Preschool Children With Special Needs, Research Paper Example

Individualized Education Plan (IEP)

Individualized Education Plan is an important integral part in the education system in the United States that guides in offering special services of education to the needy disabled children. The numbers of the needy students who need these services have been increasing dramatically in the public schools in a wide array of categories such as impairment in speech-language, learning disabilities, mental retardation, visual impairment, hearing impairment, autism among other health related impairments. Individualized Education Plan is thus a crucial program in the process of special education to facilitate a good perspective in the entire special education (Yell, Shriner, & Katsiyannis, 2006).

Individualized Education Plan is outlined in the Individualized Education Program that highlights the requirements for every eligible child to access the services of special education. The child must first be determined to suffer from a particular disability and secondly to be in dire need for services of special education as a result of the disability being suffered. The IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in section B is the governing body for IEP which is then responsible for provision of crucial information concerning the current performance levels of the children thus paving way for offering the special services to such children. The annual defining goals of the children, their progress evaluation as well as formalization of their Free & Appropriate Public Education, FAPE for the disabled students is a crucial role that is played by IEP (Yell, Shriner, & Katsiyannis, 2006).

The most important information that IEP considers in dispensation of their duty is the current academic achievements levels of the child, their functional performance, the measurable yearly goals, the need for their special education and other allied services as well as supplementary services and aids, the time period that the child should be exempted from participation in the general classes, the participation of the child is academic assessment at the district level, the date of IEP initiation and the anticipated duration for IEP, the transition services as well as evaluation of the annual goals of the child and provision of periodic reports the their parents  (Yell, Shriner, & Katsiyannis, 2006).

Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP)

The Individualized Family Service Plan, IFSP is a crucial document that offers important guidelines on issues of early interventions for the disabled children as well as their families. IFSP serves as a good vehicle for effective implementation of early intervention based of IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act section C. it also offers important details concerning the services requisite in facilitation of development of a child as well as improving the capacity of the family in facilitating the development of the child. IFSP offers a good platform for the members of the family and the service providers to work as a team during planning, implementation as well as appraisal of the services that are designed to address the unique concerns, resources as well as priorities of the family.

Identification of the resources, priorities as well as the concerns of a child is an important task for IFSP as they serve as a guiding factor in the entire process of IFSP. Early intervention must be treated as the available support as well as the service system that can be manipulated by the parents to improve their potentials for caring for the children. The idea behind the family role in partnering with the team of intervention is initiated and sustained in the initial stages of the IFSP process. It is also important to appreciate that the development of the child is based on everyday experience and the activity setting in the family is therefore crucial. The enjoyable and valuable routines of the child must be documented such as eating, playing and taking a bath. Evaluation of such activities will offer an opportunity to determine their contribution on sustainable engagement that promotes learning activities (Lerner, Lowenthal & Egar, 1998).

Differences between Individualized Education Plan and an Individualized Family Service Plan

Individualized Education Plan and Individualized Family Service Plan have some differences between them. Individualized Family Service Plan focus more interests on the family based on the premise that the family is constant in the life of the child. On the other hand, Individualized Education Plan tends to focus more on the child. The Individualized Family Service Plan also looks at the targeted outcomes from the perspective of the family while Individualized Education Plan focuses exclusively on the child considered to be eligible. The Individualized Family Service Plan also focuses on natural environment that encompasses the community and home setting including the gym classes, child care as well as parks. This is important as it is a source of learning opportunities in interventions that take in to consideration the daily activities and routines as opposed to the formal artificial environments (Zhang & Bennett, 2000). Individualized Family Service Plan also entails the activities that are executed by the multiple agencies over and above section C scope where all services are effectively integrated in to a single plan. Individualized Family Service Plan also identifies the coordinator of the service that is resourceful to the family in the course of development, implementation as well as appraisal of the Individualized Family Service Plan.

References

Lerner, J.W., Lowenthal, B., and Egar, R. (1998). Preschool children with special needs. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.

Yell, M. L., Shriner, J. G., & Katsiyannis, A.,  (2006). Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement  Act of 2004 and IDEA regulations of 2006: Implications for educators, administrators, and teacher trainers. Focus on Exceptional Children, 39(1), 1–24.

Zhang, C. & Bennett, T. (2000). The IFSP/IEP process: Do recommended practices address culturally and linguistically diverse families? (CLAS Technical Report #10). Champaign, IL: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Early Childhood Research Institute on Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services.