Billy Ray Was Born Too Soon

I was talking with my friend, Irma, from Texas the other day. Our conversation stirred my thinking to the difference in what special needs children are offered now than what they were as Billy Ray was growing up.

I wonder if Billy Ray was in school now as opposed to when he started school would he be reading now? I remember so well trying to get the IEP team to accept that he could count to 14 and sight read some. Instead they wanted to put goals in the IEP for “sorting” various objects so that he would be able to work in a sheltered workshop as an adult.

If I had created the advocacy methods I used by the end of his education would he have gotten further in school. Probably. If only we could go back to the multi handicapped preschool and deal with what I call “only the dumb parent treatment”.

I recently saw a mug advertised on a website that said “I survived an IEP”. I wish I would have bookmarked that and shared the link with you but I didn’t. It does make the point that they can become a battle. When that happens the real victim is the child because nothing gets accomplished while the team is fighting.

It is my hope that the methods I learned a little late but share with you in Parenting Your Complex Child will help many of you avoid “only the dumb parent treatment” and become the rightful leader of your child’s team.

Until tomorrow,
Peggy Lou Morgan
www.parentingyourcomplexchild.com
www.lighthouseparents.com