Madeline Bergstrom

Special Education 420

IEP Meeting Reflection

The school that I am at for advanced practicum did not have any IEP

meetings scheduled during the time I was there. Therefore I had to travel to a new

school and sit in on a meeting for a kid I did not know, with staff members I did not

know either. With this being said, it was an interesting meeting to observe. This

unbiased perception gave me the ability to take the meeting for what it was. The

child is in first grade and currently receives social/emotional and communication

services from two separate people. The special education teacher meets with him

everyday for social/emotional interventions geared toward the competency of body

and anger management. The speech pathologist also meets with him on a semi-

regular basis to work on the pronunciation of sounds such as /y/. Both of these

professionals along with the students classroom teacher and both parents were

there. The special education teacher led the conversation that was mostly centered

on the growth he has made from Kindergarten to the beginning of first grade. Then

she moved on to relay his new IEP goals for the year. She turned over the

conversation to the speech pathologist, who talked about that piece for roughly 5

minutes total.

The entire meeting was quite positive. The special education teacher was

very knowledgeable and showed extreme grace when it came to speaking with the

parents about some concerning behaviors the school has seen though the main

focus was on his growth. The parents seemed on board in support of the schools

observations and created goals for him. This was a great way to gain home support
toward meeting his goals. They even came up with a behavior chart together that

will be used at home too. Overall, it seemed like a true team effort, as it should be. I

look forward to attending more meetings in the future so that I can learn more

about the IEP process, especially related to parent connections to their childs

learning at school.