The hardest part of the transition is organization. Suddenly going from one room with one teacher to six rooms with six teachers. Trying to get to locker in between and remember what to get back and forth to class. Homework will start to be a real problem because it is so hard for difficult children to get books and papers back and forth and write assignments down.
1. Get a duplicate set of books to keep at home. Write it into the IEP. This solves the problem of forgotten textbooks for homework.
2. Buy a ZIPPERED portfolio to hold everything in. Inside this portfolio stash six thin 2 pocket folders in different colors, one for each subject. In each of these folders, put some writing paper or a thin spiral notebook. Label them for each class. Put his name clearly all over it and offer a reward for its return if found by another. Teach the kid that this is his brain and it is not to leave his hands at any time.
3. The school will probably give you an assignment book, or you can get one yourself. Get this written into the IEP. If your difficult child is like mine, writing down those daily assignments will simply not happen. You will have to get the teachers to either do it or check to make sure he does it. I had a tremendous amount of trouble getting teachers to do this simple thing. Get it written into the IEP that assignments must be recorded before your child leaves the room and signed by the teacher. This is a MUST. It may be the single hardest thing you have to deal with because a lot of teachers think that when our kids get to be this age they should be organized enough to not need extra supervision. Our kids do.
3. Some kids are very riled up by transition. Ask for an allowance that your child be allowed to sit in the hallway for a few minutes at the start of class to calm down. Have it written in.
4. Request seating. Best place is in the front, away from the window and out of eyesight of others. Request it in the IEP.
5. Have it written in also that your child has a quiet place to work if having a very overstimulated day. This can either be in an isolated spot in the room or with another teacher in another room.
6. My son had a terrible time in the large classrooms, we tried to keep him in them. In seventh grade we gradually worked his classes out of the regular room and into the Special Education room. He is now in that room for all classes except science which has two teachers. He needs one on one. He is thriving in this situation because the same cirriculum is taught but transition is kept at a minimum. This is very structured and kids like ours need this type of structure. A lot of the fears that he had about getting to class with everything and on time have been eliminated and now he is free to make a good student. Discuss this with your IEP team and make sure this is an option for your child that you can utilize right away if he is having problems.
7. Make sure you stress to the staff that he receive as much one on one assistance as they can provide. You can request an in room aide, lower student/teacher ratio, you can even hand pick his teachers. With an IEP, this is your right.
8.homework help (during school hours) helps to keep him up to speed on all homework assignments. You can have this time written into the IEP. He is smart and gets it all done in a quiet atmosphere. We no longer have homework struggles at home.
9. Social problems begin to become severe in middle school. A lot of kids today have grown up in tough environments and are violent and out of hand. Do what you have to do to protect your son. Find one teacher on your IEP team who will watch your son in the hallways during transition time (its usually a small area with lots of rooms leading off) or ask the teachers to rotate and keep an eye on him. Kids like ours are very vulnerable. Have ONE teacher assigned to him where he can come with complaints of aggression or teasing and teach him to go to this teacher all the time. Of course this wont be in the IEP but the IEP meeting is the best time for you to arrange it.
As a sped student you can request a modified schedule (for example, in tech ed class my son would have been required to work with very delicate instruments and technology, and because of his hyperactivity the teacher was always on edge and so was he. I took him out of this class.), request a rotation of non academic subjects or ask that a non academic subject be a permanent part of his curriculum.
Basically, you sit down and decided what your son needs and then you approach them team with those requests and dont leave until they are all addressed.
Paula
[email protected]