The Importance of the individual education plan and how it is used to implement services.

            It is important to have the Individual Education Plan or IEP because it is mandate by public law 101-476P:  The Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1990 and it is developed for preschoolers thru age 21 who are eligible for services.  IEP is crucial because it is for the family members and professionals to work together to help the children with disabilities.  The professionals use IEP to help themselves break down the process of meeting the goals by creating smaller and simpler steps to meet the goal. 

            The professionals and family members must focus on each child’s social and emotion, language, cognitive, and physical skills to analyze and determine areas of need.  When the professionals and family members work on the children’s goals through positive collaborative attitudes, then the children will successful meet their goals specially designed for their needs.

            The professionals’ duties are to get to know the child and find out the child’s general strength and sum up the assessment records.  Also they will need to communicate and listen to the parents’ concerns and desires for their children’s needs.  Then the professionals will do some research on the child’s academic and behavior performance.  That is when the professional will generate annual goals and short term objectives to meet the child’s needs.  After analyzing and see how the goals has been met, they will discuss with the other professionals and parents to decided what types of service the child will need as long as they have an official IEP.  Then they can execute their decision about who, when, how, and where to help the child to promote success.     

            Finally, for special education teacher, regular teacher, and other professionals such as Occupational Therapist and Physical Therapist work together to meet the child’s needs, they must communicate, communicate and communicate to stay on the same page and be aware of what the child’s needs.  They need to look over their materials, information, and understand what the child’s needs and implement them.   

                 

The Reference:

Cook,R.E., Klein, M.D. &Tessier, A. (2008).  Adapting early childhood curricula for children with Special Needs (7^th Ed).  Upper Saddle River, NJ:  Pearson Prentice Hall.