Beth

Montick 1
SPED 843: Advanced Methods and Assessment: Strategies for Students with
Significant Behavior, Social, and Emotional Need
Applying the Model for Parent and Family Involvement to a Case Study Student

Introduction and Case Summary:

Mara is a 4-year-old girl in a preschool program for children with autism.

She is verbal, has age appropriate language abilities with a good vocabulary, and is

able to read. She has difficulty when interacting with peers and exhibits rigidity

during a variety of situations with both peers and adults. The primary challenging

behaviors that she engages in are crying and refusal to complete tasks. The duration

of the behaviors can be up to 30 minutes on some days. These behaviors are being

targeted and frequency and duration have decreased since she began receiving

services.

Maras family is made up of her mother, father, and 6-year-old sister. They

live in a house in a suburban neighborhood of Madison, WI. Her father works full-

time and her mother is not working outside of the home at this time. She is an

engineer and is planning on returning to work once Mara is in school full days. Mara

will be entering her second year of preschool in September and then will be entering

kindergarten the following year. She receives both individual ABA services and her

preschool program through our center.

Five Domains of the Model for Parent and Family Involvement:

Information Exchange:

The first domain of the Model for Parent and Family Involvement is

information exchange. Information exchange is the give and take of information

between parents and teachers. It includes both the teacher getting information

from the parents and the teacher providing information to the parents. This
Beth Montick 2
SPED 843: Advanced Methods and Assessment: Strategies for Students with
Significant Behavior, Social, and Emotional Need
Applying the Model for Parent and Family Involvement to a Case Study Student

exchange of information is important for building trust and open communication

with the family of your student. This exchange of information should be started

early on in your relationship with a students family, usually with an initial

conference or meeting.

From the time Mara began in the preschool program, her mom was open and

willing to share information about Mara. Since we wanted to encourage this to

continue, we worked with her to set up a system that would allow an open exchange

of information to continue. The system that has been set up is that a daily

information sheet is sent home with some basic information about what she did and

how the day went. In addition, monthly meetings are set up with Maras mom and

dad, if he is available, and a monthly newsletter is sent from her classroom teacher.

Maras parents are welcome to come to observe in the classroom and her individual

sessions and they have done this a few times throughout the year. Home visits have

been offered but Maras mom has not deemed it necessary. In addition, Maras mom

will communicate with the teaching staff via email to update the staff if necessary.

We set up this system from the start of the program and similar communication

channels are established with all of our students families. Assessment in this area

shows that there is an open, daily communication system between the home and

school environment. At this time, no additional support is required for Maras

family in the domain of information exchange.

Partnership and Advocacy Training:

Beth Montick 3
SPED 843: Advanced Methods and Assessment: Strategies for Students with
Significant Behavior, Social, and Emotional Need
Applying the Model for Parent and Family Involvement to a Case Study Student

For the Partnership and Advocacy Training domain, parents are informed of

their legal rights and advocacy training to identify and use school and community

resources to support their child. This area of involvement serves to empower

families, help families understand their rights, and to help families access resources

and training. Since Mara is not yet in Kindergarten, this is an opportune time to

educate her parents about the rights that they and Mara have when it comes to her

education as she looks to enter the public school kindergarten classroom in about a

year. When assessing this area it is clear that Maras family does not know what

services are available for her and what her rights are at this time. This knowledge is

important to serve as a foundation for later advocacy. We can help to educate them

by explaining the IEP process and providing them with resources that outline what

the rights are. There are numerous resources available online from disability, legal,

or education groups that serve as excellent, parent-friendly outlines of the rights

afforded to students in IDEA that can be beneficial for Maras parents now and in the

future. Within our program, we can develop training for all of our families to inform

them of these advocacy issues. In addition, we can work to connect families

together to discuss their experiences.

Home and Community Program Implementation:

This area includes assisting parents by setting up home programs for

students and supporting implementation of behavioral strategies in the home and

community settings. This support can help with carry-over of interventions from

school to the home. Maras preschool program is unique because it includes this
Beth Montick 4
SPED 843: Advanced Methods and Assessment: Strategies for Students with
Significant Behavior, Social, and Emotional Need
Applying the Model for Parent and Family Involvement to a Case Study Student

component because of how our program is set up. Mara receives both preschool

and individual ABA services through our center. The teacher meets weekly with the

behavioral consultant who runs her ABA programming and the behavioral

consultant is available regularly to observe Mara in the classroom setting. Both the

teacher and consultant are in contact with Maras family regarding any issues at

home and to ensure there is carry-over between home, clinic, and school as to how

her behaviors are being managed.

Counseling, Consultation, and Support programs:

This domain deals with the educator being knowledgeable about referrals for other

services, crisis management, and support for families, including siblings. At this

time, our program does not have a social worker attached to it. This is an area of

weakness for our program that we are trying to expand upon. For Mara, the main

area of support that the family would need at this time is referral for other services,

specifically for occupational and speech therapy, due to specific deficits in these

areas. Another area that may be helpful is adding what we call a sibling session into

her programming. In these sessions, we work on developing play skills and

appropriate interactions between the siblings.

Parent and Family Coordinated Service Programs:

Educators can assist parents to find opportunities for interested families to

become involved with volunteering and with parent advocacy groups. This is for

families who want to be very involved and who have the time that they want to use

in this manner. One way that this can be accomplished is by putting events or
Beth Montick 5
SPED 843: Advanced Methods and Assessment: Strategies for Students with
Significant Behavior, Social, and Emotional Need
Applying the Model for Parent and Family Involvement to a Case Study Student

information regarding these groups in the monthly newsletter or calendar. In our

area, we have a few parent groups focused on autism. One area of difficulty that I

have observed is that for younger children who have high functioning autism, the

parents often are not looking to identify with these autism groups. We can inform

our parents, including Maras, of these groups and the services that they offer and

encourage them to see the value in the services that they offer. One way that we

accomplish this is by putting events or information regarding these groups in our

monthly newsletter and on the calendar that is posted monthly in our waiting area.

By being knowledgeable about the services and events that these groups offer as a

staff, we can direct parents to these groups when appropriate and when the parents

may be open to joining with them. In addition, parents can be encouraged to

volunteer with parent groups and program activities to get them involved with

multiple facets of their childs education.