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A Portrait of Michael
IEP Meeting (Date)
Michael is a very caring, sensitive
child. He is excited about turning seven years old this summer. He has a strong average verbal I.Q. and a
high average performance I.Q. His
written language output is impacted by his slow motor skills and a compulsion
to make his work appear perfect. This
results in many erasures and false starts on his papers.
If we consider the stronger, performance
IQ as the more indicative of his true ability, he shows a 17 point or greater
discrepancy in the areas of Reading Comprehension, Oral Language, Broad Written
Language, Written Expression, Understanding Directions, Spelling, and Writing
Fluency.
If we consider
the full scale I.Q. of (XXX), there is a 17 point or greater discrepancy in
writing fluency, broad written language, written expression, and spelling.
While he is very motivated to make
friends, he has a hard time knowing how to appropriately interact with the few
children who will play with him. He has
a serous deficit in social skills that impact him both at school and at
home. These problems include:
Social
Skills
1. He lacks understanding of social cues and tends to engage in one
sided interactions.
2. He has problems inferring the intentions
of others.
3. He has difficulty appropriately
initiating a conversation or maintaining a give-and-take conversation.
4. He has great difficulty recognizing the
emotions others are feeling as he does not read nonverbal social cues, such as
facial expressions or body language.
5. He does not know how to appropriately
respond to others’ feelings.
6. The independent speech/language
pathologist states that Michael can recognize a social situation, but has no
clue as to how to problem solve in social settings.
7. He can have very rigid expectations of
what other people should do in a seemingly prescripted social setting. Hi is improving slightly in this area.
8. He has great difficulty understanding
when others use figures of speech and abstract concepts. He understands only concrete information.
9. He is very protective of personal space
and does not understand how to appropriately enforce the space when he feels
the need.
10. He requires a long processing time and
may not respond in the time usually allotted by peers for a response.
11. He does not understand unwritten rules,
and that what may be the rule in one setting does not apply to all
settings. This can cause problems in
change of teachers or change of classrooms as well as in peer interactions.
12. The rules he does understand he applies
rigidly, both to himself and to others.
13. When extremely frustrated or over
stimulated, Michael will present as catatonic until he calms down.
14. Indicators that his state is imminent are
subtle and easily missed by adults, much less by his peers.
These social deficits have resulted in
his being puzzled and hurt when rebuffed by other children. He does not understand why they do not want
to play with him. There have also been
some unhappy incidents on the playground at school. Unless social skill deficits are addressed intensively, with
adult coaching for understanding, implementation, and generalization, we have
serous concerns about his future self-esteem.
Without step by step instruction and coaching, at school as well as at
home, Michael may be at risk as an adult seeking higher education and’/or a
profession or vocation. The ability to
successfully interact socially is a prerequisite to success as an adult. We are concerned that teachers be trained to
sort out behaviors that result from an incompetency related to the disability,
rather than view all misbehavior as noncompliance.
Sensory
Issues
15. Michael has always been very sensitive to
noises, especially “sharp” noises, or loud background noises.
16. He is very sensitive to maintaining his
personal space, which is very obvious when he is stressed out or overwhelmed.
17. He is very sensitive to many tastes and
has just a few foods he will eat. He is
very gradually improving in this area.
Learning
18. Difficulty or slowness in retrieving
specific answers to questions. Recalls
large chunks of information more efficiently, giving the appearance of
efficient memory skills.
19. Needs plenty of time to retrieve such
information. Sometimes needs cuing to
successfully retrieve information
20. Motor difficulties that require OT services.(OT
eval ….date)
21. Poor organizational skills.
22. Poor planning skills.
23. Difficulty in breaking large tasks into
manageable chunks.
24. Difficulty with sustained attention
(Psych ed eval…date)
25. Difficulty with exerting mental control
(Psych ed eval…date)
26. Difficulty with concentration (Psych ed
eval …Date)
27. Difficulty adapting to new
situations(Psych Ed eval…Date)
28. Pragmatic skill difficulties requiring
speech/language therapy.(Speech/language eval…date)
29. Relative weakness in visual processing
speed may make the task of comprehending novel information more time consuming
and difficult. (Psych ed eval,…date)
30. Detecting essential details in visually
presented material and differentiating them from nonessential materials. (Psych
ed eval, …date)
31. Responding to questions about common
events, objects, places, and people. (Psych ed eval,..Date)
32. Weakness in understanding number
concepts, including unite and geometric measurement and simple one-step word
problems.(Psych ed eval,…date)
Strengths
·
Can
organize visual information analyzing part-whole relationships when information
is presented spatially. (Psych ed eval,…date)
·
Ability to
detect essential details in visually presented material and to differentiate
them from nonessential details. (Psych ed eval…date)
·
Numerical
operations (Psych ed eval,…date)
·
Completing
nonverbal tasks
·
Vocabulary
(Psych ed eval, …date)
·
Replicating
a three dimensional figure from a two dimensional visual cue such as a picture.
·
Creating
imaginative stories and expressing them verbally
·
Appreciates
obviously silly and absurd humor
·
Is very
caring about family members, friends, and even strangers
·
Is very
tender hearted
Future
Hopes
We hope Michael will keep his enthusiasm
for learning. We want him to be a
productive, independent member of society.
We wish for him to have a great support network of good friends, and
hope that by the time he is an adult, Michael will have the ability to read
social situations realistically and problem solve appropriately.
We
respectfully request this Portrait of Michael be included in the written record
of this meeting as part of our parent input.
Michael's parents and Judy Bonnell give permission to reproduce this page for reference purposes only and retain all rights to same.
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