IEP's and the Meaning of Life...

There are a couple of questions nobody ever asks me and I wish they would. The first one:

"Hey Ben, what is the meaning of life?"

To which I would respond: "Next question."

The second one:

"Hey Ben, what the heck is Special Education all about?"

After spit-spraying Diet Coke at the surprise of this question, I would thoughtfully respond in the following manner:

Special Education is a free and public educational service for children ages 3-22. The services are funded in large part by State and Federal agencies thereby requiring considerable State and Federal oversight. 

State and Federal oversight typically translates into TONS OF PAPERWORK. 

But that's okay, because Special Education is important. You see, in theory, Special Education is supposed to provide meaningful access to a free and appropriate public education for children with disabilities.

When I say "disabilities" its important you know what I mean: Real human beings connected to real human families that face real human challenges on a day-to-day basis. That's what I mean. 

Back in 1972, folks got hip to the fact that kids with such challenges shouldn't be denied access to a free and appropriate public education based on their disability, their challenges, or their lives. In 1972, you could be very proud of our fine government for this recognition. It was and is a big deal. 

Fast forward 40 years and here we are. Special Education--as we know it--has only been operating for about 40 years. In that 40 years, a TON of research and a TON of monitoring has taken place. The research and the monitoring has revealed good things and bad things. 

Wanna know what the research and monitoring are still on the fence about? Wanna know what still has no conclusive evidence of its effectiveness? (And in some studies, very little effectiveness at all?)

Individualized Education Plans/Programs (IEP's).

Yup. It's true. That all powerful document that keeps special educators up at night? That document that all special education coordinators keep training and training and auditing and auditing?

It's kind of a wash.  

So, what? What does an iffy document have to do with Special Education?

Everything. 

Literally, everything in special education is funneled through that document. The free and public access to an appropriate education for a child with a disability is completely and utterly reliant upon that document. 

There you have it. Special Education is a wonderful social support service for children and their families that is completely beholden to a document with "iffy" effectiveness, reliability, validity, etc. 

I'm no whistleblower. Those of us in Special Education have known this for years. IEP's are the one thing that we would all just like to do without. Don't get me wrong. We want to make goals and we want to monitor progress, but we want a more efficient way to do it.

That said, I'm not one to worship the problem. I'm one who likes to work with what we've got.

If you or someone you know wants help navigating the special education process for their child, contact Dr. Springer for consultation and advocacy services right now.

Special Education is a wonderful thing. Don't let the stack of papers slow it down.

Bullying and The Hunger Games...

I'm gonna be honest, I have not read the Hunger Games Trilogy, okay. My wife is currently reading it and I enjoy her abridged accounts. Once she finished reading the first installment, we decided to go see the movie.

So, my disclaimer to you die-hard Hunger Game book-readers: I'm a poseur.

That said, I totally dig the story and really, really liked the movie. If you're like me, and you didn't know much about The Hunger Games prior to it's blockbuster status, its a tale of kids in an post-apocolyptic America. The kids (and the rest of the country) are being seriously oppressed by "The Capitol," (see also: The Man).

The most disturbing part of their oppression? Every year a group of kids are selected to participate in The Hunger Games and they must fight to the death.

That's messed up, right? Right.

It made me wonder a couple of things.

For the past few years I have been working in public schools and I noted well before the blockbuster movie arrived, that a lot of kids were reading these Hunger Games books. I thought it was curious, but never paid any mind.

Once I found out the premise, it made me think: "Why would kids like these books so much? It's about kids killing each other to survive? Forced to do things they hate? Forced to find an identity in a crumbling and oppressive world?"

Very quickly, my mind turned to the research I conducted for my Master's Thesis at the University of Utah: Bullying.


Kids like reading about the Hunger Games because they can RELATE to the character's situation on a pretty profound level. Thus, the premise of the books isn't disturbing, but the level of relatedness they portray is.

The kids in the Hunger Games are pitted against each other while adults and peers stand idly by. After surveying the research literature surrounding bullying, you would be hard pressed to find a more appropriate metaphor.

Bullying is a form of coercion that serves any number of functions for the perpetrator: Power, control, survival. Victims of bullying fall prey not only to the perpetrator, but to those that stand, watch and accept it. Peers and adults basically allow this to happen. It is...permitted.

Before sending your child into a version of The Hunger Games, contact Dr. Springer about how to prevent bullying on a school-wide basis and how to teach your child to respond to bullying.

Thank you, and may you manipulate the odds in your favor.

Got Social Skills?

What are social skills?

Experts will give you really cool and technical definitions like: "Social skills are specific sets of behaviors shared between individuals for a mutual benefit," or "Social skills are behaviors individuals use to navigate social initiations and responses," or "blah, blah, blah..."


I've read hundreds of articles and spent hours assessing and instructing social skills development. I'm not sure that makes me an expert, but my definition of social skills is a tad different. To me, social skills are:

1. Self-awareness
2. Knowing how to "fake" or "pretend"
3. Taking turns

I know what you're thinking, "These sound like skills for preschoolers!" and you're right. Remember the saying, "Everything you need to know you learn in preschool?" It's a pretty accurate statement, (not about filing taxes, but definitely about social skills!) The strongest social skills development takes place from birth to around 5 years old.

Even that tiny, iddy-biddy infant is learning steps 1-3.

What's always been interesting about researching social skills is that hardly anybody actually sits down with our little rascals and teaches them social skills. Most little kids just learn these skills quite incidentally with very little guidance. It's pretty amazing.

This leads us to believe that skills like "self-awareness," "pretending," and "taking turns" just sort of happen.

While this is a fascinating phenomenon, it can be troubling for children and families struggling with complex neurodevelopmental disorders like autism or ADHD. A large majority of these children lack self-awareness, the ability to "fake-it" and have a real hard time taking turns (not only with toys) but with conversation. For many of them, these skills aren't "just happening" and don't ever seem to "click."

On top of all that, the impact of these concerns tend not to surface until well after the ideal developmental window (birth-to-5). The result is that you have some preschoolers and kindergartners having a really hard time at school. Their interactions with peers and adults become quite strained at an early age and basically set the stage for their entire schooling!

I am always surprised at how little emphasis is placed on social skills development in schools. I know a lot of folks that can read, write, and do arithmetic but they cannot interact socially. This impacts their desires for intimacy, their status at work, and more.

Okay, so now what? What do you do?

First: Prevention is the best medicine. You're going to want to advocate on behalf of kids everywhere that self-awareness, pretend-play, and taking turns gets taught at home and in preschool settings.

Second: Kids that continue to struggle during the preschool years and beyond NEED social skills instruction. Serious social skills instruction that includes motivating and entertaining components with a strong emphasis on using the skills in a meaningful way (to both the child and their environments).

Third: Contact Dr. Springer. Despite what the internet offers you, there are literally only a handful of effective methods that help children learn the skills they need to navigate the social world. Dr. Springer can consult with you by conducting a needs assessment for your child and can help direct school personnel in adopting practical methods that support social success.

What do you want from your child's school?

This is a reasonable question. I think most folks would respond by saying something like, "A good education, good teachers, safety, etc."

Simple enough, right?

I'm not so sure. For instance, what's a "good education?" To one parent, it might mean learning all the classics in literature, useful mathematical algorithms and concepts, appreciation of the arts, and the ability to write and communicate thoughts and arguments effectively. To another, it could mean child care, food, and play.

It's quite amazing that there is no unified definition of what a good education entails. We're all left to interpret that for ourselves, and if we're lucky, we share the interpretation with our educators.

The interpretation becomes even more nebulous and convoluted when your child has special needs. Be it developmental, behavioral, emotional, or social, the education of exceptional youth does not share the same trajectory of other children. Thus, the definition of  "a good education" potentially diverges here as well.

You can see now that the reasonable question of "What do you want from your child's school" may not have a simple or reasonable answer for everyone.

This puts educators of all varieties in a serious pickle. The burden, it seems, is on them to take a very dated model of education (i.e., grade levels, test-assess-test, evaluate, and report) and have it apply successfully to all children that walk in their room.

When I attended my first parent-teacher conference in the role of the parent--I'm going to be honest--there was only one thing I wanted to know. Of course I was happy to hear that my daughter's reading and writing were up to snuff, but I just wanted to know if she was happy. That's all I wanted to know. You see, for me, if my daughter was happy, I knew she could approach reading, writing, and arithmetic at her best. If my daughter was happy, she would be open to the fun and exciting learning environment of the classroom.

It's pretty amazing what kids can do when they're happy.

It sounds all fluffy and fun, but happiness is serious business. Unfortunately, while an impressive amount of research exists on how happiness (aka psychological well-being) affects test scores, performance, relationships, future success, and motivation, our educational system ignores it completely.

Educational psychologists Thomas Kehle and Melissa Bray of the University of Connecticut address this paradigm in detail and even provide a theoretical framework to improve not only your child's education, but your child's quality of life. They even provide a clever acronym for their theory. They call it "R.I.C.H. theory." (Think enRICHment over GETTING rich).

Next time you see me, we can talk about the ENTIRE theoretical mumbo-jumbo. For now, just take a few minutes of your day to think about what R.I.C.H. stands for:

Resources. Your child should be taught how to identify and access resources specific to their age and developmental level.

Intimacy. Your child should be taught how to navigate relationships successfully enough specific to their age and developmental level.

Competence. Your child should be taught achieve academic competence across all academic areas.

Health. Your child should be taught how to maintain a healthy lifestyle.

These four areas have all been found as the pillars of a happy, high-quality life. If every child knew how to access resources, maintain intimacy, achieve competence, and remain healthy, they'd be happy.

Now, if you're happy and you know it, clap your hands!

If you're not, contact Dr. Springer for more information about helping your child succeed at school and in life.

Stuff to know about ADHD...

Do me a favor. Just for fun. Next time you're in a conversation and somebody brings up "ADHD," I want  you to say this when its your turn to speak:

"You know, ADHD is just the tip of the iceberg..."


Try and be smug and clever when you say it too. Why? (Because its sorta funny when you act smug and clever). AND, that statement is the truth. You are going to spread the truth about ADHD.

You see, the common symptoms of "inattention" or "hyperactivity" or "both" aren't even really the most significant part of the actual diagnosis. They're the byproducts of something much more troubling and concerning. They're the result of an impairment in what is known as "executive functioning."

Not to mention, I don't know a single child ranging in age from 3-17 that doesn't struggle with "inattention, hyperactivity, or both." Those symptoms can also just be kids being kids.

ADHD is a real neurological impairment with real neurological underpinnings. I guess that's why it sorta bugs me when folks talk about ADHD so flippantly. You don't hear folks talking about Autism or Depression like that.

But lets not get distracted. Let's go back to your conversation.

After you smugly deliver the "tip of the iceberg" comment, someone will say: "What do you mean?"


To which you reply: "If you're really talking about ADHD, inattention and overactivity are the least of your concerns. Those symptoms are just the expression of an entire series of cognitive processes gone haywire..."


Your conversation will most likely end abruptly at that point. Because the rest of the explanation is sorta boring.

But hopefully you get the point. For a such a commonly used label and/or description, ADHD is barely understood by those that NEED to understand it (i.e., kids, teachers, and parents).

ADHD is a big, fat indicator of a neurological impairment that produces impairments across each of the following areas:

1. Self-regulation (e.g. filtering what you think to what you say, checking work, etc.)
2. Organizing behavior across long periods of time (e.g. at work or at play, staying the course).
3. Inhibiting impulsive behaviors (e.g., hitting, yelling, etc.)
4. Planning, setting, and achieving goals.
5. Internal motivation.

Plan your intervention to address 1-5 and you'll see improvements in inattention and overactivity.

And that is stuff you should know about ADHD.

(Need help planning interventions to address these issues? Contact Dr. Springer)

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