IEP Student With Intellectual Disability

Goals and IEPs: Aiden

One of the critical components of any IEP is 'goal setting.' Goals are determined for each individual student and a specific instructional plan is designed to meet those goals. Goals are usually set annually but each annual goal has a series of short-term goals designed to facilitate reaching that objective. In the case of 'Aiden,' for example, a student identified as having ADHD, the first major goal was for the student to pass all of his classes. Despite testing with a near-normal IQ, Aiden struggled with paying attention in class and often acted as a distraction to other students. His grades did not reflect his abilities because of his difficulty in focusing. Short-term goals designed to achieve this long-term objective including turning homework assignments in on time, getting a C. Or above on all in-class tests and quizzes, and making a positive contribution to class discussions with information that was relevant to the topic.

Another goal included improving his attentive capacity. To achieve this goal, Aiden was supposed to meet weekly with a tutor for special assistance in improving his study skills. The tutor would break down Aiden's mainstream class assignments into more manageable chunks. Aiden would also be required to record all of his assignments in a book, which will be reviewed by his parents every night. This IEP encompassed social goals as well, including not talking in class unless he was specifically called upon to do speak, not...

Because all students, regardless of their classification, exhibit distractibility at some point in their academic careers, it can be easy to see a student with the condition merely as defiant, rather than in possession of a full-blown disorder. However, students with ADHD have specific cognitive deficits that make it difficult for them to filter out extraneous stimuli competing for their attention. The perception that ADHD is over-diagnosed can lead some teachers to not take the condition seriously.
However, Aiden's teacher seemed philosophically 'on board' in terms of implementing the behavioral strategies suggested in the IEP. She did express frustration that sometimes Aiden could be such a distraction in class because he diverted her attention away from other students. She also sometimes found it difficult to balance the needs of the student in the class with Aiden's attention span. It was difficult to assign group work, given that Aiden would get extremely distracted working in groups and it was also difficult to assign long assignments, reading passages, or word problems, since Aiden could not handle this without assistance. (In a one-on-one situation, when being tutored, Aiden reported more success in meeting these challenges). It has been noted that…