Tag: parent advocacy
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Practice the IEP Meeting Before You Walk In (Free AI Prompt for Parents)
Here is the thing nobody tells you about IEP meetings. You will walk in prepared. You will have your folder. You will have rehearsed what you want to say in the shower for three weeks. And then someone will smile warmly across the table and say “We’re really pleased with how she’s responding,” and you…
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How to Read a Psychoeducational Evaluation Report
A parent-friendly walkthrough of how to actually read your child’s psychoeducational evaluation: what to read first, how to compare cognitive to academic, where the dyslexia signs hide, and how to know if the conclusions match the data.
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Dyslexia vs ADHD vs 2e: How to Tell What’s Going On
Dyslexia, ADHD, and twice-exceptional (2e) overlap in confusing ways. Here’s how the underlying scores tell them apart, and what to ask the evaluator when more than one is on your radar.
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What Is Structured Literacy? A Parent-Friendly Guide
Structured literacy is a teaching approach with five specific characteristics, not a single program. Here’s what it actually means, what it isn’t, and how to tell if your kid is getting it.
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504 vs IEP: Which Does My Child Need?
504 plans and IEPs sound similar but are very different legal tools. Here’s how to tell which one your child actually needs, what each one provides, and what to do when the school pushes one over the other.
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How to Read Your Child’s Special Education Evaluation (Without Getting Talked Past)
Every single standard score on a special education evaluation has measurement error baked into it. If you get a report with a score of 81, the 81 isn’t a single fixed point. It’s the middle of a range. Depending on the test and the subtest, the actual ability the score is trying to capture could…
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5 Questions to Ask Your School About Its Reading Screener
Most parents never see the test their kid took. They see the result, sometimes a label like “approaching grade level” or “on track,” and they’re told the school’s plan based on it. The screener itself, the data behind the label, and the rules the school is using to decide who gets help: those usually stay…
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The Special Education Paper Trail Schools Don’t Volunteer (And How to Find It)
The first time I sat through an IEP meeting where I felt completely outmatched, I left the room thinking the same thing every parent has thought at some point. “I have no idea if any of what they just said is actually true.” The school had a process. They referenced their process. They said things…
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TOWRE-2 Explainer
A Parent Field Guide TOWRE-2: What parents actually need to know. Test of Word Reading Efficiency, Second Edition The TOWRE-2 is the test that asks one question: how fast can your child read words against the clock? Not how accurately. Not how comprehensively. Just speed and automaticity. In dyslexia evaluation, that question is the one…
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Beery VMI Explainer
A Parent Field Guide Beery VMI: What parents actually need to know. Beery-Buktenica Developmental Test of Visual-Motor Integration The Beery VMI is the test the OT or evaluator gives when handwriting, drawing, or fine motor coordination is on the table. It looks simple. Your child copies geometric shapes onto paper. But the three subtests together…