As a parent you wear many hats: taxi cab driver, nurse, teacher, counselor, chef, etc. Mothers and fathers are also detectives – more about that in a minute.

Teachers also have many roles: instructor, counselor, nurse, supervisor, life-long student, etc. Educators share the detective role with parents. How so? Well, let’s look at what detectives do:

• investigate
• follow clues
• solve puzzles

Parents and teachers can learn from detectives and become Super Sleuths! The puzzle to be solved is how to support ALL students so can be active and successful learners in general education classes.

Step 1:

Investigate by having ongoing conversations with the child himself and a variety of people in his life. Get many perspectives of the student’s strengths, interests, challenges, learning styles, dreams, and achievements. Ask what works and what doesn’t work.

I once had a parent tell me she was inviting her son’s piano teacher to the IEP meeting. My first thought was hmmm, I wonder why she is asking his piano teacher to come. Well, come to find out the school Occupational Therapist (OT) said teaching her son keyboard skills would be inappropriate because the OT didn’t feel like he could use the keyboard.

The mother told me her son was doing fabulously with piano lessons, spreading his short fingers out on the piano keys and learning to play music. So, yes, even a piano teacher can have valuable information to share and help teachers/therapists understand how the student can be successful.

Of course, not every student is taking piano lessons, but this story shows how there are many other people in your child’s life that may just have a gem of information that when shared with the school can make a big difference!

In the example above, you can be a Super Sleuth and dig deeper and investigate how a student can learn to use a computer – is an alternative keyboard necessary, does the student need to use speech to text software, is there an age-appropriate keyboarding program that would be more motivating for a student to use, is there a better time of day for him to practice keyboarding at school, would he be more willing to try using the computer if he was seated next to a friend…

As you can see there are many questions to ask and facts to gather that can help your child receive the right kinds of supports. Of course, this applies to all areas of your child’s life – the better you and teachers become at investigating the what, where, why, when, and how – the more successful your child will be.

Step 2:

Follow Clues. Be more observant, continue to ask more questions, see how one piece of information you know about a student can help in other parts of his school day.

When I was teaching I often had students that would not follow a direction right after it was given, sound familiar? I could have decided the student was “choosing” to be “non-compliant” or I could look at some of
the clues the student was giving me and reach a different conclusion. I say follow the clues.

In my second grade classroom we usually had the class come up and sit in the front of the room for calendar activities, to listen to stories read aloud, for students to share something they brought from home that went along with something we were studying, etc. One year I had a student that was always the last to come up and sit down. When I invited all the students up she would continue working on what she had been doing, after giving her a reminder she would stand up but then have to take a drink from her water bottle before she started approaching the front of the room to join her classmates. Once she came up she would look around for a couple minutes before sitting down and once she sat down she would squirm quite a bit before she seemed comfortable.

Instead of making a quick judgment about this girl’s behavior I decided to look at the clues she was giving me and see what adjustments I could make. After thinking about what she did, talking to her, her parents and teachers from last year we figure out some better ways of doing things.

I gave the class a heads-up 5 minutes and 2 minutes before they were going to have to change activities, I got a visual timer the whole class can refer to in order to see how much time was left – now everyone had auditory and visual reminders about a transition coming up.

I came to realize that she took a sip from her water bottle every time there was a transition and that was fine for her to continue to do so. I found out she didn’t want to sit next to a classmate that loved to put on Hello Kitty cologne before coming to school and that is why she would take a couple minutes to figure out where to sit. I could have tried having assigned spots of each student but instead I just let her decide the best spot to sit.

She stopped squirming so much after I bought a class set of carpet samples for all the students to use if they wanted to. She always choose a soft lambskin carpet sample to sit on and that helped her be more comfortable. Notice, I didn’t just buy one carpet sample and have this particular student use it. I bought a class set, because chances are there were more than just that one student who found sitting on a carpet sample was more comfy. Give ALL the students a chance to try an accommodation.

And as an observant Super Sleuth you will discover that an accommodation a teacher might put in place for one student can actually benefit ALL the students in a class. In the story above, all my students did better when they were given a warning of when the class would be switching activities. Everyone, me included found the visual timer helpful so we could keep track of our schedule. And most kids liked sitting on the carpet samples.

Step 3:

Solve Puzzles. Take the information from conversations and clues to help ALL students actively and successfully participate in general education classrooms.

Did you know you can get excellent ideas from other kids? You have probably noticed that sometimes your child’s brothers and sisters, or their classmates have easy ideas to try. So, make it a point when you are trying to solve the puzzle of how to help your child to ask other students for their input.

As a matter of fact, invite your child’s brothers/sisters, friends to IEP meetings. You may be surprised how they are better at coming up with solutions than a bunch of adults sitting around a table.

I had a friend with a high school daughter that was always feeling like an outcast at school. Her mom had tried lots of things, counseling, friendship groups, inviting kids over to their house – but with no success. One day when my friend was talking to some of her daughter’s classmates they said one of the things that bugged other kids so much was her daughter’s constant teeth grinding. The other girls came up with the idea of having her try chewing gum at school (yes, they bent the rules) and guess what? The abrasive teeth grinding noise went away and other kids no longer shunned her. This is one simple example of how including classmates in the conversation can make a huge impact on how kids are treated at school.

When you put your Super Sleuth hat on (think Sherlock Homes) you will notice you can solve the puzzle of figuring out what a student likes/dislikes, what works/doesn’t work, motivates/frustrates, their strengths/needs much more easily. And that will translate into happier kids who can show us all what they know and can do!

As an advocate, one of the things I love doing is bouncing ideas off of parents and teachers. I am a creative thinker that likes to pose the question, “What if…?” My passion is for every child to be seen as a competent learner and valuable person. If you’re feeling stuck, give me a call and let’s work together. Chances are your child deserves more that what he is getting. Let’s change that!

Change is possible. Let’s make it happen!