Presents Creating A Snapshot For Your Child or Young Adult

Stella: Hello everyone. I am Stella Beard the Assistant Director for Kentucky SPIN. And we’re so glad you joined us today for Creating a Snapshot for your Child or Young Adult. [00:00:13] I want to tell you just a little bit about Kentucky SPIN. Kentucky SPIN, which is Special Parent Involvement Network. We are the parent training and information center for the state of Kentucky. We are funded by the US Department of Education, and we have been the parent training and information center for over 30 years. We provide training, information and support for children and youth with all types of disabilities, birth through age 26. We do not act as attorneys, however, we empower families to effectively advocate for their children, and we also provide peer support to help families access needed information and resources. [00:00:55] So today, what we would like to talk about is creating a snapshot for your child and really what that is, is this just a, exactly what it says, it’s just a snapshot of a little bit about important things about your child that may be educators, and other folks need to know. [00:01:12] But you may ask, you know, why do I need this? Well, because your child is important. That’s why. And sometimes professionals and folks that work with our kids may not understand everything about their disability or also their strengths and weaknesses. [00:01:25] And you are the expert for your child. You have valuable information to share with people who will interact with your child during the school day. And school staff members, they attend IEP meetings, but many will not have the opportunity to be a part of that in-depth discussions about your child. And so I think that’s very, very important that we’re providing them with relevant information that they need. [00:01:52] Also, you know, case managers who work with your children at the school level, and others are often reluctant to share student specific information with other school personnel because of concerns about confidentiality. So that’s why this little snapshot is so very important to have, that you can share with professionals and others. [00:02:14] So I’m going to go over just a few tips and suggestions when you’re creating this one page snapshot. So the very first tip is you want to keep it simple. You only want to use one side of the page because how many of you have ever received something that’s multiple pages and you just skim through it and don’t read it. But when somebody gives you a one pager about something with just specifics on it, you’re going to take that time to read it. [00:02:39] Use bulleted lists rather than paragraphs. Cause it’s so much easier to read at a glance instead of long sentences and paragraphs. Avoid medical terminology and jargon. We do not want to confuse them anymore with long lists of medical terminology about our child’s diagnosis. And use everyday words. [00:03:01]The second tip, prioritize include. No more than five or six points in each of the areas on the template. The snapshot should just be that a snapshot, very simple and to the point. You want to keep it personal, be sure to include a current photo of your child. Be very specific about your child, not just about their disability. So list some fun things. And we’re going to see examples here in just a minute. [00:03:27] Involve your child, be sure to include them in decisions about what information to share and with whom. Because a lot of times, as they get older and later elementary, they’re going to say, Hey, I want you to give it to this person or this person. So listen to them because they have an idea too. And decide who needs a copy? Think of others in the school who may work with your child, but maybe not every day. And I think that’s real critical. So it could be a teacher they may only see, you know, one day a week, but that teacher may need to know important information about your child. [00:03:59] And distribute, be sure and have copies available for everyone attending those IEP meetings and others. So go to the copy store and make sure that you have available copies and I would do them in color so that the picture is very vibrant and beautiful and eye catching. You could even use color in the snapshot also. [00:04:22] So we’re going to look at a younger child template. And I think that will give you a little bit of an idea of some of the details that we’re talking about. So this is Joe Smith, very, very fancy name there we’ve created for him. But this is Joe Smith at a glance. And what you see here are some of Joe’s current interests. You can see that he likes SpongeBob. He loves playing the drum and Twins baseball. Some of his likes are computers, electronics, but do you see how being short and to the point makes a huge difference? [00:04:59] Some things that he’s motivated by, you want to be sure and include that because you don’t want to have something that your child’s not motivated by. And the teachers begin to use that and it goes nowhere for them. So they need to have some ideas of what motivates Joe. And what’s he discouraged by, you know, angry responses. Being singled out publicly. I think those are really good. And then you want to put the strengths in there. Some things that they can build up on. You know, I’m just going to read a couple understands limits, able to follow rules. He can use his laptop independently. But you also want to list some of the challenges and ways to address them. So he has no hearing in his left ear, so speakers need to sit, stand and walk at his right side. So I think that’s real important to know about Joe. [00:05:47]You know, he has poor large muscle coordination and balance. So those are important things that the family needs to include so that folks that work with Joe know these things. And then what are some of his long range school goals? One of the things is to learn what he has to offer others and to feel a responsibility to make a contribution. And the focus for Joe this school year is to learn appropriate conversational skills with peers. So you see the importance of using bullet points and making it very clear and concise of what’s important to Joe. So this is the template and you will be receiving this as a template for you to go by. [00:06:29] So it has everything that we talked about on the sample one, but it gives you an outline of how you can make one for your own child. [00:06:38] So this is for an older child or an adult template. And what I’ve done is I have actually shown you, this is my son Clayton, and how we did, what’s called a vision statement for him. And this is an example of what this looks like for Clayton. And so I’ve kind of done it a tad bit different than what you saw in the younger child template. But this is just a little more based and geared towards someone who’s older. So I’ve listed Clayton strengths here. He’s musical, hard working, empathetic. But then I’ve also listed area in areas he needs help with. [00:07:15] So you see how the verbiage is geared more toward an adult or a young adult versus a child. And so I think that’s very important, especially when you are working with someone who is older, who has a disability. Clayton’s 24, so I want to gear all of this more on an adult level. His vision statement talks about his jobs and what he enjoys and that someday he wants to live in his own home and get married. [00:07:39] And these are some of his accomplishments. I think that’s real important. So the folks that I give his vision statement to are maybe people that he works with, maybe some of his staff that helps him. Maybe some friends or peers that go out with him in the community and help him with different things. And this just kind of helps them understand some things more about Clayton that he may not be able to share. [00:08:03] And what works for him, peer modeling and support and age appropriate awards. I think that’s real important too. We want to stay very age specific. And what doesn’t work for him, giving him too many tasks at one time and removing him from friends. So I like the two examples. I think those are very important for us to have, that we have one that is geared specifically for a child, but one that is also geared specifically for an adult. [00:08:32] So on this slide here, I have given you the links to where we got this information from. The student snapshot is actually a PACER Center Action Information Sheet, and you can find it on PACERcenter or pacer.org, Excuse me. And then the vision statement came from a Kentucky agency called Kentucky Works and it’s a collaborative effect to support youth and young adults with intellectual disabilities, autism, and multiple disabilities in finding competitive employment. And so they’ve created the template designed for older teens and adults called the vision statement. So the one you saw that I had on the previous slide is the one I created for my son, Clayton, but I’m giving you the link to the template and we are also going to be providing those in the handout section of the webinar. [00:09:25] So that was short and sweet, but we wanted to hop on here and give you a little idea of how to create that. I know it’s summer right now, and you might not be thinking about creating this, but this gives you plenty of time to prepare for this, for when you do go back to school, when your child does go back to school and you can have those available, for professionals and teachers. [00:09:48] Thank you so much for watching and I hope you all have a wonderful day.