Phew. My son Liam’s IEP meeting and IEP are now complete and we have a fresh set of goals for the next school year! IEP season is a mixture of feelings: determination, expectations, excitement and exhaustion! I love the working with the team and setting goals, but my favorite part is brainstorming with the team on ways to meet these goals.
After reading and rereading all the goals, I was inspired and immediately had “books on the brain” i.e. ideas for book topics I can make this summer that will help support the IEP goals for the upcoming school year. Books can be such a great tool to support your child’s IEP goals. It’s my goal to plan and prepare books this summer to be ready for the start of the new year. I am excited to create books that are motivating and meaningful for my son. I choose topics I know will interest Liam and that will also support his learning targets at school. I’m going to share just a few examples of how IEP goals can be turned into meaningful ideas for books!
Example of IEP Goal #1:
Given objects from which to choose, Liam will identify the one that has been described (the objectives go on to describe using adjectives, the word “not”, etc.)
Example of a book that could be made to support the IEP Goal above:
Motivating topic: Mom’s new car (He loves to walk around the car and feel all the parts of our new car.)
I was thinking to create a book that described my car using many adjectives. Below, is an example of what a few of the pages may look like in the “Mom’s New Car” book: After reading you can ask questions such as “What opens and closes? or “What is round, bumpy, and dirty?” or “How many doors does Mom’s car have?”
Page 1
(Tactile picture of a tire; probably will try to find a real piece of rubber tire)
Mom’s car has 4 rubber tires. They are dirty and bumpy and new. They spin round and round.
Page 2
Mom’s car has 4 doors. The doors open and close. They are hard and smooth.
Page 3
(Object that feels like a glass window for the picture)
My window is glass and hard and smooth. I can push the button and the window goes up slow and down slow.
Example of IEP Goal #2
One of the goals had to do with categorizing things (what belongs with what or what belongs where).
Motivating topic: Fridge!
Example of a book that could be made to support the IEP Goal above:
I am thinking about making a book about “What can you find in the fridge?”. Again, the fridge is a motivating topic for my son. He likes to help me get things out of the fridge. Here are some examples of the pages I would put in the “fridge” book.
Page 1
(Picture: Flaps that the reader can move to feel the object behind it.)
Milk, you find Milk in the fridge
Page 2
Water pitcher, you find Water in the fridge
Page 3
Apples, you find apples in the fridge.
After reading the book I could ask Liam, “What belongs in a fridge? Does a book belong in the fridge? No, a book does NOT belong in a fridge. Does milk belong in the fridge? Yes, milk belongs in the fridge.”
**Another example to meet this goal: What Belongs in a Farm book. (We go to the petting farm often in the summer, so again, this is motivating for him.) More examples for books: Who lives in your house? or Who goes to your church? Who goes to school? What belongs at the grocery store?
I know, creating books can be very time consuming! That is why I will be enlisting the help of my amazing friends and family to have ANOTHER book making party using the new book topics I came up with from the IEP See: http://www.pathstoliteracy.org/book-making-party. I found that people love to help out, but just aren’t sure how. That is why I usually plan out the topics (learning targets) and they help create the rest!
