The crucial thing about IEPs is that they remain positive, flexible and open to review, as Colette Drifte explains
David, aged five, has a behaviour problem and his early years teacher, his mum and David himself, together with the school's Special Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO), have decided on an Individual Education Plan (IEP) that is aimed at tackling David's difficulties.
The revised Code of Practice, to be implemented in January 2002, places a greater emphasis on involving both the child and his parents in the planning, implementation and review of the child's IEP, even at the early years stage. David, for example, chooses his next activity when he has achieved one of his targets.
When you are planning an IEP, you can try to involve the child by speaking to him about his difficulties and encouraging him to tell you how he feels about his work. Explain why the IEP is being drawn up and, if possible, make sure he understands its targets.
When you are planning an IEP, you should:
- include only what is additional to or different from your differentiated curriculum
- choose three or four targets at the most
- select the targets by working from what the child can already do
- discuss with everybody involved with the child what is the best way of working towards achieving the targets
- decide on a date for the targets to be achieved, usually about three months from the start of the programme
- decide which members of staff are to be involved and try as far as possible to stick to this
- timetable the frequency and length of the teaching sessions
- decide on the criteria for success
- list the equipment and apparatus to be used for the sessions
- book the date of the review of the IEP, to take place in about three months.
Be flexible
It is important to be flexible with an IEP. If it seems to be failing the child, it needs to be changed. There is no failure in admitting that it is not working - the failure is in refusing to acknowledge failure. The parts of the IEP that are giving difficulty, whether these are the targets, the staff involved or the time of the sessions, must be altered.
An IEP is a working record and should record the dates that the child's performance was checked, by whom and with what result, anything that is causing difficulty for the child, any pattern that seems to be emerging, such as the child always failing to meet a target during a particular session or with a particular member of staff, and any methods that seem to work well or any strategies that seem to fail.
Positive approach
Positive teaching is crucial. It would be stating the obvious to say that an unhappy child cannot learn effectively. This involves more than just praising the child as he achieves something. It is an approach that should be consciously adopted.
- Always try to involve the child himself in recording his success.
- Always work in small steps.
- Never move on to the next skill until the previous one has been thoroughly learned and consolidated.
- If a target is too difficult, reduce the steps towards it.
- If the child shows signs of distress or tiredness, stop the session.
- Always be patient with the child and give him plenty of repetition. He won't mind 'overkill' and he will probably need all the practice he can get.
- There will be occasions when both you and the child don't work quite as well together as usual. In that situation, take time out until you and/or the child are calmer.
- Always be consistent in approach and record this.
- Always praise the child when he achieves success, but also be truthful. Even a very young child knows whether he really has managed to reach a goal, so your false praise will be easily detected.
- Always refer to failure in a positive way. For example, 'That wasn't a bad try, Spencer. Now let's see if we can manage to do it by having a go at it this way.'
- Always check previously achieved targets on a regular basis.
David's IEP seems to be working, not least because everybody is involved in its implementation. His review is due soon and hopes are high that David's behaviour difficulties will resolve themselves before long.
