Dr. Mary Barbera discusses what to expect at an IEP meeting with Amanda DeLuca and Kirby Morgan.
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What is an IEP? And how do you prepare for your first or next IEP meeting? That is a subject we are tackling today with two IEP experts, Amanda DeLuca and Kirby Morgan. This short vlog is an excerpt from podcast number 152 where we talk a lot about the transition from ages 2 to 3. We discussed what kind of things you should bring or prepare for your first or next IEP meeting as well as some of the special things you should know before attending.

My son, Lucas, along with many other kids are diagnosed right around the age of 2 or 3. And so my son was diagnosed with autism one day before he turned three. But the planning for him to go to whatever services were based on the fact that he had a speech delay. And so all of a sudden he's got moderate to severe autism and it's just a hard process. Especially because an IFSP contract that you have when your child is birth to three is very familyoriented and is in the home. The parents really need to be there working hand in hand. And then the IEP tends to be more centerbased. So, there's a whole lot of unhappy campers both the parents and the kids when they have to transition to that IEP. So I asked Amanda and Kirby what their tips were for making the transition from IFSP to IEP smoother.

Amanda DeLuca said that tells every parent that a communication system needs to be written into every IEP. That way you can know who is working on what with your child and how their schedule is laid out. Most children with autism also can’t tell us what they’re struggling with or how their days are, so the communication to and from the school is super important. “A lot of our kids have sleep struggles and dietary trouble. So it's important for us to be able to tell the school as well, you know, we were up all night long. He didn't really eat breakfast. If he's extra cranky, this may be why.”
Communication also holds everyone accountable, DeLuca says. You can make sure your child is getting the right services each day by asking for the minutes from each session.

Kirby Morgan said to learn as much as you can. “I went to my first IEP thinking, no problem. I got this. My husband was at work. I was like, oh, you don't need to take the day off. Because I was really expecting it to be more like the first plan that we had where I had a lot of input. Well, when I got there, I was at a table with a full team that I've never met. And they had a document prepared 20 pages long about my son, what his goals are going to be.” Morgan said she was speechless at this meeting and that if she’d spent 30 or 40 minutes learning about the IEP process she might have done things differently. There’s a lot to figure out with an IEP in terms of services and your rights as a parent.

My mission is to turn autism or signs of autism around, which means to help each individual child be as safe, as independent and as happy as possible. So if you are looking to be a part of this movement I'm starting, I would love to invite you to attend a free online workshop at marybarbera.com/workshop.

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Dr. Mary Barbera. I fell into the autism world as an autism mom in 1999 when her firstborn son, Lucas, was diagnosed with autism. Since then, she became a BoardCertified Behavior Analyst and bestselling author of The Verbal Behavior Approach. Since 2015, she’s created 3 autism online courses based on applied behavior analysis for professionals and "gungho" parents. Whether you’re looking for autism parenting strategies, working with development delays in children, or in search of autism help for professionals, I can encourage you to subscribe to the channel and join me on my journey. I’ll be providing weekly autism resources that you don’t want to miss.