Coaching Conversations: Two Scripts

Thanks for staying for a few minutes after class, T. I just wanted to tell you that I've noticed Susie seems to really trust you and that's a wonderful gift. It's taken her a long time to really trust the school and the teachers.

And she seems to really appreciate working with you. Do you mind telling me a little bit more about how Susie is doing during the phoneme lessons?

I see. Do you think that helps her feel better? Is there a particular part of the lesson you think is overwhelming?

I think that relationship you two have is great and I'm glad it helps her calm down. I also wanted to share a concern I have too. One of our IEP goals for Susie is to be included with her peers to access the lesson. When she sits with you, is she able to access the lesson with her peers?

I know it may seem that way, but recent research from the Council on Exceptional Children actually suggests extra attention from a paraprofessional may have inadvertent and detrimental effects on student's social, behavior, and academic goals. Susie's privacy and IEP goals are legally protected by IDEA and, as a school, we are legally liable to protect Susie's rights and her IEP progress. Are there any steps we could take to protect your relationship with Susie while also protecting her privacy and inclusion with her peers?

Thanks for your questions, T, they are all very relevant — I am not trying to accuse you of any wrongdoing. Like I said, you've done a great job helping Susie feel calm. However, I'd like to remind you that Susie's IEP team has taken great care to balance the risk of a meltdown with the vital importance of helping her access the curriculum. Given your unique relationship with Susie, I'd be happy to arrange for you to attend her IEP meetings so that you can see the full context offered by her parents, the school psychologist, and the special education team. I'd like to suggest that you sit next to her from within the circle time group instead of allowing her to sit on your lap outside of the circle. Would you be open to giving this a try?

That sounds great. I am very grateful for your service to our school and your passionate concern for the students. I'll have a conversation with the teacher - she should be regularly attending Susie's IEP meetings as well. Perhaps next week we can meet at the same time with the teacher? Do you have this time available in your schedule?

I'm free on Wednesday, let's meet then.

Let me ask the teacher and I'll get back to you, can I reach you by email?

Okay, thanks so much for meeting with me, I'll be in touch.

Hi Cindy and John, thank you for meeting with me today for Jonathan's elementary-to-middle-school transition IEP meeting. I know that there are some concerns about Jonathan's meltdowns as he transitions to middle school, and I know that you have proposed that the middle school give him a one-to-one paraprofessional, as he has had in elementary school. So this meeting is about that topic — whether or not the middle school will provide the paraprofessional. Before we get started, would you mind telling me a little bit more about why you want a paraprofessional to provide one-to-one support for Jonathan in middle school?

Thanks, John. I understand that the meltdowns can be very overwhelming for the family. And yes, Cindy, I would like to remind you that we provided the one-to-one paraprofessional in elementary school because the elementary school did not have the infrastructure to support Jonathan while he was there. However, we are not taking away his supports. We may actually be enhancing them in this particular case, because the middle school has better infrastructure to support students than the elementary school. Were there any other concerns that you would like to share about Jonathan's transition into middle school or the one-to-one support with the paraprofessional?

That's a great question — I'd be very happy to talk about that right now. As you know, the elementary school that Jonathan attended lacked a school psychologist, they lacked an Autism consultant, and there was also not a full-time special educator on staff. What the elementary school did have was several paraprofessionals, and I would like to remind you that paraprofessional are not licensed teachers — they are there to support the teachers in the elementary school. The middle school, however, has a full-time school psychologist, a full-time Autism consultant working at the school, and a three-person special education team on site. There are paraprofessionals at the middle school as well; however, I believe that the unique combination of the school psychologist, the Autism consultant, and the special education team actually offers a better alternative for Jonathan in reaching his IEP goals. So before we proceed, could you give me some input on Jonathan's current IEP goals — his academic goals, his social goals, and his behavioral goals — and your thoughts on those?

Of course — would you mind sharing your thoughts on Jonathan's IEP goals? How is he doing behaviorally, socially, and academically?

I think I actually want to take a look at the data here. One of the benefits of having many paraprofessionals at the elementary school was that our data collection for Jonathan's behavior, performance, and meltdowns is quite detailed. At baseline, when Jonathan first started elementary school, he was having three to four meltdowns per month — about one per week — which I understand was very difficult at home and was really interfering in his school life. After we introduced the one-to-one paraprofessional, the meltdowns dropped to one to two per month, which was about a 50% improvement.

We've been trying to figure out the cause of what exactly was going on. Was it the paraprofessional that was improving Jonathan's meltdowns, or was there something the paraprofessional was delivering to Jonathan? I think we want to take a look under the hood here. One of the instructions, as I understood it, that we gave the paraprofessionals was that they were to help Jonathan phrase questions that he could share with his peers whenever he was doing homework. And it seems that this feedback relationship that Jonathan had with the paraprofessional really helped Jonathan connect with some of the students that he was sitting next to. I think this really works at the elementary level, but we're going to see diminishing returns at the middle school level, when students get a little more socially aware and a little more independent. Having an adult next to Jonathan at all times might actually deter his peers from working with him and might increase the risk of meltdowns in the future as he gets older. It has been reported in the literature that students who have diagnoses of ADHD, and who are candidates for Autism spectrum disorder diagnoses, may change their meltdown behaviors. Right now, Jonathan is an externalizer — as you mentioned, he cries and he won't speak to you. As he gets older and more independent, he may internalize that behavior and turn to other behaviors, like locking himself in his room or spending more time on the internet, even if he does have a paraprofessional — which could be worse in the long run.

I agree that I don't have a crystal ball, and we can't really know exactly what's going to happen in the future. But I do think it's really important that we consider what the data is telling us now, and that we also consider the best case studies we have available for students in Jonathan's age range. Middle school is a very difficult time — it's a time when students are learning independence and trying to gain independence. So I believe that giving Jonathan a one-to-one paraeducator may deter him from connecting with his peers and may make the situation worse. I propose that, using the infrastructure we have available at the middle school — the special education team, the school psychologist, and the Autism consultant — we begin a series of evidence-based practices tailored toward Jonathan's specific needs. One of those evidence-based practices is peer-based intervention. Another is naturalistic intervention. And a final one is the functional behavior assessment. I'd be happy to go into detail on all three of these evidence-based practices, or just one of them. But mostly I wanted to let you know that there's more on the table for us to support Jonathan than just a one-to-one paraprofessional.

That's a really good question, and it's something where I would encourage us all to let the data speak for itself. We know that Jonathan's meltdowns have been reduced by working with a paraprofessional, and if we look under the hood, we can see that the paraprofessional has been helping Jonathan integrate with his peers. So I think a very reasonable step here would be to fade the dependence on the paraprofessional and start introducing peer-based intervention. Peer-based intervention actually has better case-study support in the literature for students at Jonathan's age than a one-to-one paraprofessional. There is a developmental jump that happens that is empirically reflected in multiple case studies, with multiple students, over time, that I think really could make a difference here for Mr. Jonathan.

I think you have some really valid concerns here. Do you mind if I walk you through the peer-based intervention strategy and how it would be deployed in Jonathan's case?

Yes. So, all of these interventions follow a procedure and a script, and our goal with all of these interventions is to make them as observable as possible, so that we can get feedback on a very timely basis.

I really think there are some students in Jonathan's class that he has bonded with — I think that he has some friends — and I really want to help Jonathan connect with those friends. Miss Susie has done an awesome job of helping Jonathan make his friendships. But, I mean, let's be real: Miss Susie is not going to be with him for his whole life. It's just not possible. She can bring him cake on the weekends, but on the day-to-day — when Jonathan's a teenager, when he's in high school, when he's an adult looking for romance — he's not going to have a Miss Susie sitting next to him. And if he does, that can really get in the way of his relationships with his peers. So, with peer-based intervention, what we would do is select a handful of students that Jonathan is bonded with, which I think we could easily identify. We train those students to do some of the things that Miss Susie was already doing. The research shows that most students are actually very willing, and this process can be beneficial for Jonathan, for those students, and for the whole class. So the first part of the process is identifying the right students, helping Jonathan connect with them, and then teaching those students what to do in the case where they identify that Jonathan might be on the verge of a meltdown. What are your thoughts here?

I’d like to clarify that we have a zero-tolerance policy on bullying. At the same time, I think every student goes through an experience where they have conflict with friends.

Well, I think Jonathan actually offers quite a bit to the class that other students benefit from. Jonathan is very smart — he's very intelligent — and I think the other students know that, and I think they want to be friends with him. With him — not with Miss Susie, but with Jonathan. All kids have conflicts with each other, just like adults all have conflicts with each other, and part of peer-based intervention is the professionals in the room — the consultant, the school psychologist, the teachers, the special educators — helping these students navigate those conflicts. So if we can get Jonathan and his friends to have a really solid foundation at the start of middle school, I think we can have a really positive outlook on Jonathan's experience in middle school and in high school.

Since he is switching schools — since he is transitioning — all of the new individuals would be invited to the next IEP meeting. All of these individuals are veterans; they have ten-plus years of experience working in the school. We've got a really good team at this middle school. They would all meet Jonathan, and they would all meet with you. Part of this process is that, as Jonathan grows up, he actually gets more and more involved in the IEP meetings himself, so that he can tell us what's working and what's not working. And I want to assure you that if this doesn't work, we will go back to something that does work.

The IDEA — the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act — mandates that our school provide a free appropriate public education to your student. So in this particular case, if the new methods do not succeed in providing Jonathan a free appropriate public education, then we will go back to something that does work, which has been the one-on-one work with a paraprofessional, and we'll continue tracking data for that — seeing if his rate of meltdowns changes, increases, or decreases. This is an ongoing process, as you know, that will continue for Jonathan's entire school career. One final thing: we do have a student who is recently graduating eighth grade. He is on the Autism spectrum, and we have been using peer-based intervention in our school with him, along with some other evidence-based practices. I'd really like to connect you with his family so that you can understand what his experience has been like in our middle school. He, like Jonathan, also relied on a paraprofessional to get through elementary school, but we have since faded the use of the paraprofessional in middle school. I think the data does paint a well-rounded picture — there are no utopias here, no fairy-tale endings here — but there are some legitimate benefits that I believe the other student has experienced through this transition, and I think his parents would be more than willing to share their experience and story with you.

Cindy, does that sound good to you?

Okay, great. So how about I connect you with the parents of the other student, and we'll go forward using peer-based intervention at the middle school. Our next IEP meeting is already on the agenda, so we'll meet with all the new teachers, the special educator, and the school psychologist for our first meeting. Can we schedule that for next month? That'll give us about three weeks before school starts to get set up and get everything prepared. And in the meantime, maybe I could help you — or you could help me — get started as well. Would you mind putting together a list of students that Jonathan feels especially bonded with in class, so we can start reaching out to them and their parents and get them involved as well?

Thank you both very much.