Feedback is important in any setting where many people are involved. If I’m told I’m doing a good job at work, it would encourage me to “keep up the good work.” If I am driving my co-workers nuts, I need to know. It’s important to get feedback for many reasons. Sometimes it encourages us and other times it lets us know adjustments need to be made.
It’s much easier to make mid-course adjustments that it is to pick up the pieces once everything has blown up.
There is no place that this is truer than with children who have learning differences. If there isn’t a way that parents, educators and therapists are giving and receiving regular feedback, no better time than now to change that. Here are a few ideas:
- Add an accommodation to the IEP or 504 plan to have a daily communication log or sheet that comes home. We’ll talk more about what should be included tomorrow.
- Ask therapists for a regular feedback sheet. This might be monthly where they compare where your child is in comparison to his goals. It would give you an idea of where progress is being made and where more or different efforts are needed.
- Make sure there is a way (either face-to-face or written that you can give information back to all who work with your child about things that you see at home.
- Ask for a school conference a couple weeks before the normal conference time. The teacher will be less stressed and more focused on your child’s situation and you will get a picture earlier of how it’s going. This enables new interventions to be set earlier in the semester.
Advocating is a tough job but communication is a big part of staying on top of the reality of your child’s needs in all the environments he moves in day in and day out.
