PROGRAM PLANNING
It is the school district's responsibility to create a program for students that meets their needs. Unfortunately, this can be a complex task for some children with learning disabilities because their needs are so great. It is not easy to remediate your child's deficits and accommodate his or her current ability levels without creating a day that is too fragmented. What is the best time to remove your child from the classroom for outside help, which is often necessary?
Certainly everyone wants the best program possible for your child; the difficulty is in actually doing it. As an educational consultant, I can help you and the district with this task because I am experienced with piecing together various goals into an integrated whole and minimizing the impact of services that require removal from the regular classroom. Working with the school's team, I can use my knowledge of educational research and practice to determine which ideas are likely to help.
A good program is more than the sum of its parts; the components need to fit together as smoothly as is reasonably possible. Sometimes something in the regular classroom has to be sacrificed to provide time for the special services. After all, there is only so much time in the day. The art of creating the child's program lies in what is going to be given up, if anything; how to minimize this from happening; and how to weave together all the parts so that the whole feels comfortable and safe. Just because your child has a special program does not mean that he or she should feel alienated from the regular class. Rather, your child (and the professionals involved) need to realize that everyone is different, with different strengths and weaknesses.