delivering remediation.

There are many options for delivering counseling services under an IEP. It may strictly involve the school psychologist in a one-on-one weekly counseling session. However, most of the time, it will be a mixture of instructional/ counseling contacts either in an individual or group format along with regular consultation with the student’s teacher(s) and/ or administrator to arrange practice or generalization to the broader school environment.

To accomplish goals for counseling, most school psychologists adopt an approach to remediation based on a “learning” model with a skills focus. Since students come to school expecting to learn new skills/ knowledge, learning models of counseling are often more instructional, more palatable to the student in the school environment, and easier to generalize to other school settings like the classroom. Learning-based approaches are also preferred by school psychologists because there is far more research supporting their efficacy. While learning theory is the foundation for conceptualizing many social/ behavioral deficits that require counseling, a problem-solving model is the preferred vehicle for identifying, establishing the scope, designing interventions, and monitoring changes in the behaviors that are the target of counseling as a related service.

 

Talk to your school psychologist for more information or if you have a student whose social skills deficits or maladpative behaviors are interfering in their school success.

Related Services Corner – Speech and Language

March 1st, 2012  

Related services are “those supportive services that are required to assist a child with disabilities to benefit from special education. If a child does not need special education, there can be no related services provided under an IEP since a related service must be necessary for a child to benefit from special education.” (AK Sped Handbook, 2007).

When a person has trouble understanding others (receptive language), or sharing thoughts, ideas, and feelings completely (expressive language), then he/ she has a language disorder.  For example, Jane has a receptive and expressive language disorder. She does not have a good understanding of the meaning of works and how and when to use them. Because of this, she has trouble following directions and speaking in long sentences.

When a person is unable to produce speech sounds correctly or fluently, or has problems with his/ her voice, then he/ she has a speech disorder. For example, Tommy has a speech disorder that makes him hard to understand. If his lips, tongue, and mouth are not moved at the right time, then what he says will not sound right. Children who stutter, and people whose voices sound hoarse or nasal have speech problems as well.

An individual may say words clearly and use long, complex sentences with correct grammar, but still have a communication problem, if he/ she has not mastered the rules for social language known as pragmatics. For example, you have invited your friend over for dinner. Your child sees your friend reach for some cookies and says, “Better not take those, or you’ll get even bigger.” You’re embarrassed that your child could speak so rudely. However your child may not know how to use language appropriately in social situations and did not mean harm by the comment.

 

Related Services Corner – Occupational Therapy

February 1st, 2012  

Occupational Therapy (OT)

KPBSD employs 5 occupational therapists. OT is a related service to assist students with disabilities in accessing their special education program. OT can include working on handwriting or fine motor skills, sensory difficulties, organization of the workspace in and around the desk, and working with the teacher to modify the classroom and/or adapt learning materials to facilitate successful participation.

What does your friendly neighborhood OT want you to know?

~  Related services, including OT, should not be added /dropped/changed without the provider’s consultation and presence at the meeting.

~  If a student with an IEP has an OT concern, the case manager should contact the OT to discuss the nature of the concern—sensory or fine motor needs. Teams need to understand that these needs do not automatically move the student towards an evaluation. It may be normal, may be able to succeed with simply interventions.
– Refer to the “Interventions for Classroom Difficulties” and the flowcharts for students with IEPs and without to receive OT support at the KPBSD website

~  OTs do not write stand alone goals—must be attached to or supporting an educational goal.

~  OT consult services don’t have specified service minutes and do not have a link to a goal. Consult is appropriate when the team needs support for the student. Consult is provided to the student’s team, but the OT may need to observe student to give suggestions.

If you have questions, contact your school’s occupational therapist! They are a wealth of information and always ready to help!!

 

 

Related Services Corner – Adapted PE

December 28th, 2011  

Adapted Physical Education (APE)

In short, APE services are provided to ensure that students with disabilities have access to programs designed to develop physical and motor fitness.

At KPBSD, we focus on a consultative/ collaborative model of services where the APES (specialist) communicates suggestions and ideas to a student’s team, conveys safety issues to all staff, disseminates information and resources regarding disabilities.

There is so much that our APES Carolyn Hitzler does for our students! Want to know more? Drop her a line.

You can also check out the shared folder by going to My Computer→ S-Drive→ District-wide Staff Shared Folder→ Adapted PE Resources

**UPDATE**

Correction/ Clarification from December Newsletter
Adapted PE (APE)

In December’s newsletter, APE was reviewed as a related service. Some clarification is needed. APE is a special education service, NOT a related service. From our Alaska State Special Education Handbook, the term “special education” includes five areas, including instruction in physical education. By definition, special education is adapting the content, methodology, or delivery of instruction to address the unique needs of the child and to ensure access of the child to the GENERAL education curriculum.

Therefore, when APE was referred to as a related service (which ensures access of the child to the SPECIAL education program), it was inaccurate. In fact, it is a very RARE occurrence that a student requires only APE in their IEP (rare as in twice during the 20 year career of our APES)!

In the KPBSD, APE is a special education service that benefits children through a consultative/ collaborative model. Please contact Carolyn Hitzler, our APES for further information and clarification!