HEAD START®

Translating the IEP into Everyday Practice

Training Guides for the Head Start Learning Community

Table of Contents | Preface | Introduction | Module 1 | Module 2 | Module 3
| Continuing Professional Development | Resources | Appendix A | Appendix B

Working together

Outcomes | Key Concepts | Background Information | Activity 1 | Activity 2 | Activity 3 | Next Steps
download these pdf attachments: Handout 13 | Handout 14 | Handout 15 | Handout 16 | Handout 17 | Handout 18

Outcomes

After completing this module, participants will be able to:

• Collaborate more effectively with parents, related service providers, and community agency representatives.
  
  
• Identify related service providers and their roles in working with children with disabilities and their families, and with Head Start.
  
  
• Work with parents of young children with disabilities so that parents may gain more information, skill, and self-confidence to become better advocates for their children.

Key Concepts

• Developing and implementing the Individualized Education Program (IEP) and Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) requires a collaborative effort with Head Start staff, parents, related service providers, and community agency representatives.
  
  
• Successful collaboration depends on open and ongoing communication between all the people and agencies involved with a child and family.
  
  
• Head Start plays a critical role in helping children and families access community resources.
  
  
• Head Start can play a key role in assisting families during transitions by communicating and coordinating with parents, decision makers, and providers.

Background Information

The IEP process ensures that parents are informed about and in charge of their child's education. It is a road map for families and professionals to create a unified, developmentally appropriate program that helps a child with disabilities participate fully in school and family life. The plan includes goals and objectives for developmental progress, assures that certain activities will be included in a child's program, and establishes who is responsible for carrying out those activities. The IEP and IFSP do not, however, spell out how all the people will work together in a positive way to form a coordinated program that will meet the needs of children and families.

Teachers, parents, community service agencies, and related service providers all have important roles in the implementation of an IEP or an IFSP. Related service providers such as psychologists, occupational and physical therapists, and speech and language therapists are specialists who are not typically Head Start staff, but are included in the educational plans of children with disabilities to enhance and support their inclusion at home and in school. They bring a range of knowledge, expertise, and perspectives to the educational process. For many children with disabilities and their families, specialists will participate in their educational program throughout high school and beyond. Parents need to learn who these people are, how to access their services, and how they might contribute to the quality of their child's life.

Head Start supports parents as primary educators, nurturers, and advocates for their children. The documents that are produced and the IEP process itself are tools that families can use to ensure that their children receive needed services and to learn how to become advocates for their children. Families need to learn how all the pieces of their child's program can fit together for maximum benefit for themselves and for their child. Head Start staff can set the tone for positive family and community partnerships that will help parents advocate for their child in the future.

For an overview of the activities in this module, see At A Glance.

Activity 3-1: Sharing a Vision*

Purpose: Every member of the education team, both family members and professionals, has an important role in the IEP process. In this activity participants will experience a collaborative project in which everyone must take a specific role and follow clear-cut rules. They will then analyze how this process relates to being a member of a child's education team.

Preparation

Make: A small model using about 15 Lego™ blocks or a similar structural toy. (Cover the model so that none of the participants can see it.)

Arrange for: Easel, chart paper, markers, and tape One long table for models Tray or small table, one for each group of 5 participants Enough extra blocks for each small group of 5 participants to copy your model.

Duplicate: Handout 13-Listening and Working: one for each participant
Handout 14-How Did It Feel?: one for each participant
Appendix A-About IEPs and IFSPs: one for each participant

Leading the Activity

1. Introduce the activity by explaining the purpose to participants and reviewing the agenda.
   
   
2. Ask participants to form groups of 5. Have each group move into a separate part of the room.
   
   

   Tip for the Trainer:

   If the participants do not divide evenly into groups of 5, some groups can have an extra person who observes the activity and reports to the large group.

   
   
3. Distribute Handout 13-Listening and Working to each participant. Ask a volunteer from each small group to read the handout aloud to her group.
   
   
4. Explain that the activity requires each group member to take on a particular role, and ask them to divide the roles among themselves. While participants are choosing roles, bring each group their blocks and make sure they have a tray or small table on which to build their model.
   
   
5. Give the groups 20 minutes to build their models. Emphasize that participants must remain in their roles during the building process.
   
   
6. When all the groups are finished, make sure their models are placed on the large table so that all the participants can see all the models. Then remove the cover so that everyone can see the original model.
   
   
7. Ask participants to take a few minutes to look carefully at each small group's model and compare it to the original model and to the other models. Lead a brief discussion, eliciting participants' overall reactions to the finished products as well as to the process of building the models (for example, Was the process easy or difficult for you? What made the building project a challenge? What would have helped make the process more successful?).
   
   
8. Distribute Handout 14-How Did It Feel? to each participant. Tell participants that as you read each item aloud they can write answers in the space provided. Explain that these are personal worksheets that they will keep for themselves.
   
   
9. Read Handout 14 aloud, allowing time for participants to answer each question.
   
   
10. Reconvene the large group. Use the Discussion Guide below to help participants relate their experiences during the activity to the IEP/IFSP process.
    
    
11. Ask participants to think about how they can use what they have learned to be more effective members of an IEP/IFSP team. Then have participants jot down 2 steps they can take to collaborate more effectively with parents, related service providers, and community agency representatives.

Discussion Guide

• How did you feel about not being able to talk openly and freely to everyone on the team? Not being able to ask questions, make suggestions, give feedback? How would it affect your work in the classroom if you could not speak with parents, other teachers, administrators, or related service providers?
  
  Acknowledge the frustration that participants may have experienced when they felt “cut off” from other team members. By not being a full member of the “crew,” they were not able to contribute as much as they could. Open and ongoing communication between team members is essential, whether it is a construction crew or multidisciplinary team. Like the crew members, teachers, as part of the team, need to feel like they are in the loop and active team members. If teachers feel that they are left out, they will be less able to translate goals and objectives into everyday practice. If there is no open communication, they will not share progress with other team members or solve problems together. For example, related service providers who only see children once or twice a week need to be informed about successes or problems a child may be having in order to respond effectively to the child's ongoing needs. Everyone on the IEP/IFSP team needs to constantly observe, assess, and communicate with each other about how a child is doing in order to effectively respond to the child's evolving needs in a consistent way.
  
  
• How did you feel about being told to build something without a model? Having to depend on someone else's vision? What if a child in your classroom has an IEP that you haven't seen? Or what if a child has an IEP that contains goals and objectives you do not understand or agree with based on your knowledge of the child?
  
  Only one member of the construction team had a vision of how the model should look. Other members did not contribute to, or even understand the vision. Consequently, there was no clarity about the goals or how to reach them. For a team to work effectively, all members must understand and contribute to that shared vision, whether it is a vision for creating a building, or for developing a plan to help a child with disabilities (or without disabilities) succeed. Acknowledge that developing a shared vision during the IEP/IFSP process can be difficult, especially if team members do not share similar experiences and ideas. However, in order to successfully develop and implement an IEP/IFSP, team members must take extra steps to collaborate and organize themselves around a common vision for the child's and family's welfare.

Summing Up

Distribute Appendix A-About IEPs and IFSPs and review it briefly with participants. Remind participants that IEPs and IFSPs are tools that everyone on an educational team must use to give children with disabilities and their families the support and services needed to provide an individualized, developmentally appropriate program. The team includes everyone who is involved with the child and family, each person taking a different role according to their skills, expertise, and the child's needs. What pulls people together is having a common vision for the child, understanding the need for clear communication, acknowledgment that everyone contributes to the program, and a belief in the positive power of collaboration and partnership in education.

*Adapted with permission from S. Bianchi, J. Butler, and D. Richy. 1990. Warm-Ups for Meeting Leaders. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass Publishers.

Activity 3-2: I Can Do It Myself

Purpose: Related services are often included as part of a child's IEP or IFSP. The purpose of this workshop activity is to introduce participants to related services, and give them an opportunity to make decisions about how to include related services in a child's educational program in a meaningful way.

Preparation

Arrange for: Easel, chart paper, markers, and tape

Duplicate: Handout 15-Related Services: one for each participant
Handout 16-Marlissa: one for each participant
Handout 17-Viewpoints: Marlissa's IEP: one for each participant
Handout 18-Marlissa's IEP Worksheet: one for each participant

1. Introduce the activity and briefly discuss its purpose. Ask participants to keep in mind that one of the most important challenges to the education team is to create a unified, functional educational program which includes all the related services and supports a child and her family may need.
   
   
2. Distribute Handout 15-Related Services to participants and read it aloud to the group. After reading each description, ask for a show of hands of people who have worked with such a provider.
   
   
3. Ask participants to choose a partner and share an experience they have had working with a related service provider or some other education team member that worked particularly well. Also encourage participants to discuss what made the experience successful. Allow 5 minutes.
   
   
4. Ask for volunteers to report a successful experience working with related service providers. Write the elements for success on chart paper. If needed, suggest possibilities such as mutual respect, ongoing and honest communication, content knowledge, practical experience, regard for the parent's thoughts and feelings, willingness to adapt procedures to accommodate the needs of the child, family, teacher, etc.
   
   
5. Distribute Handout 16-Marlissa to participants, then read it aloud. Tell participants that Marlissa's story offers a snapshot of the workings of a team. In small groups, they will identify issues that need to be addressed, and then use the elements for success they generated to create possible solutions.
   
   

   Tip for the Trainer:

   Encourage participants to think about Marlissa in two ways: as a little girl who appears to be regressing in an important area of her life, and as a child with complicated special needs whose progress depends to a large extent on receiving related services. The challenge is to create one coordinated, realistic program that fits comfortably into Marlissa's daily life and helps her progress in positive ways.



6. Divide participants into groups of 4 to 6. Distribute Handout 17-Viewpoints: Marlissa's IEP and Handout 18-Marlissa's IEP Worksheet, one to each participant.
   
   
7. Ask for one volunteer in each group to read the different viewpoints aloud as the others read along. Ask for another volunteer in each group to record the group's answers on Handout 18-Marlissa's IEP Worksheet.
   
   
8. Give participants 30 minutes to read the viewpoints, and then discuss and record their answers to the questions on Handout 18. Remind them to consider the viewpoints of everyone on the team during their discussion; there are no right or wrong answers.
   
   
9. While the groups are working, post 2 sheets of chart paper with the titles “Issues” and “Solutions,” one title to each sheet.
   
   
10. When the small groups have finished, ask a member from each group to briefly describe the group's most pressing problem and solution on the appropriate piece of chart paper. Point out the variations between groups, paying special attention to the different problems and solutions the groups created.
    
    
11. Ask participants to share how their small groups made decisions, and how the process relates to the role of related services providers, teachers, and parents in educational programs for children with disabilities. Lead a discussion with the entire group, using the Discussion Guide below.
    
    
12. With participants, discuss the important role that the classroom teacher can play as a member of the team that is implementing the IEP. Emphasize that the teacher has consistent contact with the child, the family, and related service providers. Therefore, the teacher is the “point person” on the team, and can help specialists figure out how their goals and activities can be included in a child's program in a functional, effective way, and how their services can address the parents' concerns. The teacher can help related service providers make realistic plans. For example, a child with sensorimotor delays and emotional problems who is just learning to get dressed independently may have tantrums when he is learning new tasks. The teacher can help the occupational therapist and psychologist figure out a program that fits the child's schedule and perhaps uses reinforcements the teacher knows work well for the child.

Discussion Guide

Use the following questions to guide the discussion.

• How did you go about identifying and prioritizing the problems?
  
  Each team member has a different perspective and offers different expertise. An important first step, therefore, is discussing each team member's viewpoint. The IEP goals and objectives can be used as a tool for guiding the discussion. For example, consider how Marlissa is doing in terms of self-help skills, speech and language, fine-motor, and gross-motor skills. Also consider what progress Marlissa has made in each area and what concerns still remain. Then the group can consider which concerns are the greatest. Which problems, for example interfere with Marlissa's ability to feel good about herself? Fully participate in classroom activities? Feel successful at home? What does her aunt think is the most pressing concern?
  
  
• What were the barriers to reaching agreement on problems and solutions?
  
  

  There's an old joke in which two people are arguing. They finally go to a mediator. The mediator listens to one side, then says, “Yes, you're right.” The mediator then carefully hears the other side. The mediator pauses for a moment and says, “You're right, too!” “What, how can we both be right?” the two people ask the mediator. “You're right again!” responds the mediator.

  Though the viewpoints differ from one another, each viewpoint can be valid. Real collaboration occurs when everyone on the team realizes that no one person has the best or only solution to a problem, and that sharing knowledge and expertise is the key to forming true partnerships. While concerns, problems, and goals should be shared, the team must remember that Marlissa's aunt should guide program planning. She is the ultimate decision maker.

• How can Head Start staff make the most of the specialized knowledge and services that related service providers can offer?
  

  Head Start staff can make the most of providers in many ways. Therapists can provide services in the classroom, not only for the targeted child, but for other children as well, so that they, too, can benefit and enjoy the “fun activity.” Related service providers can also suggest how goals and objectives can be addressed within the child's regular daily activities both in school and at home. For example, a child who needs to practice walking can be encouraged to walk to specific activities or to places within the classroom and at home; special language needs can be addressed in story time or during group discussion.

Summing Up

Remind participants that related service providers are important partners when including children with disabilities in their programs. They can help children, families, and teachers in many different ways, and should be considered an ongoing resource for planning and implementing programs. No matter how related service providers are included in an IEP, as consultants, trainers, or providers of direct treatment, their services should enhance a child's daily functional activities at home and in school. Because parents and teachers are usually the only people on an education team who see a child regularly, they are in the best position to advocate, prioritize needs, and lead the team in finding ways to help that child work towards the best possible outcomes.

Activity 3-3: Making the Most of Related Services

Purpose: This coaching session will help participants include related services in a child's educational program in a meaningful way.

Preparation

This session has two parts: 1) an overview of related services; and 2) using a story about a Head Start child with disabilities to learn how to work more effectively with related service providers and other members of the team. At the end of the session, participants will choose which Next Steps they will work on to extend their learning. To prepare for this session:

• Review all the directions and handouts for this session, the opening letter in the Preface, and Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice.
  
• Duplicate Handout 15-Related Services; Handout 16-Marlissa; Handout 17-Viewpoints: Marlissa's IEP; Handout 18-Marlissa's IEP Worksheet; the opening letter in the Preface; and Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice: one for each participant.
  
• Read through the Resources section. Note resources that may be helpful for participants as they begin to apply their new skills to their daily work.
  
• Arrange for easel, chart paper, markers, and tape.

Conducting the Session

1. Introduce the activity and briefly discuss its purpose. Point out that different people play important roles in implementing the IEP: families, Head Start staff, and specialists. The IEP provides the team with tools to create a unified, functional educational program. Emphasize that such a program includes all the related services and supports a child and her family may need.
   
   
2. Distribute Handout 15-Related Services to participants and read it aloud to the group.
   
   
3. Ask participants to share their successful experiences in working with different related service providers. Ask questions to help participants identify elements that are key to success, such as mutual respect, ongoing and honest communication, regard for the parent's thoughts and feelings, willingness to adapt procedures to accommodate the needs of the child, family, teacher, etc.
   
   
4. Tell participants that during the next part of the session they will focus on Marlissa's story. Distribute Handout 16-Marlissa to all participants and read it aloud.
   
   

   Tip for the Coach:

   Encourage participants to think about Marlissa in two ways: as a little girl who appears to be regressing in an important area of her life, and as a child with complicated special needs whose progress depends to a large extent on receiving related services. The challenge is to create one coordinated, realistic program that fits comfortably into Marlissa's daily life and helps her progress in positive ways.

   
   
5. Distribute Handout 17-Viewpoints: Marlissa's IEP and Handout 18-Marlissa's IEP Worksheet, one to each participant.
   
   
6. Read the different viewpoints aloud. Then ask participants to work as a team to complete Handout 18-Marlissa's IEP Worksheet. As participants think through the worksheet questions, encourage them to consider everyone's viewpoints. Emphasize that there are no right or wrong answers.
   
   
7. After participants have completed the worksheet, use the Discussion Guide that appears on pp. 63-64 to help participants reflect on how their team made decisions, and how the process relates to the role of related service providers, teachers, and parents in educational programs for children with disabilities.
   
   
8. With participants, discuss the important role that the classroom teacher can play as a member of the team. Emphasize that the teacher has consistent contact with the child, the family, and related service providers. Therefore, the teacher is the “point person” on the team, and can help specialists figure out how their goals and activities can be included in a child's program in a functional, effective way, and how their services can address parents' concerns.
   
   
9. Ask participants to revisit the key elements for successful partnerships with related service providers that they generated in step 3. With those elements in mind, ask participants to identify 2 or 3 concrete, specific steps they can take to make the most of specialists. For example, they may develop a system of communicating more regularly with specialists through the use of a “revolving notebook” (see Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice, p. 68); or they may make a time with the specialist to develop specific strategies for turning IEP goals and objectives into developmentally appropriate classroom activities that all the children would enjoy. They could also design ways to “pull in” consultants to provide services within the classroom, rather than “pulling out” the child for individual therapy.

Wrap-Up and Next Steps

Briefly summarize the session with participants. Remind participants that related service providers play an important role in working with children with disabilities and their families. They can also serve as an ongoing resource for Head Start staff in planning and implementing programs.

Read aloud the opening letter that appears in the Preface (p. viii), which illustrates some of the wonderful ways that service providers can become an integral part of the classroom while assisting specific children in developing skills. Emphasize that successfully including all children demands a comprehensive approach that involves all the players: parents, managers, specialists, teachers, home visitors, and other staff. Point out that Head Start staff, as a team, can tap resources, access supports, and creatively find ways to help all children succeed.

Give participants a copy of Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice. Help participants choose the Next Step(s) they would like to pursue. Together, develop a plan for how they will continue to work with other Head Start staff, families, and service providers to promote and sustain inclusion.

Next Steps: Ideas to Extend Practice

Participating in the IEP process means forming working partnerships with professionals who come from various community agencies and who are not typically part of the Head Start team. Ways to continue working on collaborative skills are:

1. Form a team to develop a plan that will solve a problem your program has been dealing with. For example, perhaps there is a child who has an IEP and the staff feels the goals and objectives are not realistic based on what they have learned from working with the child for three months. The family feels all the goals and objectives are fine, and refuse to have a meeting to discuss possible adjustments or changes. Make the team a cross section of people with different job descriptions, staff, and parents, and make sure the team has a specific goal or objective. Create a timeline for making and presenting the plan.
   
   
2. Building alliances with service providers is a process that takes time, and communication is key. You can help staff identify creative ways to communicate more effectively with service providers in a number of ways. You might ask Head Start staff, related service providers, and parents who have worked effectively together to make a presentation to staff on this topic; have staff interview their colleagues about strategies they have used; or simply brainstorm, as a team, ways to communicate more regularly, and effectively, with service providers. Some programs, for instance, use “revolving notebooks” to communicate more regularly with specialists. Teachers write notes about a child's progress and difficulties for therapists to see before their visit to the classroom. Similarly, before therapists leave the classroom, they respond to the teacher's remarks, and include comments on how the visit went and what, in particular, the child might work on. Such an ongoing conversation, although brief, can go a long way toward helping teachers and service providers achieve classroom and individual objectives.