Month: April 2020

Accommodations “R” Us

Recently, we talked about the mythologies associated with the 504 Plan, trying to put some of these to rest (https://shutdownlearner.com/504-you/)

This week we extend the discussion by talking about the realities of accommodations and modifications.

Keep in mind the overriding purpose of a 504 Plan is to “level the playing field,” with the premise that a child/person with a disability or a handicapping conditions is playing on a fundamentally unfair field, in comparison to those who do not have such a disability or handicap.

In this week’s and next week’s post we dig deeper into the issues associated with the 504.

Being a bit of a contrarian in style (If you’re a follower of this blog, you know what I mean), I have pushed back with both parents and schools on some of the common practices when it comes to the 504.

From my perspective, there’s a certain “knee-jerk” quality to the way accommodations are developed.

The classic example of this is the standard accommodation of “extended time” (typically, time and a half or double time extension).

Perhaps for kids from about 10th grade going into college, this accommodation of extended time is seen as valuable, but to the vast majority of children in elementary and middle school, the last thing that they want is more time on a task/test that they already detest.

(In fact, they would be dancing for joy, if you said something to them like, “Sweetheart, guess what?  Because you tend to be very distracted in school and can be very impulsive, the school has come up with a plan where you can be finished in half the amount of time that the test normally takes.  So, if the test has 20 items and takes about 40 minutes, they are going to cut it down in half for you.  You can be done in  20 minutes.”)

The point is not that extended time is a bad accommodation, but that for most of the kids of concern, especially in their younger years, the accommodation has no legitimate impact in that they neither want the extra time or take advantage of it when it is given to them.  (Of course, there are exceptions that do.)

For the most part, they want less time, not more.

We will continue this discussion of accommodations in next week’s blog, but for the time being, write down a list of no more than five items that you think would represent specific and easily implemented accommodations that would assist your child in comparison to those who do not have this handicap or disability.

Such an exercise will get you started on developing meaningful accommodations that help to “level the playing field.


Copyright, 2020 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com

To purchase a signed copy of  “What To Do About Dyslexia: 25 Essential Concepts” & Dr. Selznick’s other books and to receive blog updates go to https://shutdownlearner.com.

 


(***  Please note: Dr. Richard Selznick is a psychologist, clinician and author of four books.  His blog posts represent his opinions and perspectives based on his years of interacting with struggling children, parents and schools. )

The  advice in the blogs and in practice is governed by one overriding principle – “If this were my child, what would I do?”   The goal of the blogs and the website is to provide you with straight-forward, down-to-earth, no-nonsense advice and perspective to help cut through all of the confusion that exists in the field.)

 

504 & You

Parents will come to me seeking a 504 Plan for their child.

It is my sense that the 504 Plan, while now part of casual language, is not fully understood and is fraught with a great deal of “on-the-street” mythology.

You know how it goes, your friend or neighbor mentions she recently got a 504 Plan for her child and it is working wonders. Then you start thinking about how to get one for your child.  The neighbor makes some reference to her pediatrician writing something on a prescription pad about a 504 Plan after perhaps five minutes interacting with the child.

Your anxiety quickly elevates as you reflect on the fact that your pediatrician looked at you a bit quizzically when you asked her about obtaining a 504 for your child.

One of the “on-the-street” mythologies is that a 504 Plan is school-based, that is it originated from school regulation and procedures.

Let’s put that one to rest.  The 504 is not a school-based mandate, but it is a civil rights law.

How does that come in to play in the classroom?

As noted in the guidebook,  “Section 504: A Legal Guide for Educators,” it was explained that “Civil rights  laws are designed to promote fairness and equal treatment. Put another way, civil rights laws are meant to ‘level the playing field.’”

In explaining a civil rights law like the 504, the guide went further to encourage us to think about a football field.  Playing a game in which all of the players were not on an equal footing would be fundamentally unfair.  “Everyone should be playing on the same ground,” they stated.  “We would not expect that one football team have a smooth, grassy field and the other team have a field that has a ditch running through it and the rest of the field is full of holes and large rocks.”

For children , adolescents and college-age students, the concept is that those with identified disabilities are playing on a field that is much rougher than the one for children who do not have such disabilities.

As we go forward with talking about the realities of 504 and accommodations, I encourage you to keep reflecting on this image of “leveling the playing field” as a guide to for you as to how to proceed.  In practical terms, what does your child need to help level the playing field?

One last point.  In order to obtain a 504, it must be shown that:

  • “The students has a physical or mental impairment which substantially limits one or more major life activities and has a record of such impairments.”

Not being a lawyer, as I read that I do scratch my head a bit with the phrase “substantially limits one or more major life activities” and wonder what that means in reality for children on a day-to-day basis.

Over the next couple of weeks, we will keep exploring the practicalities of accommodations and modifications to try and cut through some of the common “on-the-street” talk.


Copyright, 2020 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com

To purchase a signed copy of  “What To Do About Dyslexia: 25 Essential Concepts” & Dr. Selznick’s other books and to receive blog updates go to https://shutdownlearner.com.

 


(***  Please note: Dr. Richard Selznick is a psychologist, clinician and author of four books.  His blog posts represent his opinions and perspectives based on his years of interacting with struggling children, parents and schools.   The goal of the blogs and the website is to provide you with straight-forward, down-to-earth, no-nonsense advice and perspective to help cut through all of the confusion that exists in the field.)

 

More on “The Diagnosis”

In this business of consulting with parents about their children’s struggles over the years, I have many standard lines that I find myself using over and over.

One of them is that what I do is, “not like real medicine.”

My point is not to be self-deprecating, but to try and ground parents in the realities of an assessment and what they can realistically expect when it comes to the findings.

For example, to my knowledge there is no objective test, no X-ray for any learning disability such as dyslexia or ADHD/ADD that offers the patient or the parent a  definitive statement, such as “Yes, your child has it,” or “No, your child does not.”

This lack of being absolute is often frustrating and dissatisfying when the results are explained to parents.

Let’s take Marissa, a 16 year old 10th grader I evaluated recently.

Marissa’s parents are questioning whether she has dyslexia.

Upon evaluating Marissa, along with the many strengths she clearly has, such as her functioning with spatial thinking and mathematic reasoning, she was a pretty inefficient reader, with somewhat weak spelling and writing.

Looking to her scores, the weaker ones fell in the range that I refer to as the  “zone of no zone,”  that is the lower portion of the “average range” on the bell-shaped curve.

From the school’s vantage point they would view her reading, spelling and writing scores as adequate.  There certainly would be no IEP generated.

Even requesting a 504 Plan for Marissa would be challenging, as the standard for obtaining a 504 is that the individual has a diagnosed medical condition or a disability that requires accommodation.

Everyone has weaknesses.  A weakness is not a disability or a medical condition.

When is a weakness just that, a weakness, and when is it a handicap or a learning disability?

There is no absolute marker to answer that question.  Sometimes, I wish there were, as it would make my life a lot easier.

Based on bell-shaped curve properties, only 15% or so  fall in the more moderate to significantly below average range.  For those children in this range, one can more conclusively make statements of a definitive diagnosis, but the rest, such as Marissa,  remain in that gray zone.

To compound the problem of the definitive diagnosis,  there are  those children who are weak, but have never received targeted instruction to remediate their weaknesses.

Since many schools now use “in-class support,” rather than offer specialized remediation,  we often have no idea, as to whether the issue is a learning disability such as dyslexia or an issue of the child not having received the right instruction

Take the comment  from an outraged mom of an 11 year old fifth grader, illustrating this point:

“She was never a good reader,”  the mom said.  “They classified her, but all she has ever gotten is in-class support.  What is that?  Mostly it’s help with directions?  All these years no one has ever taught her directly how to read, spell or write. So, how do I know if it’s a real disability or an instructional disability of never having been taught properly?”

As I listened to the mom, I had one quiet thought that remained unspoken…

“Amen.”

Takeaway Point

There is no X-ray, no objective test.  Identify the weaknesses and follow up with  good targeted instruction as priority number one.


Copyright, 2020 www.shutdownlearner.com
Questions or topics email Dr. Selznick.  Not in the South Jersey area? For a free 15 Minute Consultation, contact Dr. Selznick: email – rselznick615@gmail.com

To purchase a signed copy of  “What To Do About Dyslexia: 25 Essential Concepts” & Dr. Selznick’s other books and to receive blog updates go to https://shutdownlearner.com.

 


(***  Please note: Dr. Richard Selznick is a psychologist, clinician and author of four books.  His blog posts represent his opinions and perspectives based on his years of interacting with struggling children, parents and schools.)

 

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