Advocating for your child is hard work! I recently had a mother say to me, "I have no idea where to begin." I can relate. I have advocated for my son for over a decade. It's hard to remember those early days and what I did first. There is a real learning curve to becoming an advocate.
These days, I serve as a parent advocate. It is two fold, I work with parents helping them determine priorities for their child. Once these priorities are set, a strategy and plans are devised to start the advocating process. Normally, my primary area is working with families on a child's school program. Some examples of these are
- More inclusion
- More specially designed instruction in a resource room
- Social Interaction instruction/interaction opportunities
- More structure for lunch and recess
- Speech or Occupational Therapy services
- Para Educator support
- Organizational strategies taught directly
- Reducing the academic gap between the child and peers
This list could be much longer but this may get some thinking going regarding potential priorities. Once a few areas are chosen, it's time to get to work with a plan to accomplish the parents highest priorities. Often, I sit down with a family and help them formulate a plan of how to tackle these. This takes some knowledge of the issues, possible solutions, understanding how education and the special education system works. There is so much to learn when beginning this advocating process.
If a family can have a guide for the first couple of years, it will be very helpful and a lot less frustrating!! If a family can afford to hire a parent paid advocate, it will often be very helpful. If its not in the budget or you can't find a parent advocate, ask a seasoned parent who has traveled down this road to assist you. It is amazing how an experienced person can help pave the way. It is wonderful to have someone, who has sat through many school meetings, to answer questions, share experience and wisdom with many new situations.
Advocating can feel very overwhelming but bringing in others who have first hand experience as an advocate can make this process much easier.
Posted with Blogsy