S1E22: The IEP Meeting - What Dyslexic Parents Need to Know

If you're feeling lost and frustrated as you navigate the IEP process for your dyslexic child, then you are not alone! It can be overwhelming to advocate for your child's education when you're unsure of the best approach. If you're feeling like your efforts to secure the right support for your child are falling on deaf ears, then you are not alone! It's common to feel like you're hitting roadblocks and not making progress in getting the individualized help your child needs. If you're feeling discouraged by the lack of progress and support from your child's school, then you are not alone! It's disheartening to see your child struggle without the appropriate resources in place to help them succeed.

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Discover effective ways to advocate for your dyslexic child's education.
• Overcome the challenges within the education system faced by dyslexic students.
• Untangle the confusion surrounding Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) for dyslexic children.
• Learn the importance of parental advocacy in shaping your dyslexic child's education.
• Explore the support and accommodations available for dyslexic students in the education system.

Untangle the confusion surrounding IEPs
IEPs can be a confusing and daunting process for parents of dyslexic children. However, by equipping themselves with a deep understanding of the legal documents involved in an IEP, and by actively participating in the process, parents can demystify it. This clarity will enable parents to make educated decisions and ensure that their child's IEP accurately represents their specific needs and accommodations.

Transcript:

00:00:01
Welcome to word blindness. Dyslexia exposed. I am Juliet Hahn. I'm here with my co host, Brent Sopel, and we are here to change the narrative. We want to educate, but we also want you guys to understand what it is like to be dyslexic and how things can change.

00:00:20
So join us every week for word blindness. Dyslexia exposed. Welcome back to word blindness. I'm Juliet Hahn, here with my co host, Brent Sopal. How are you on this?

00:00:32
Old MacDonald had a farm E-I-E-I-O. So that just kind of sums it up. So what is exciting, though, is that this is kind of like, kind of putting together this three part series is now what we're calling it of this IEP situation where the first one was a couple of weeks ago where I.

00:00:57
Yeah. Ended up crying. Right. Getting completely emotional. And then we kind of dove in a couple different things, which we wanted to find out a little bit more about this, but so just to kind of put this all together.

00:01:11
So if someone's listening to this, they're like, okay, what are they, Donald? And now they're here. What are we talking about? I had the last IEP meeting for Montgomery. I was an absolute mess.

00:01:21
It was a great meeting. But then I think within two days, I get this form that says. And so that was the first one was kind of unhashing the IEP meeting, my emotions, my anxiety, and how this is why we're doing what we're doing. We don't want anyone to go in that meeting, that first meeting that you talked about, who was in there, was that with the special ed teacher? Yes.

00:01:43
Special ed teacher. The psychologist. The psychologist. Psychologist. Wasn't there.

00:01:49
No. Yeah. So it was the special ed teacher, one of Montgomery's other teachers. There's like a lady that is the one that runs it. I don't know what her.

00:01:59
Well, then. And then also the guiHahnce counselor. So there's like four. There's. I think there's six of us, including Hahn.

00:02:05
And so that was the first meeting.

00:02:10
It was the last meeting of this, I mean, of senior year. And we just kind of get into the. Basically, I think I jumped on right after the meeting and got totally choked up because I had so much anxiety, I couldn't breathe. It was awful. And it was.

00:02:28
Again, I go through this twice a year since he was more than my own meetings. But so that's what we kind of bridged this. And it really brought up a lot of stuff, because then Hahnielle was going through stuff. She's been a guest on this podcast. And then we were like, you know what, let's dive in a little bit more.

00:02:52
Because two days later I got an email with a form basically asking me to sign it. And it basically said, when you sign this, you lose services. And that's what I read. I sent it to you, you got down three sentences, stopped at the same time. I stopped and was like, wait, what is this?

00:03:09
And I was like, I don't know. No one mentioned this, so I had to have another meeting because I was like, okay, you guys need to clarify this. This is like twelve pages. But basically it keeps saying he's going to lose the services. And I'm saying, does he lose the services once I sign this, even though it says when he gets his diploma but it never gives a date?

00:03:29
Okay, there's things that you just can't assume parents know. And as I said to you, I knew that it probably was at the end of the year, but when I read it, I was like, whoa, there's some here. Why wouldn't they mention it on the call? Hey, this is what's going to be said, right? This is the email you're going to get.

00:03:48
It basically states x, Y and Z. We just needed you sign. It's basically letting us know that this was our last meeting, we've done what we're supposed to do and then we're free of any services at the end of the year, right? That would have been simple. Then I would have gotten it and I wouldn't have freaked because reading four lines down, it's like once you sign this, you lose services.

00:04:08
And then it's like when he gets his diploma. And I'm like, okay, once I sign it or when he gets his diploma, what the fuck is know? And I'm glad you got caught up on those lines because what everybody needs to know, it was a legal document that they're sending you to sign and sign off on his IEP. Now they can say, tim, buck two, whatever they want. That's verbal.

00:04:37
So it said when you went back to that last meeting, correct me, I'm not wrong. They said when he gets his diploma, then that's when his services will stop. Right? Right. Not in the meeting, but in the letter.

00:04:47
Yes. Right. So they go and hand this to you in December, you're supposed to graduate in May or June, so there's still a long time in between. You sign on that legal doc that's now a legal form and they can say, oh, when he gets diploma, it doesn't matter. You take that to court.

00:05:10
That's a legal doc. So am I saying they're going to take your services away? No, but can they? Yeah, because that's where you're signing off. So for them to send that to you in December with no contact, with, no contacts with actually trying to get you to sign that, you're talking about a school.

00:05:32
However, it doesn't matter how many kids, whatever it is, this shouldn't be happening in December.

00:05:39
Closer to the end. Closer to what? Is it January, February, maybe March, start having these conversations. April, towards the back end of the semester. The first semester isn't over and they're asking you to sign a legal doc.

00:05:54
And we talk about this all the time. They can say, whatever, school is not your friend, it's a business. So am I saying they're going to screw you? No, but they can. Right?

00:06:05
And that's the thing. That was where it was like, well, wait a second. And then it brought me back to when we were in Connecticut.

00:06:14
I'm going to go down a different rabbit hole. But I started pulling up all of his because we were thinking about the testing. We talk about, okay, every three years you guys have heard us talk about this on the podcast. So I started doing some digging over holiday because I was like, I have some time. Let me go through all my old emails and see what I can pull up.

00:06:30
Well, that was a shit show. Because then I started crying and I was like, oh, my God. I was like, oh my God. I can't believe how much testing this had to be done. But then it also brought me back to when Connecticut, it where they were all my friends until we were like, okay, you guys are not teaching.

00:06:44
And what's the alternative? We need to send Montgomery to a different school. And it was like, well, we are really doing what we're doing. And I was like, you just said that he's behind, so what are you talking about? And then it brought all of that up.

00:06:53
So I was like, whoa, I need to be skeptical here. And this is what we always talk about. Knowledge is power and I go in believing, right? And we've talked about this a lot. When I meet someone, I believe that they're a good person.

00:07:05
I don't believe that they're a shitty person. When it comes to organizations, government, hospitals, doctors, schools, I get very skeptical because there's been times where I don't want to say caught them because I'm not an investigator reporter. But things didn't make sense. And I'm the one that asks questions, just like you. There's a lot of people that don't, that just do, but that blindly go into it and just say, oh, well, they're going to be on my side, so I'm just going to listen to them.

00:07:35
No, you have to do your own research. You have to have your own knowledge. So that's why I reached out to the head of special ed people services or whatever they call it here in New York. And I said, can you explain this? Because it didn't make sense to me.

00:07:49
I read four lines and she said, well, per the IEP, it says at the end of June. So you're basically supposed to know, okay, you get this document, then you got to go back to the IEP and see what date they had there. It's like, stop wasting people's time. Let's just have a conversation about know, we talk about this all the time. Is telling.

00:08:11
We're getting non dyslexics, principals, deans, superintendents, you know, list goes on to tell us what to do, and then you're going to tell us when we need to sign this. No, that's not how this works, right? You talk about doing your own research, and that's why knowledge is powers.

00:08:34
You got to know the most about dyslexia in that room because there's so many little things that go along with this that they will skip right over. They'll never see it because they don't have it. So to be able to be that advocate for your kid is you have to know the most. If you need more information, call us, reach out to us. That's why we do this.

00:09:00
I didn't hear the word dyslexia until I was diagnosed from yo. And now I talk about it every day, all day long. I live it every day. So I love when nondislexics tell me how I should feel and how I should act and what I should do. Well, you know what's interesting, though, is just as you said, there was the one family that their son was just recently diagnosed, and I jumped on a call with them for an hour and just said, here's the things that you want to ask the school.

00:09:23
And they texted me the other day and said, everyone was like, wait, how do you know all of this? This is amazing. This is amazing. Even though I'm sure amazing was like, oh, not amazing, because it was like, we want this and we want that. And we think that this has worked at other times for other kids.

00:09:39
And funny enough, apparently someone in the room knew who I was. You got a name in the town. Yeah, it kind of made me chuckle, but it is, again, knowledge is power because a school is not going to say because there's money to it. Right? A school is not going to say, hey, you could do this when they know it's going to basically put more money being taken out of them or they have to put more money towards it.

00:10:06
So they're not going to give you the little ins and outs. And this goes for everything, right? Like you buy a car, there's ways that you can get the sticker price down. There's all these things that people don't let you know because they want to keep the money in their own pocket. And it kind of sucks and it kind of is the way life is.

00:10:22
But going in, being able to say, these are the things I know that I deserve because of basically disabilities act is really important and it's hard to know all of that stuff unless you're an attorney. Well, let's just take dollar figures out of this for a second.

00:10:44
Again, they're nondislex. So you talk about under the act, what you're supposed to get, what you can get, take all that out. That person across the table doesn't have it. So you'd mentioned the little ins and outs, how to get the sticker price down. They don't know what that sticker price is, right.

00:11:08
They're not going to do the best for your kid because they don't understand it. So they can't go above and beyond because they don't know what that means because they don't have that. Right. So dollar figure, it does come back to money, but whatever your kid needs. Every dyslexic is different.

00:11:31
It's handled differently. A nondislex, it's flipping your bees and knees. So you're going to get the person that just flipping your bees and ds trying to tell us or tell you as a parent what they should, shouldn't do. They're going to miss 7500 other things that should be there. Well, and this brings me up, there was just a conversation on social media in a group that I'm in that this mom was like, I'm going to lose it.

00:11:59
I keep going back to the school. In the accommodations, it's like you should not be taking notes off the board. Notes should be provided. That's like a number one thing that is so important. That's one of the things I tell as the grades get older, you need those notes handed to you because you cannot take the notes because you'll get behind like you're trying to focus what's on there and then put it on a piece of paper.

00:12:18
It's just a whole shit show. So you're not listening because you're trying to concentrate on that. And that is a dyslexic thing. So this mom was saying her child, they failed her because she wasn't taking the vocabulary off the board, even though in her IEP it says, provide the notes. And she's like, what do I do?

00:12:37
And I just said, you just have to keep being that voice. You have to keep going and bringing it back up to them. You're not following her IEP. That's child abuse. It's against the law and it's child abuse.

00:12:51
The same parent you're talking about is we're oral presentations. That's child abuse. That's in your ip. So as a parent, whatever that is in your kids IEP or your 504, you've got to know what that is and you got to make sure they're following up on that. Once that diagnosis comes in, it's a full time job to be your kids advocate because remember, it really is.

00:13:18
Those teachers aren't nothing against them. They don't have it, so they don't know. So for them to leave out two things that are on that 504 IEP is no easy to them because they don't understand how important it is. So you're going to have to stay on top of that. Avid, it's a full time job to educate yourself on that.

00:13:41
And it doesn't end. It goes to grade and then give your kids. And then it goes in schools and my middle school to high schools, college. It keeps going. And as the kids get older, they ask, can they advocate?

00:13:54
Absolutely. But you've got to be that person and you cannot trust in a teacher. Again, no disrespect, they don't have it. Then you don't know. Like, I'm a right handed.

00:14:08
You hand me a pen and left. I'm dyslexic anyway. I can do this. I can't do a left. So teacher doesn't understand it.

00:14:16
You've got to be their voice. And as you said, that self advocating for yourself is so important. And that's, again, why you bring this back to getting the diagnosis young being there, because a kid has to feel confident in themselves to be able then to go self advocate for themselves. If you're not feeling confident and you don't want to look dumb in front of the teacher, you're not going to go and ask a question, know, say, hey, this is not working. I mean, we've talked about this a million times.

00:14:44
Like, Montgomery now knows, again, he's a senior. He knows what teachers just don't get. Yeah. He's like, they don't get it. It's not worth my breath.

00:14:52
I'll figure it out. But knowing yourself, knowing how you learn best, and again, it does come from when a parent is being that advocate for the kid. And again, we have the parents that reach out to us that are like, but I don't have it. So I don't understand. But I want to be the biggest advocate.

00:15:11
How do I do it? It's just really talking to your child, knowing and watching how they learn, how they do things. You'll get some understanding. No. Will you ever have 100% understanding?

00:15:21
No, because your brain doesn't work that way. But you can still have the understanding. Like my mom. My mom's not dyslexic, but she raised dyslexic kid. My dad is dyslexic.

00:15:31
She's a very big understanding. So when she went into teaching and she saw kids do certain things, it was like, oh, okay, wait a second. There's a flag here. Let me teach them a little different. But that was innate in her.

00:15:43
Not everyone can do that. Not everyone does that, unfortunately. And again, as you said, it's not bashing teachers, because I have many friends, many family members that are in education, and I adore them, and they're wonderful. They'll come to me sometimes and ask me questions, right? Like, okay, there's this kid.

00:15:59
He's not diagnosed, but how do I do this? Because I kind of feel like they are. And you can't be the teacher that then goes to the parent and says, wait a second, I think your child's dyslexic. Because then that parent could be like, well, wait a second, that's wrong. And then the teacher gets in trouble.

00:16:13
So we get it. The system is broken. And that's one of the reasons why we're doing this, because the system is broken for all, not just for the dyslexics, but also for the teachers that have the handcuffs because they can't do things for the administrator that, again, is coming from a different place because they just have to check the boxes. It is a broken system, but the more we can talk about it, the more we can advocate, the more we can, again, give knowledge of these certain situations. So the next time in your email, you get this document, right?

00:16:41
And you're like, whoa, wait a second. Let me pause because I listened to a podcast and they said, don't sign it right away. Well, the system's broken because there's no understanding. We've got to educate them first because they don't have it right. You talked about that.

00:16:57
Be able to advocate for yourself. You've got to be okay with yourself. So the longer it takes to get diagnosed, the longer it's going to take to be okay with yourself. Obviously, me 32, I still live it, not going to school anytime soon. But you didn't get there overnight, so you're not going to get that confidence overnight.

00:17:24
So as a parent, if you're seeing a struggle, let's just get a test, find out what it is, because it's going to take some time. It's going to take a long time to get that confidence and get that kid to be okay and like himself and love himself because it's new. They don't know what it is. You have to figure it out so it doesn't happen. It's a long process.

00:17:44
So again, back to diagnosis earlier, you get that the shorter the trauma is to this and the quicker they can be okay with who they are because they can't be okay with who they are until they understand it. And we've talked about this again. There's the environments of the schools that are dyslexic schools. There's other schools that maybe are more inept to teach because of some understanding or a public school that actually has a better system for teaching special ed and dyslexia specifically and different states. And so one of the things that we're fascinated about is kind of diving into that a little bit because you hear from pockets, especially on social media.

00:18:26
In this one group I'm in like, oh, wait, my school is really great because of x, Y and Z. But I always have to ask a question there. Is it know, is it, or is your kid okay right now because you've been advocating, what are the steps to get that to be great? Or do they have, I mean, certain states, New Jersey being one of them, and I don't know the ins and outs of all of this, but I know my mom has always said, even when my mom, and she's been retired now for a number of years, when she was young, young teacher, they had to go through dyslexic training. And that was, again, coming from law.

00:19:01
Are there other states? And I think on there you can say dyslexia, right. We talk about in Connecticut, there was a little time when the school diagnosed Montgomery. It was not dyslexia. And that's the thing that I uncovered.

00:19:12
And I was like, oh, my God, I forgot about this. It was just Nell Z until we took him outside the. Yep, until we took him outside the school. And then they were able to put the label know dyslexia and dysgraphia. However we had that.

00:19:25
Then we go to New York, and New York is like, it doesn't matter if it comes from out. We can't put that. So it's learning disability specific. Again, a teacher is going to get that. There's so many different ways that people learn.

00:19:37
That's such horseshit. That's putting blinders on the teacher not to be able to really give that kid what they need. So again, that's where this whole thing is broken because of the non understanding. And you said something. There is label.

00:19:51
Everybody gets hung up. I don't call it a label. I call it a roadmap for your kids life. Yeah.

00:20:00
Now you don't have the map quest printed off. You're flipping through. Now you know which road to take. You're not taking left turns. You're not doing uturns.

00:20:13
I was on the wrong road for 32 years.

00:20:18
So the quicker you can do that and get that roadmap for your kid. So don't get hung up on the word label because I know parents get hung up on it. Don't want the label. No. How about map for your kids life?

00:20:33
Yeah. And now you want to take a left turn on good life? Or do you want to take a right turn at trauma?

00:20:43
No. And that's so important because, again, as you said, there are people that feel more comfortable with having the label because it's like, okay, now I know how to learn. Or it's like, okay, well, I don't want to have a label because that makes me different. And then it goes down a whole nother thing. But in an IEP, it is really important that it's very specific.

00:21:03
So when a teacher gets it, because we've talked about this a million times, who knows when they're reading it. In our district, as my son got older, it was like, oh, we haven't looked at it yet. And we're like, two weeks in and I'm like, wait, what? That. To me, again, I have a lot of problems with that, but I'm not going to even get into it because we're here.

00:21:22
However, it's like, okay, if they look at it and they see the specific, if they have a tiny bit of knowledge, it's going to help them. But when it just says ld and then you meet the kid, you're not looking at that. It's so backwards. It's so backwards. And even if.

00:21:41
Remember special ed, when you go to educator, there's one page of dyslexia, so they don't know. So again, as we just talked about being your kids advocate, I think I was saying, I think we talked on the podcast. You need to make a binder, do a tango, as I like to call it. In Canada, of your 504 IP, on top of there is put a paragraph and then some bullet points of your kid. Because again, the teacher, whatever teacher that is, isn't a special ed.

00:22:22
So do they have full knowledge of what all this is? Absolutely not. So it's like fear the clipboard, walk in a doctor's office. Fuck you, you're gone. Now, as a teacher, they're probably doing the same thing.

00:22:41
Yeah. Giving them options. Right. Make it as easy can. Again, I say this every day.

00:22:49
Assumption is death. Yes, you do say that. Am I wrong? No, it is very true. It is very true.

00:22:57
Because you can't assume anything. And that's where communication and all of that, so. Right, you can't assume. Okay, the teacher is getting this. How many times have I done that over the years?

00:23:07
Because it's just like, oh, my God. You go into the school year, you don't realize what anxiety you have. Especially, again, you're dyslexic as well, and you have your own stuff, and it's like, oh, I forgot to do this and that and blah, blah, blah. So if you have that, as I said, I went through all my old emails because I have folders. I mean, I have stuff in the basement, boxes.

00:23:27
I don't know where half of the shit is. I know where the ones that I need right now are. But it's really helpful to go back. It's actually really helpful. When I went back to Connecticut because theirs was so much more in depth.

00:23:40
Again, he was in the younger grades, but to see, like, a 32 page document get put into, like, two, and I was like, wait, what is this? It's just interesting. That's why you also need to know your state. What does your state offer? What are your rights in your state for these different things?

00:24:01
And to that point is that you hand a 32 page neuroscit to a teacher. They're not reading it. I promise you that. They don't know what that means. So if you can break it down into two pages of your kid specific.

00:24:18
Great. They will read that, right? That needs front and center. Here's your binder. This is now your best friend.

00:24:27
It goes with you everywhere, every teacher. Here's your meeting. Here it is. They're not dyslexic, so they're not going to know what all those words are. They don't know the terminology, the phrases.

00:24:40
They don't know. They never went to school for that. So advocating for your kid? No, you have to do this every teacher, every single year. If you don't, you're just going to shoot yourself in the foot because you're going to do what you do.

00:24:54
Oh, I forgot. But then trying to get back in there, then you're pissed off. The teacher, right. It's playing the game the right way and simplifying it, as you say, simplifying it by bringing that is really important instead of making it more complex. And know they're not dyslexic.

00:25:18
Right. Again, Asher was the first teacher that I've ever met that is dyslexic. So there's some out. So I've only met one. So you have to remember, always remember, they are not.

00:25:33
So you have to teach them what your son or daughter, who they are. You have to remember that. You have to be their teachers every single year, every single class. You have to remember that you can't assume assumptions, death. And when it comes to this portion of dyslexia, LD, learning disorders, ADHD, this whole, they don't have it, they do not know.

00:25:59
So you've got to be able to simplify it. And I always say, take it out of doctor terms. Yeah, no, and it's true. And again, a lot of times in education, and we've talked about this, and my mom, I think, was always the one that said, she's like, I went to teaching because I was good at school. She's like, I got good feels from school, so I wanted to continue that and do that for others.

00:26:19
Right? And then I didn't have good feels in school. That's the last place I would want to ever go back for. Again, a teacher that maybe doesn't understand that someone learns different, it's going to look like, oh, they're not trying, especially in the younger grades. Oh, they're not focused.

00:26:39
And sometimes it's because they're just not learning the way that a traditional student learns. And we, again, talk about this all the time. There's ways that you can teach a dyslexic. It's not that a dyslexic person is unteachable. There's very specific ways that we need to learn, and everyone is different, but there is kind of a battery of, okay, we can learn a little bit more this way.

00:27:03
We cannot learn this way. We cannot. There's no way that we can learn this way. But if you adjust a little bit and do it, maybe over here you can learn a little bit better. So there's also all of those things that are just.

00:27:16
It's tough. It's not easy being a teacher, and that's not what we're not coming at. As Brent said, it's just, as the parent, this is the parents. And if you're someone that doesn't, you're listening to this and you're like, yeah, my parents never advocated for myself again. You have to find people.

00:27:32
You have to find people. You can't just be like, okay, this is what it is. What it is. No, you have to be the. It's a conversation that needs to be brought to the forefront.

00:27:42
That's what we're going to do. That's my purpose. That's what I promise to do. But for an example, ADHD, obviously, the individual that we spoke to, the kid has ADHD. And the teacher kept just stop yelling across the room of direction what to do.

00:28:03
When you yell across a room to a kid with ADHD, it's like the words hit a wall. The words don't get to that kid. So now then, this teacher is always sending the kid in the hallway saying, you're lazy, you're goofing around. No, he's not understanding anything you're saying. So learning what?

00:28:25
ADHD and how to deliver that message. You got to get up to them. Got to get in their face, right in front of them, look them in the eye, hey, I need you to do this. And there can't be 62 steps. So this teacher didn't have ADHD, had no clue.

00:28:39
She thought the kid was screwing around all night. No, he didn't understand a word that was coming out of her mouth, literally talking canadian instead. American. No, true. So again, it's, like, really important.

00:28:52
But so I think to sum up this kind of, as we said, we wanted to get you guys a little bit of answers as we're diving into this. And the answer was to that letter. It was all stated in the IEP, and it is at the end of the year, so June, when he gets his diploma, that's when the services are no longer, which, yes, we understand that that is. And even if I sign it now, that still states, but I still need to look into that a little bit more. I'm a little skeptical.

00:29:24
Yeah, that's why I was just going to jump all over that you can't trust. Right. That may state that there. Now, let's just say it states it there. You sign it and then there becomes a riff.

00:29:41
Right? That's your kid. So I wouldn't sign a legal doc. I don't care who you are. Get closer to the end of the 2023 and it's graduating 2024.

00:29:53
I'm not good at math, but I think it's not close. So to me, I'm just obviously the explanation. Not giving you the full explanation, Hahn, the full explanation of what this was and what's going to come and what the next step is, which is Bs. But to ask somebody to sign a legal doc, and it carries on. I'm not a lawyer.

00:30:16
Again, I failed my bar exam, but I don't trust anybody.

00:30:26
Do I think they're going to take away? No, I just don't assume. I don't trust. I don't understand why you're trying to get somebody to sign. You have a job to do.

00:30:34
Obviously your school is not that big, so it's not like they got to see 5000 kids. Yeah. So I won't be doing that until later. But I also did say to them that should have been brought up in the meeting, just as an FYI, as you continue the meetings that you do throughout the year, because I did check with Hahn, you had asked me and Hahn was like, well, no, they never said anything. And I was like, okay, read this one sentence.

00:30:58
And he was like, wait. And I was like, okay, it's not just myself and it's not just Brent. You, who are not dyslexic, is also like, pause, let's look into this more. And that's what, again, is asking those questions. And yes.

00:31:12
Can it get exhausting? Yeah, sometimes we just wish.

00:31:18
We love the flow. We talk about that. But these kind of things, you cannot just, as Brent said, you cannot just assume because there's things that can fall through the cracks and no one really has your back, only other than yourself. And that is life. And that kind of sometimes is hard, but you really have to be the one that is the champion, the one that is on top of all the little things and not beat yourself up when it doesn't happen.

00:31:47
I mean, there's many times, trust me, that I've been like, oh, crap. Okay, sorry, dude. I wasn't on top of that when he was younger, but you just move on and know, okay, the next year, I can't do that because we've talked about where from year to year. It's like, wait, you guys didn't talk to the next group of teachers? So what is happening?

00:32:08
Because this teacher just wanted this because they didn't read the IEP. And it's like, so then what we decided to do and this know, Montgomery was like, I like this and I'm fine with it. He emails the teacher the week that he gets his class list or not class list, but his teachers. Basically the day, like a first day of school or two days before and says, hey, this is my name. I am Montgomery.

00:32:34
I'm dyslexic. So if there's anything that you can help me through, I really appreciate it. I know you have my IAP, blah, blah, blah, blah. And that has been a really good thing. And we only did that the last two years.

00:32:46
I would really recommend that being done earlier. And then again with your binder because I know you said there's so many emails that can be like misplaced and all of that stuff. And so when you have it in your hand and that binder is also a reminder for you as a parent, like you just talked about last year, I didn't do that. Right. If you keep it all right here, not trying to be a nerd, but it's a reminder for yourself, it gets overwhelming.

00:33:09
Then you're moving schools and teachers. Did I do this? If you keep it all in one spot, only going to be better for both you and your kid and make that anxiety less for you. That's the reason for me, is email great? It's been working awesome.

00:33:28
Maybe you do both again when it comes to this, I don't assume. And when you're in front of them and you can tell them about your kid over words rather than the words on email is always better. Yeah, we have a meeting. Yes, we always have that meeting too. But no, I love that.

00:33:54
And you know what? Someone told me once and I have it actually still in the corner of my bedroom. And I just went to it the other day being like, oh, I wonder what I put in there. I never put anything in there, so it didn't really work. Except I still have it.

00:34:07
But one of those boxes that is like a file folder as well, that it has the leaflets and I had meant to apparently at some point and it even came on the move with us and stays in the same spot that it did in my other bedroom. However, I don't use it. It just collects dust. But for some people, that is another thing. And then they can take it and make that binder every year.

00:34:32
Okay. I can just pull things out of there and do that. Whatever works for you. Is that a folder? Like you said, some people are better organized or do a tang or whatever that is.

00:34:43
I just use it as a reference. For me, that's what I would have done. Would do. So it's not. That's what we have to do.

00:34:51
It's what works. Is that a file? Is that in a folder in your email where you print out. I don't know what, whatever. Keeping it organized.

00:35:01
Correct. Keeping it organized. Even if you're not an organized person. Because I always say that I am organized in just a different way when it comes to this stuff. Because you get so much paperwork.

00:35:14
No, I do have a file cabinet behind me and I know that a lot of stuff is in there, but I think it's at the bottom. Not even in a file anymore. I think I would just throw it in there because I get paperwork. I feel like it's every freaking day, but it's like every quarter of, like, here's where the achievements are. You get it.

00:35:34
So I get probably once a week sometimes or then in the mail. Right. So not even just emails. I get emails as well. I mean, it's a lot.

00:35:43
We'll touch upon that a second, though. That's obviously your traumas. We've talked about that many times. Right. So it's just kind of out of sight, out of mind.

00:35:53
Right. So the less that cannot happen. Out of sight, out of mind, the more your kids and your life is going to be easier. My trauma is the same thing as yours, so I get it. It's just the less you can.

00:36:09
Out of sight, out of mind. Is there a lot of stuff that comes. Absolutely. Do you need to keep it all? No.

00:36:17
What does it need? It's adding to that as a kid grows. Like I said, that two pages, that's going to change a little bit. But that's your kid. Yeah.

00:36:29
No, totally. Because when I went through, and I think I even send you some of it in an accommodations in an IEP, it's like listed in different categories. So it's not just like a list of how we learn the best. Right. It's like you have to go through and be like, okay, this one, it says here.

00:36:45
Okay, this says it here. So as you said, having that one piece of paper that's bulleted is really kind of. It's great for the visual for everyone, because it's like, okay, this is what I know. Okay. There's some things that you don't need to do in certain classes, right?

00:37:00
So when it comes to math, when he was younger, there's like graph paper and all these different things. So that was put in a different section of the IEP. So. Right. Even if it's on a one piece of paper and you're in English, they know, okay, the graph paper doesn't obtain to them, but it's still all in this different thing.

00:37:13
So they also say, okay, he also struggles in math. Okay, that's interesting. So you get that picture, as you said, of that roadmap of your child, and neuroscience is in depth. There's a lot of stuff. It's hard.

00:37:25
It's complicated. So if it's harder and complicated for us, what about a teacher? It's just getting introduced to 100 kids, and there's like five or six kids that have those. So it's hard for you. That's your kid.

00:37:39
So now you're trying to count on a teacher who's getting 100 students come walk in that door to read that and understand it and take the time. It's not going to happen. No, totally. All right. I feel like we got kind of information from the episode that went out two weeks ago.

00:38:00
Then the last episode, we talked about the letter and then. So again, just summing it up, it was at the end of the year, apparently, it was in the IEP. It never was brought up in the IP meeting. Right. So they never made reference to this in the IEP meeting.

00:38:14
So it wasn't like, you're going to get this, you're going to need to sign it. It's going to say you're going to lose services. They didn't ever say anything like that, which could have been very helpful, which I said to them, if you just mentioned it, it would have relieved me of a little stress. Oh, sorry, Mrs. Hahn, we didn't realize that it was going to give you stress.

00:38:30
We thought that you would understand that it was end of the year. But you're asking me to sign it. No. Why? Why would I understand that?

00:38:36
Right. I'm signing it now. So what does that mean? So those are the kind of things, again, kind of just wrapping it up is we got to the bottom of that. But again, it's the lack of communication, it's the lack of understanding, it's the lack of.

00:38:52
Okay, let's think from an educational standpoint. Let's think of making it easier for the parent no, they have their jobs to do and they're just like, checking boxes. Okay, we finished that one. We're done. We got the letter out.

00:39:06
That one's over. Right now they're on to the next one. So me being the big mouth, though, I'm like, well, I need to have a meeting because I need to tell you guys what I think you need to do better.

00:39:18
Obnoxious way. Yeah, not an obnoxious way. Just letting you know, coming from a parent who's also dyslexic, this was not helpful. This actually gave me a lot of anxiety. And here's why.

00:39:27
And we're going to do that five months early, right? Totally, Walker. Yeah. Okay. He's done.

00:39:37
We're done. We've done our job. We got him through. We graduated him. Well, obviously.

00:39:43
Down, rabbit. And that to the point, talks about why you have to be your kid's advocate. They don't care. Right. They're trying to get you to sign it up five months early.

00:39:55
They're trying to do their job. They're not there for your kid. So it's just another reassurance of why we say what we say. Exactly. So on to the next.

00:40:07
We have some more guests that we've interviewed, which has been great. Brad Burke, who is Bridget Burke? Brown. A lot of bees. Yeah, you burks.

00:40:18
I mean, come on. Brad is Bridget's brother, twin brother, UFC fighter, awesome guy. And so we get into that. That's going to be coming out. Hahnielle Fetty is going to be back on another raw kind of episode that will be coming on.

00:40:35
So this is like the guests. In the next couple of months, we're going to be interviewing Hahn Servino, who has signature lacrosse. Really awesome. Again, great guy that I was connected to his wife through lacrosse, found out he was dyslexic, asked him to come on. So that's going to be another know.

00:40:50
Again, we're doing kind of interviews the next. Once a, those are. These are going to be coming then. I mean, as we continue to grow this and as we continue to get people coming to us saying, hey, I need help with this, or what was the last email that, I mean, text that I got from a special ed teacher who I've known forever, and she said, I'm learning so much from you guys, this is crazy. And I said, that is kind of crazy, but thank you.

00:41:15
And then parents and kids that we keep coming in contact with different things that we're going to be planning through the foundation, which is going to be really exciting. And we'll keep you guys all kind of in the loop with that, but stay tuned. This is growing, and it is growing in a really amazing, wonderful way where, as we've said, we're collecting little dyslexics, not little. I don't know why I said little. Collecting dyslexics as we go along that are doing some really amazing things in their professional life and have stuff to share as well.

00:41:43
So thank you for joining. Word blindness, dyslexia exposed. So, guys, don't forget to, like, rate, review and share. And share this as we talked about, someone might need to hear this because they're going into that IEP meeting. They're going in blind.

00:41:57
They don't know what they're doing. And they're essentially maybe getting taken advantage of. Not on purpose, but they're signing things that they don't realize. Eyes. And we are here to help.

00:42:06
We're here to educate. But you also need to send this to people. Send this to anyone that you know in education. Send this to anyone that you know, again, that might need this inspiration. So thank you again for joining.

00:42:17
Word blindness, dyslexia exposed.