Education and Your Child with Apraxia of Speech

Parents have many questions about educational placements for children with apraxia.  Essentially, educational settings are just as varied as the children themselves!  There is no one “right” type of classroom or school setting that is perfect for all children with CAS. 

Learning your child’s special education rights is crucial for your participation in your child’s educational planning and to prepare you as your child’s best advocate.  This is no easy feat given the busy lives we lead insuring that our children are receiving speech therapy and possibly other therapies, raising other children, working, etc.  However, it is well worth the effort because it is the only way you as the parent will be able to fully insure that your child is receiving a free appropriate education.  And, learning what the law states about your child’s educational rights also applies to parents who are planning to send their children to private schools and/or home-school.  If you in any way plan to use public services to assist in your child’s educational development, it is critically important for you to pursue knowledge and understanding of your child’s special education rights.

There are many internet resources that provide detailed information on special education rights under federal law and as interpreted through specific state regulations in your state.  Apraxia-KIDS can help you locate appropriate sources of information to begin that learning process.  However, a review of some generally important factors is provided below.

Evaluation

In order to receive preschool or school age special education services, the school district or designated appropriate agency has to evaluate your child in all areas of suspected disabilities.  If a child has been enrolled in a birth to three early intervention program, the planning for transition to preschool should occur prior to the child’s third birthday.  The school system will gather past and current information and will then, with your signed consent, create an evaluation plan to fully evaluate your child. 

Individual Education Planning (IEP)

After an evaluation is complete, a meeting should occur to review the findings of the evaluation and begin to identify a number of things about your child, including:

• His/her  present level of functioning.  This includes your child’s strengths, needs, learning style.
• Based on present level of functioning, the creation of clear and objectively measurable goals for The child to achieve in one years time (annual goals)
• Steps to achieving the goals (short term objectives or benchmarks)
• Types of supports and services the child needs to achieve the goals and objectives
• Amount of services to be provided and method of delivering the services.

Finally, when the above steps are in place, the IEP team should discuss classroom placement.  However, the legal order of these steps may not occur and IEP teams may leap straight to determining a classroom placement and THEN "backward reason"the needs, goals and services the child can have based on the placement.  Parents should be aware that the point of special education is to meet your child’s individual educational needs by providing appropriate supports and services.   A plan is to be designed around your child’s educational needs, not around a predetermined classroom and what services are reported to be available.  Your child’s needs must be the focus, thus be wary if you are told that your school district doesn’t provide a service (for example, “we only provide group speech therapy”).  A policy that would limit the available service delivery for speech therapy would be frankly illegal.  Again, the kinds of services and ways that they are to be delivered must be based on the child’s individual needs and not on convenience, budget, or preference of school systems.

Next:  Educational Placements for Your Child with CAS