Mental Health and IEPs

If you've followed or read my blog prior to this, you already know that I am a huge mental health awareness advocate, and that my commitment extends well beyond my profession as an OT working in special education.  My oldest daughter had a mental health diagnosis and was on an IEP, with the primary disability category of "Emotional Disturbance," which is one of the 13 disability categories in the state that we live in (ND).  Now, that being said, my daughter was very intelligent, gifted in many ways, and her cognition was not an issue.  Her academic performance was not impacted in terms of her ability.  But, her ability to carry out tasks/her executive functioning was inhibited by her disability, and her disability impacted her interpersonal relationships, both with peers and with school staff. 

I very often feel that kids with mental health issues fly under the radar, or are under served in the special education realm.  I see it a lot in my practice in the school system, and I have to admit that it really irritates me as a mom who knows the ropes a bit more than the average person does.  Even special educators have indicated to me that they don't feel a child with emotional concerns (whether there is a formal diagnosis or not) would "qualify" for an IEP because they are fine academically/cognitively.  Every state's Department of Public Instruction will have guidelines and criteria for serving students with mental health issues, and the name of the disability category that mental health fits under may vary from state to state.  But, regardless of the title of the disability category, it is IMPERATIVE that the multi disciplinary team (MDT) look at the whole picture when determining if a child's emotional health adversely effects their educational performance.  "Educational Performance" is not limited to academics and grades in this instance.  According to the North Dakota Department of Public Instruction, the following criterion must be considered when considering if a child's mental health/emotional health is effecting his/her educational performance:

"Adverse Effect on Educational Performance":
The MDT must determine that the emotional disturbance has an adverse effect on the student’s educational performance and his/her ability to receive reasonable benefit from the general education program.

The emotional disturbance has an adverse effect on the student’s educational
performance, preventing the student from receiving reasonable educational benefit from
general education, as evidenced by one or both of the following criteria:

• Academic functioning: an inability to receive reasonable educational benefit from general education that is not the result of intellectual, sensory or other health factors, but is due to the identified emotional disturbance; and/or
• Social/emotional functioning: an inability to build or maintain interpersonal relationships, which significantly interferes with the student’s social development. Social development involves those adaptive behaviors and social skills that enable a student to meet environmental demands and assume responsibility for his or her welfare.

This reminds the MDT that the definition of “educational performance” includes interpersonal relationships and social development. The team must identify that the emotional disturbance has an adverse impact on one or both of these items.

The above excerpt was taken from the following publication:
"Guidelines for Serving Students with Emotional Disturbance in Educational Settings"
SPECIAL EDUCATION IN NORTH DAKOTA
North Dakota Department of Public Instruction
Kirsten Baesler, State Superintendent
Office of Special Education
600 E. Boulevard Ave., Dept. 201
Bismarck ND 58505-0440

Be sure to look up your state or area's criteria/guidelines for determining if a child's educational performance is being impacted by a mental health diagnosis or emotional issue. 

Floor Activity- Crossing Midline

Crossing midline simply means that a a child reaches across their body with either hand (such as to use his/her left hand to reach across to the right of their body and vice versa).  Think of it as if there is an imaginary vertical line down the center of their body, and crossing midline would mean moving a hand or foot across that line to the other side of it.  When a child crosses midline, new connections are made between the right side and the left side, and both sides then are working together, rather than independently of each other.  It integrates the 2 sides of the brain, and organizes the brain for better concentration and problem solving.   The following is a floor activity that encourages kids to cross midline:

Have the child sit on a piece of poster paper.  Using markers, have them draw an arc around themselves from one side of the paper to the other.  

Change colors several times to make a series of arcs.

Switch hands to cross midline from the other side.

 When they stand up, the end result is a rainbow.

You can find more information and activities regarding crossing midline from these previous posts:
http://fabulousfriendsot.blogspot.com/2013/12/crossing-midline.html
http://fabulousfriendsot.blogspot.com/2014/05/lazy-8s.html
http://fabulousfriendsot.blogspot.com/2014/04/double-doodles.html

Classroom Activity Folder

I often get asked to give teachers and paraprofessionals ideas and activities that can be carried out with students during the week, as I am only there for a brief period of time weekly, and carry over is important for progression.  This is an example of an activity folder that I made for an individual student- his teacher/para have allotted some time in his daily schedule to work on motor skills activities.  I have several handouts of my own that I have created, but I also added some worksheets and laminated activity sheets that the para can use that support goal attainment.  Paras and teachers do not often have "free time" to find and create things for their students in addition to the curriculum that they are carrying out.

I will periodically add to the folder over the school year- this particular folder has pockets for proprioceptive/sensory activities, core strength/balance, strengthening, bilateral tasks, fine motor skills and visual motor skills.  I did add a brief narrative to each pocket, explaining what these activities work toward and why they are pertinent- because if the people carrying them out don't see a point, then they are less likely to do them.

This is just an easy way to encourage use of sensory based activities and carry over of motor activities on a regular basis rather than just during the short period of direct OT service time that students get weekly or monthly.

More from TheJocelynThomasProject;

In February, I posted about my mission as a mental health and suicide awareness advocate through theJocelynThomasProject; on behalf of my daughter Jocelyn, who we lost to mental illness and suicide in October, 2015.  You can find that original post here:  http://fabulousfriendsot.blogspot.com/2017/02/thejocelynthomasproject.html
Here is an update on what we have been up to the past couple of months since that first post:

My daughter Thea accompanied me to speak to grades 6-12
at Berthold School (Lewis and Clark 161 District) on 3/27/17.

I wore Jocelyn's Adventure Time socks to speak to grades 

6-12 at Sawyer Public School on 3/31/17.

The responses to our presentations have been very positive, and we are grateful that the schools in our area are making an effort to support their students and make mental health and suicide awareness a priority.  Let's keep going.  Learn More, Do More.  Much Love- Joleen,  Jocelyn's mom

Awesome Activity Blogs/Websites

 What a slacker I've been~ no posts in March??  Well, I haven't really been a slacker, but maybe focusing my time on other things...  Anyway, lately I have been relying on other fantastic bloggers and websites to add to my repertoire of activities, and some are just so well done, I wanted to share!
Check out some of these:

Life Over C's
http://lifeovercs.com/start-here/

Preschool Printables
http://owensfamily-gwyn.blogspot.com/

Tools To Grow~ Resources for Occupational Therapists
https://www.toolstogrowot.com/

Teachers Pay Teachers
https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Match-Fishtank?gclid=CNuHp5Pcs9MCFQ9EfgodHrQGvA

These sites have free printables, and many available for purchase.  You can create an account, sign up for email alerts, or become a member to access all kinds of creative activities, crafts and resources. Check them out!

Here are some things I found for Earth Day:

From Life Over C's

By Adapting for Autism on Teachers Pay Teachers

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from Miss Joleen and my Fabulous Friends!  

Painting some love on basic white paper~

TheJocelynThomasProject;

This post is a bit self serving, because it's a cause that is near and dear to me.  I am a suicide loss survivor.  Me.  Personally.  I don't like that label, but I do own it.  I lost my 18 year old daughter to suicide in October 2015.  Since that time, my family and I have tried to find ways to make something positive come out of the tremendous loss of our daughter and the destruction that suicide has caused to her family and friends.  And so, I have become a field advocate for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention (https://afsp.org/), we have sold countless t shirts to raise awareness in and around our community, we have raised money for AFSP and participated in the Out of the Darkness Walk (http://afsp.donordrive.com/), and we have promoted and made ourselves available to our community and surrounding area to speak to others about mental health and suicide awareness.  All of these things we do in memory of and in honor of our daughter, Jocelyn, and we call our efforts TheJocelynThomasProject; (semi colon at the end intended, bc it indicates that her story isn't over yet).

Last Friday, I talked to a nearby high school about mental health and suicide awareness:

I spoke to grades 6-12 at Velva Public School on 2/3/17
regarding mental health and suicide awareness.

I do not know where TheJocelynThomasProject; will go from here, but we are on a mission.  Do your best to promote mental health and suicide awareness in your communities~  Learn More, Do More.
Much love~  Joleen