{"id":4464,"date":"2017-03-17T08:42:14","date_gmt":"2017-03-17T15:42:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lpatucson.org\/lakeside\/?p=4464"},"modified":"2017-04-13T10:39:42","modified_gmt":"2017-04-13T17:39:42","slug":"finding-right-fit-childs-special-needs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lpatucson.org\/lakeside\/finding-right-fit-childs-special-needs\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding the Right Fit for Your Child\u2019s Special Needs"},"content":{"rendered":"

March is Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month<\/a>. A lot has changed in the 30 years since Ronald Reagan proclaimed the first Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month in 1987. The main change has come in education which, until fairly recently, had no cohesive plan for teaching the developmentally disabled.<\/p>\n

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It took decades of trial and error to find the best method for teaching children with special needs. For most of the last century, there were no best practices guidelines for schools to follow, and individual schools determined the methods they thought best.<\/p>\n

Some educational philosophies promoted separating special needs learners, while others didn\u2019t make accommodations for them at all, mainstreaming everyone into the same classroom, no matter what their abilities.<\/p>\n

Happily, today\u2019s educators have tools and strategies, developed over the years, which provide successful outcomes for those with special needs. The method currently used to ensure the best outcomes for special students is known as inclusion<\/em> and, thanks to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 2004<\/a>, and the required implementation of an Individualized Education Program (IEP)<\/a>, the federal government has set the standard for special needs education.<\/p>\n

An IEP can help students in areas like oral expression, listening comprehension, written expression, basic reading skills, reading comprehension, mathematical calculation, mathematics reasoning, or spelling, by providing individualized instruction in these areas, then returning students to the classroom for subjects where individual attention isn\u2019t required. It should be pointed out that, while the IDEA seems to specifically address disabilities, gifted children are also considered to have special needs since they require attention outside the typical classroom, and may also require an IEP.<\/p>\n

Since the government mandates the educational structure schools are obligated to provide, all schools should be the same, but they\u2019re not. If you have a special needs student, what should you look for when choosing a school?<\/p>\n

The Child Mind Institute<\/a> has listed a few variables which are important in finding a good school:<\/p>\n