IEP Season: 5 Quick Tips to Prepare for the IEP Meeting
April 17, 2015
It’s IEP Season, that time of year when parents and school teams meet to review the following year’s Individualized Educational Program (IEP) or the plan students receiving special education services will have to meet their academic goals. IEP meetings can be stressful for families. I interviewed Dr. Wendy Matthews, a psychologist in the Princeton area who spent over 30 years in private practice specializing in children and adolescents. In that time, Dr. Matthews administered hundreds of psychoeducational evaluations. 1. What materials should parents bring with them to the IEP meeting? All past and present evaluations, doctors’ written comments as well as therapist (speech/psych/tutor) written comments. If you haven’t had a recent evaluation or you think your child might have changed since the last evaluation, you can bring… Read More
To Walk Alone: when are they ready?
June 12, 2013
By Sarah Vander Schaaff This summer, we’re going to focus on some specific questions parents might have about development and, well, life. Sometimes we’ll turn to some experts for advice, and sometimes we’ll turn to you—experts in your own right. We start with a question on many of our minds as the schedule of the school year gives way to free time: When do you let your child walk to a friend’s house alone? This is a variation on the “when do you let your child walk to school alone,” a question answered extremely well by Gavin de Becker, an expert on the predication and management of violence and author of Protecting the Gift. Mr. de Becker has a “Test… Read More
