Individual Education Program selective mutism Dr Elisa Shipon Blum

IEP stands for Individual Education Program. Federal law mandates that each individual with a disability have an IEP developed for him/her.

Selective Mutism is an anxiety disorder where over 90% of children also suffer from social anxiety. Children with SM and social anxiety CANNOT help their disability often need help and accommodations within the school environment to enable them to thrive socially, academically, etc.

Since so few understand SM, many believe efforts to ‘get a child to speak’ or 'just remove ALL expectations to speak' are what is necessary. For the majority of children, this is simply not enough. Children need HELP with communicating and 'unlearning' mute behavior.

What is KEY is that accommodations need to be specific to a child’s anxiety and communication ability within the school setting. Tactics/techniques and accommodations need to be set forth in an organized and stepwise fashion to enable for less anxiety, increased social confidence and communication within the school setting.

Whether a child needs accommodations ie, 504 or IEP needs to be determined on an individual basis after full evaluation/assessment has been done. Since every child is different, so is each 504 and IEP.

Dr. E ‘s treatment philosophy depends on a ‘team’ approach which involves child, parent, school personnel and treating physician.

In addition to evaluation/assessments,
Dr. Shipon-Blum or staff can assist in:

• Attend the IEP team meetings via in-person or teleconference.
• keep in close communication with the IEP team leader and other team members,
• Assess communication anxiety and determine comfort and ability in the area of nonverbal (responding/initiating) and verbal (responding/initiating) communication as then give that information to the IEP team so appropriate IEP goals can be written for the student,
• Work closely with the related service providers, such as the Speech and language pathologist, Occupational therapist, school psychologist, teacher, etc.
• Conference regularly with school personnel/parents to update treatment goals
• Talk with school team leaders/teacher(s) and make sure they understand the nature of goals and reasons why certain tactics/techniques need to be implemented.
Federal law requires that each IEP contain the following information:
• present level of performance - what your student can and cannot do compared to other children of a similar age;
• annual goals and objectives - what your student is going to be working on during the next twelve months;
• implementers - who will be responsible for implementing the short term objectives;
• special education and related services - the specially designed instruction and other services the school is going to use to make sure your student meets his/her goals and objectives;
• participation in regular education programs - how much of the school day your student will be in classes and activities with children who do NOT have a disability;
• schedule of review - when the progress of your student will be checked; and
• transition - if your student is age 14 or older, you need to begin planning what your student will do after graduation and what training/education your student needs to get there.
All of the above IEP requirements make the ‘school team’ more accountable for including students with disabilities in a regular classroom setting whenever it is appropriate.

For the Majority of Children with SM, regular classroom settings is necessary and crucial to their overall well being as long as appropriate accommodations are set forth.

Please contact us if interested in SMART-Center services within the school setting