My child's Kindergarten IEP is comming up soon and I am not sure what to ask for, for him. He is very smart he is only four right now and currently read on about a third grade reading level. I want him to be in the regular classroom with his peers as much as possible, but on the other hand I want him to be challenged academically on his strenghs.
Any suggestions?

Does he have any gross motor or fine motor delays? If so, you may want to ask for physical/occupational therapy for him. Also, a lot of school systems offer social skills classes. This is important for kids on the spectrum, so you might want to request that as well. Does he seem like he needs speech therapy? If yes, you may want to request that. The thing about the school system is that they are only required to give you services that are needed for his education, so you might want to take an advocate with you to the meeting. My daughter has not had her IEP meeting yet, but we are planning on taking an advocate with us, because we want to make sure she gets all of the services she needs. Good luck!

-Steph

Hello, I don't have any real tips for you as I am trying to figure out what I want to ask for in my sons kindergarten IEP, but I wanted to wish you luck, and I hope you get everything you ask for.
Tina....Justin 5 (Aspergers), Kelsey 3 (NT), & Megan 1 (Developmental Delay)

Good luck to you, Aspergermom! Hoping your son gets everything he needs. He sounds very smart.

Thank you everyone for the wishes of good luck! :) I have been able to sit down and think so this is what I am thinking I will do:

As far as speech goes, about 90% of his conversation is still quoting the TV shows that he watches and also websites and commericals. I would like speech to work on converstaion type things with him , like staying on a topic and social converstation. Maybe even doing some of his speech in the classroom.

He has a fine motor delay and still hold his crayon, pencil, etc with an imature grasp. He also has some sensory issues with food and noise.
Because of his fine motor delay he also has trouble with alot of self help skills like buttoning, tying shoes, opening jars, etc. I am going to request that she continue to work with him on his fine motor delay and watch him for any new troubles that come up in Kind.

I am going to request that they adapt most of his work in Kind. to level that he is on since most everything they will learn in Kind. he already knows.
I am going to request that he be in the kindergarten classroom with is peers for the bulk of the day and only be pulled out when there is not a social activity going on in the classroom. For ex. I would want him to be in the classroom with his peers when they are having center time, or going outside to play, or going to eat lunch and be pulled out during quiet work time or rest time.

They have given him an IQ test and I am anxious to see the results of that. They requested that I do that so that if he is gifted they can see that on his IEP. I never thought he would be gifted and special ed at the same time! :)

Aspergermom,

Sounds like a excellent plan! Good luck again to you and your son.

The last IEP meeting that I had for my son I insisted that the goals that the therapists had were also stated out in the goals his teacher had for him. Even though his teacher insisted that she would automatically work on those goals, he will have a new teacher next year and I wanted to make sure she would have to do so. If the goal is stated for the teacher to work on it as a classroom goal, she doesn't have to work on it. His current teacher understood and we had the goals listed. Also, my son has problems with his attention span, and hates being pulled out of the classroom. We changed his therapy's from 30 min. once a week to 15 min. twice a week. This way he gets more out of his OT and Speech Therapy sessions than he did before.

Typo.. I meant if the goal isn't stated as a classroom goal, than the teacher doesn't have to work on it.

We had our meeting today and everything went well. His offical dx(with the school system) is now Asperger's and not Devel. delay. We got everything that we requested be on his IEP. We are looking forward to a great Kndergarten year, the way things went today it looks as if we will! :)

What a great post as we will be starting the IEP once we have our official diagnosis.

When everyone is talking about the stuff you should request at your IEP, I am wondering what are they required to do? Just because we ask for it, does that mean they have to do it?

Unfortunately, no. Everyone in the meeting needs to agree. Also, if they say no, they have to give a good reason. A good reason should never be they don't have the time or resources. Talking to an advocate before the meeting is good and having the advocate with you at the meeting if your expecting problems. Also, if your not comfortable with how the meeting ends, don't sign anything. Tell them you want to take the paperwork home to read it and think about it before signing.