E125: Dyscalculia or SLD in Math with Laura Jackson
Does your child struggle with math? Having a hard time identifying why it's so hard or how to help them get over the anxiety, tears, and frustrations when their math just doesn't make sense to them? We are changing that TODAY with Laura Jackson From Discovering Dyscalulia!
Do you want your school team talking to an outside provider? And what would they talk about? And is it helpful? How do we get them to talk to each other?
Just like so many other things about IEP advocacy, this episode is going to be focused a LOT about communication. And this one in particular is helpful to hone in on, because allowing the school to talk to any other provider is your sole right to decide.
In this episode we cover:
1) What is a “release of information” and how does it work?
2) Personal experiences of use of the release (from an outpatient OT perspective as well as a school OT perspective)
3) Some pro’s and con’s of using this system for communication!
Sign up for the FREE Webinar THIS FRIDAY (yes, replay will be sent out afterwards!) www.TheIEPLab.com/webinar
Do you want your school team talking to an outside provider? And what would they talk about? And is it helpful? How do we get them to talk to each other? Just like so many other things about IEP advocacy, this episode is going to be focused a LOT about communication. And this one in particular is helpful to hone in on, because allowing the school to talk to any other provider is your sole right to decide. So stick with me, because today I’m helping you understand if you want to have a release of information set up between the school and your outside team!
[INTRO]
WEBINAR PLUG! You know, there are themes that you pick up on if you listen to enough podcasts, right? Like me seeing in over 400 IEPs that the parents who focused on collaboration got better support for their kids than the parents that didn’t. But some things don’t translate well in a podcast, so this time we are taking it into a full-blown live webinar THIS WEEK! And that’s because the theme for this webinar is about the ONE strategy I saw successful parent advocates do to decrease their IEP meeting stress (I mean-they seriously were as cool as a cucumber!) AND it will change your advocacy life. Forever. So join me this friday at 1pm EST//10am PST LIVE and you will get a special bonus for showing up live vs watching the recording. You can register at TheIEPLab.com/webinar See you Friday!
OR TELL THE STORY OF OUTPATIENT BEING FRUSTRATED AT SCHOOL THERAPISTS!
My first job was at an outpatient clinic, so I did 2, 10 hour days of going to homes and helping children and their parents in the home environment, and 2 days I would work out of the clinic, where they would bring the kids to the clinic and I would work with them there. Most of the people I worked with hadn’t worked in schools, so we didn’t have context of how that worked, exactly. And I remember thinking many times. “Why doesn’t the school OT contact me, like ever” And to be honest, I was a bit snarky about it, as everyone kinda was at the clinic I worked at. I didn’t realize until later that unless the parents or someone tells the school therapist that there is an outpatient therapist….no one knows! There were many times when I worked in schools that I had no idea there was an OP therapist, and I would’ve welcomed the second pair of eyes or appreciated coordinating with my outpatient equivalent.
Process for release of info: The process is really quite simple, but of course requires some signatures. The school team likely has a standard release of info that they can print out from their IEP software, and they have you sign it if you would like to, and it’s typically good for 1 year.
The clinic or other provider also may have their own release of information, so you may have to sign something twice before they can actually talk to someone.
There are some VERY strong opinions on this, by the way, based on parent’s experiences and most importantly, the relationship that you have with these teams.
BUT before we get there, we have to talk a little bit about these two teams that you may have going on, and who actually may be a part of those teams before we actually get to if you want them to talk to each other. So let’s break these down.
An outside provider is anyone that isn’t part of the school team that works with your child on a regular basis. So this could be a mental health professional, like a psychologist, psychiatrist, counselor, social worker, etc., it could be a medical team like your pediatrician or specialist, and/or it could be therapists such as occupational, speech, behavioral, physical therapist. I’m sure there are others that I’m missing, but you get the idea!
Someone on the school team may be anyone who works at the school and is either on the IEP team or works with your child. Teachers, therapists, principals, SPED directors, etc. And if you haven’t found it yet, know that we did a whole series on IEP professionals, their credentials and roles on the IEP team in the IEP Team Series, which you can find all the episodes in one place by going to TheIEPLab.com/podcast and clicking on the “IEP Team BONUS Series” category tag on the right hand side!
When I was in schools, I felt I knew the kids on my caseload SO WELL because I would see them in the halls and hear about where they were struggling from multiple different people, etc. But I wouldn’t have the time to actually address a lot of those concerns. When I worked in outpatient in the clinic, I felt like I saw them in a more artificial environment but I had the time to focus on a skill and slow down and address a lot more.
In a perfect world a release of information would allow your school team to contact the outside providers and vise versa. They may be able to coordinate training on a communication device if the school team doesn’t have knowledge in that area, or they may be able to coordinate on what strategies are working well for handwriting or wheelchair transfers or whatever skills they are working on. Psychologists may be able to communicate the program they are using to teach self advocacy or coaching skills with the school team, etc. And the school team may be able to talk through specific situations that are happening at school that they could bring up in private therapy. Because they do work on different things.
The reality is that, just like a LOT of IEP advice that I give you on the show, in the IEP Prep Course, AND now in the membership, unless you have a specific reason that the therapists should talk…then sometimes it gets pushed to the side because of how busy everyone is. SO here’s an example. With a wheelchair setting, maybe the straps need adjusted or something is broken. The OP therapist may be the person who ordered the chair, and has more knowledge about how to order a replacement. Maybe the OP therapist doesn’t realize that over the course of the school day we are repositioning 5 times, because they only see them an hour and they transfer them out of their chair for the session, etc. So for that reason, it’s super helpful to have direct communication on what’s happening in that longer span of time, and communicate with the OP therapist that can more easily fix the issue.
But there were times when the parents asked for the release of info, and maybe even I contacted the outside OT and we shared what goals we were each working on…but then we didn’t contact each other again…because we really felt like we didn’t need to. Everything was relatively smooth.
So here is a little pro/con list for having your two teams talk to one another.
Pro: If your child needs specific equipment, strategies, or tools that would be helpful for either one to know, it’s nice for them to talk directly to each other. They can talk a little bit more of their technical jargon, and the details may not be lost in translation. And if you yourself are tight on time, like if you work full time, etc, then you don’t have to be the one carrying the burden of communicating back and forth all the time.
Con: Sometimes when teams are communicating without you involved, you may get dropped from some communication. If you trust your teams, this isn’t a big deal. But this is why some parents get nervous about releases of information where they can share info freeley.
So, of course, your decision on if to sign a release of information between a school team and an outside provider is completely up to you! It depends on your specific situation and why it would be helpful (or not) to have them communicate. I will say that most of the time, it’s so good to have these providers on the same page, or even know that they exist, so they can try to support your child in the best way possible. But that decision is up to you!
If you need help deciding if you want to do a release of information or have more questions about how it works, then hop into the Facebook group! Go to TheIEPLab.com/podcast and the link to join the group is right there on the page.
And before we go, you definitely don’t want to miss the free training on the ONE strategy that will decrease your IEP meeting stress and change your parent advocacy life forever. That is happening this Friday, there is a special bonus for showing up life but I will send out the recording after. The link to register is www.TheIEPLab.com/webinar and that is below this podcast in your podcast player as well.
Thanks so much for listening, and I’ll see you same time, same place next week!