Skip to main content

Tailoring the Strengths and Weaknesses Part of the IEP to your Aspie Child

How an Individual Education Plan (IEP) is Structured
An IEP is designed to be a "flow-on" document where the issues are identified up-front and the remainder of the document covers methods of dealing with them.

The IEP will start with a bit of information about the child, the diagnosis, who is present at the meeting, etc. I'm not going to cover this bit as it's simply box-ticking on the form.

The first part of the IEP will attempt to ask and answer two questions;
1. What are the child's strengths and interests?
2. What are the perceived weaknesses of the child?

It is important to get these questions properly answered as the entire remainder of the IEP will reference them. This post will attempt to provide some background on the sorts of things that should be in these areas with particular emphasis on their relevance to the aspergers condition.

Keep in mind though that aspergers manifests itself differently from one individual to another and that all children will have different strengths and weaknesses. Your child's IEP should look considerably different from that of another child. They're individual education plans, after all.


What are the child's strengths and interests?
In this section, you should be making a note of things such as;
  • particular subjects that the child is good at
  • specific abilities which the child can draw up (eg: artistic talents)
  • specific abilities which are part of the aspergers condition and which are demonstrated in the child (for example; good long term memory).
  • the best learning patterns for the child; ie: they are very "visual".
  • specific interests - for example; the child loves transformers, dinosaurs etc.

What are the perceived weaknesses of the child?
In this section, you need to be quite specific. Simply saying "English" isn't sufficient - you need to cover things such as;
  • subject areas - specific parts of a subject, spelling - (part of English) for example
  • social skills - since these are part of the criteria for aspergers, it's expected that they will make an appearance somewhere as a weakness - again, be specific - for example; problems making friends, is very different from problems playing with other children.
  • issues with children taking things literally - this is a well documented asperger trait that you should be aware of. In particular, this can cause issues in religion classes and when classmates make general comments to your child. We recently had some issues with our child taking religious instruction too literally.
  • emotive concerns - remember that children with aspergers aren't always great at showing emotion but they DO still FEEL those emotions. If your child is unhappy about coming to school, there could be an emotive reason behind it.
  • muscular issues - aspergers is known for hypotonia (low muscle tone), this may affect performance at sports and even sitting/standing posture.
  • memory and concentration issues - common asperger traits are poor short term memory and high distractability. These interfere with a child's ability to stay focussed and to carry out multi-part instructions. It is expected that they will appear in the IEP at some point, again, be specific.
  • comorbid conditions - many aspergers children have additional issues including learning problems, add/adhd, bipolar disorder and dsylexia amongst others. You need to ensure that these are referenced in the IEP.
  • medication - if your child is on any medication, for example; Ritalin, you should make sure that it gets mentioned here.
  • routine fixations - aspergers children can often display great resistance to change. If this is affecting your child at school, make sure that it's listed in the IEP.
  • meltdowns - if your child's meltdowns are an issue or if they are increasing, even if this is only happening at home, get it listed on the IEP. Increased meltdowns could indicate that the child is under stress. It could also mean that it's only a matter of time before your child has a meltdown at school. Forewarned is forearmed, and teachers who have been made aware of the condition are more likely to be sympathetic to your child.
Your IEP shouldn't have all of these strengths and weaknesses, just the ones which apply to your child. A large IEP can be unweildy, so if you find that you have more than about five of each, you might want to restrict the IEP to the most critical concerns first, with the option to review in six to twelve months.

In my next post, I'll look at ways in which the IEP can address the weaknesses by drawing on the strengths.

Comments

Anonymous said…
I just found your site and I'm glad I did. As both a parent of a child who has Asperger's and an educator I found this post and your post on hyptonia to be especially useful. They really provide clarity, Thanks!
AspieMom said…
Great article! Very useful to anyone filling out the IEP Consultation Form.

Popular posts from this blog

Aspie Myths - "He Won't Miss Me"

I apologise for the excessive "male-orientated" viewpoint in this post. I tried to keep it neutral but somehow, it just works better when explained from a male viewpoint. Here's a phrase that I've seen repeated throughout the comments on this blog on several occasions; "I know that he won't miss me when I'm gone because he's aspie" Today, we're going to (try to) bust that myth; Individuals I'll start off with a reminder that everyone is an individual. If all aspies were completely alike and predictible, they'd be a stereotype but they're not. Each is shaped by their background, their upbringing, their beliefs and their local customs. An aspie who grew up with loud abusive parents has a reasonable chance of becoming loud and abusive themselves because in some cases, that's all they know. That's how they think adults are supposed to behave. In other cases, aspies who grew up in those circumstances do a complete about-fa

Why Do Aspies Suddenly Back-Off in Relationships? (Part 1)

One of the most frequent questions I'm asked is why an aspie (or suspected aspie) suddenly goes "cold" and backs off on an otherwise good relationship. It's a difficult question and the answers would vary considerably from one person to another and would depend greatly on the circumstances. Nevertheless, I'll try to point out some possibilities. Negative Reasons I generally like to stay positive on this blog and assume that people are not necessarily "evil" but simply misguided. Unfortunately, I do have to acknowledge that there are some people out there who take advantage of others. I read a book a few years ago on "sociopaths in the workplace" and I was stunned by the figures. They suggested that sociopaths were so common that most workplaces (small business) had at least one or two. The fact is that there are lots of people out there who really feel very little for others and who are very manipulative. I'd like to say that aspies aren

Why do Aspies Suddenly Back Off in Relationships (Part 2)

In part one, we looked at the role that Change Resistance plays in causing aspies to suddenly go "cold" in otherwise good relationships. This time, I want to look at self esteem and depression; Self Esteem The aspie relationship with themselves is tedious at best. People with Asperger's commonly suffer from low self esteem. As discussed in earlier posts, this low self esteem often results from years of emotional turmoil resulting from their poor social skills. Aspies are often their own worst enemy. They can over analyze situations and responses in an effort to capture lost nonverbal communication. This often causes them to invent problems and to imagine replies. Everything made up by aspies will tend to be tainted with their own self image. This is one of reasons that people with Asperger's will sometimes decide that they are not good enough for their partner and that they must let them go. Sometimes, the aspie will develop a notion of chivalry or self-sacrific