Teaching Students w/ASD 5.2: Communicating with Families

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Think about how comfortable you are with meeting with parents, particularly lengthy meetings such as an IEP meeting. What steps can you take to become more comfortable? Who can you turn to for support in approaching these meetings with greater ease?

I am working on becoming more comfortable with parents during long meetings. I know that we are on the same side and just want to see the child succeed. In my case, the discomfort can come from not confident in my knowledge of accommodating students with exceptionalities and lack of general knowledge on working with students with exceptionalities. As I continue to learn more, I am finding that I am having a lot of "Aha!" moments, where I am finally starting to understand a student's behaviour or a students particular need and removing barriers for myself to provide a learning environment that better meets the student's needs. 
Steps I can take to become more comfortable with the IEP process include:

• fostering a relationship with the family of the child who has an IEP right from the start
• assume the caregivers are doing their best to help their child at home
• seek out opportunities to continue learning about special education and specific designations that my students have
• build a relationship with the student and learn about them -their strengths, their interests inside and outside of academics 

If I'm ever feeling worried about a meeting, I can invite my principal in to make sure that I am feeling safe and supported. Principals, generally, have plenty of training in defusing difficult situations and are there to support teachers. 

BC CASE (2008) put out a guide on meaningful consultation with parents for administrators which has some information about supporting meaningful dialogue when consulting with parents. The guide also has an appendix featuring templates for collecting student information that could be useful.

BC CASE. (2008). Supporting meaningful consultation with parents [PDF]. Retrieved from https://burnabyschools.ca/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/meaningfulConsultation.pdf