I think my child needs help in school. What do I do?
When a child begins their academic careers in Preschool and Kindergarten, we want to build this experience up. We want it to be fun and engaging. We want our children to establish friendships, learn how to seek help and ask questions, learn healthy emotional coping skills to deal with the current and future problems that they will encounter, and obtain the academic skills that will be necessary to advance their learning. But what happens when that is not the "perfect scenario" that you and your child are experiencing? What then? This blog post hopes to address this issue and empower you as a parent to ask the right questions to collaborate with your school team. Please note. This article focuses on School-Age children. Preschool and prior to preschool work a little differently. I will provide an article that addresses preschool referrals for related service consideration.
Let's start off by talking about the million different reasons that may lead to unexpected underachievement. Why is this considered unexpected? It is considered unexpected because we make the assumption that every child has at least average skills to facilitate achievement and learning at a level that is consistent with age and grade-level expectations. At times, this may not be the case. Something that I would be remised to not address is academic expectations. As a parent, we want our children to succeed and excel in school. We want to encourage and at times, put forth the expectations that our child will achieve all A's or all A's and B's in school, that they will take all honors, Advanced Placement (AP) or International Baccalaureate (IB) courses and if they do not, we attribute it to them being lazy (Disclaimer. This is my LEAST favorite term to hear anyone say about a child, whether it be from the parent or teacher. Laziness can be a symptom of many underlying issues), not working hard, or maybe there is something else going on. I'm not encouraging you to lower your expectations; however, I want to challenge you to create realistic and obtainable academic expectations for your child.
Not every child is going to be able to achieve high marks on report cards, even when they put forth their best effort. We want children to experience success and when our academic exceptions are not in alignment with what the child is able to do, it makes it rather difficult to experience success, which can decrease intrinsic motivation to do well It can be an ugly circle, especially once the child hits the middle school and high school level. In order to help manage experienced levels of general and performance anxiety in our children, our expectations need to be in alignment with our child's true potential (Not necessarily what we as parents envision), when taking into account various factors that may adversely impact a child's ability to excel in school. I know that this is a shift in mindset for many, but it is my challenge to you.
Let's take a look at various factors that may impact a child's ability to both learn AND demonstrate an understanding of content. Please note, this is not an all-encompassing list.
What is Response to Intervention (RtI)?
Response to Intervention (RtI) is a system of support aimed at providing support or enriched learning opportunities for students. The goal of this systematic approach is to increase an area of weakness through the identification of specific supports and interventions that promote individual student success. These identified areas may consist of things such as Achievement(reading, writing, mathematics), behavior management, social and emotional functioning, behavioral and/or emotional regulation, organization, etc. There are many different ways that a team can identify needed areas of growth and provide support.
RtI and the Three-Tiered Model of School Support
Foundation of RtI
The foundation of RtI is based on the use of best practices and research-based teaching methods. All students should have access to the standards-based core curriculum within a differentiated classroom that aims to reach and enrich all students.
Why is a child referred for a RtI meeting and what happens?
Referrals to a RtI team may occur for many different reasons. A student may be experiencing academic, behavioral, social, emotional, health, and/or attendance concerns. If a student continues to struggle despite attempts to remedy the initial concerns between the classroom teacher and the parent, a referral may be made to the school's RtI team. At that point, a team of school-based professionals may consist of you (the parent), the classroom teacher, the RtI coordinator/chairperson, the administrator, specialists (reading, math, mental health provider), the school counselor, and/or the school psychologist. The team will consist of individuals who will have relevant contributions to the referral, but the parent will always be included.
During that meeting, the team will review school information, available data, and observations that were made. The team will discuss the parent and/or teacher concerns that warranted the referral to the RtI team. It is important to note that you are a critical part of the team and of the planning process! We want your input and we want you to ask questions when something doesn't seem right or if the team is discussing something that you may not completely understand. The team will work together to develop a specific action plan that is focused on meeting the student's individual needs. The team will identify appropriate research-based interventions and strategies that are in alignment with the referral and concern. It is important to ask questions to the team as to why an intervention method/program was selected. What exactly does the intervention address and is it in alignment with the area(s) that needs support? Once an intervention plan is made, this plan should have information as to what intervention will be provided, who is providing the intervention, how many sessions per week and how long each session will be (frequency and duration), who will be monitoring the intervention plan, is the goal measurable, and when will the team reconvene to discuss the response to intervention (See? That is why it is called Response to Intervention RtI). At the follow-up meeting, the team may discuss the following potential outcomes:
Outcome 1: The student is making adequate progress toward the goal, so the team may decide to continue providing the intervention.
Outcome 2: The student made substantial progress and the goal was met. The team may recommend that the student be dismissed from RtI.
Outcome 3: The student made limited progress toward the goal. The team may recommend changing the service delivery of the intervention to better target the identified area(s) of need.
Outcome 4: The team may determine that the student did not respond to the intervention, which may warrant an evaluation for special education services (if other interventions were tried).
We will discuss a special education evaluation in the next article.
In closing.
The one thing that I cannot encourage you enough to do as a parent is to work with your school team. Your school team is there to help your child. Starting off this journey with a collaborative approach is the best way to support your child. Ask questions. If you notice your child is struggling at home with schoolwork or you do not feel like he/she is truly progressing through the curriculum, or if you are wondering if there is something else you can do to support your child at home, ask your child's teachers and/or school team. We have a plethora of resources and experience. We are here and ready to help!
Resources
http://www.rtinetwork.org/learn/what/whatisrti
https://www.interventioncentral.org/
