special needs

“They put me in special ed when I started school. They thought I couldn’t learn, but it was because I didn’t speak English.” During a conversation with a friend, he shared with me his experience 30+ years ago in kindergarten. During the first week of school, my friend was taken out of his regular class and placed in a separate, segregated class for students with special needs. As an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher and a parent ofRead More ...

It’s spring, which means it’s IEP season again. Time to get together with a team made up of my boys’ teachers, special education teacher, speech therapist, occupational therapist, the school psychologist and a school administrator or two and reevaluate the school year. We will talk about how much progress my sons have made in reaching the goals we set for them last year and decide on new ones for next year. This year, only half an hour has been blockedRead More ...

We’re getting everything ready for our third SpanglishBaby LIVE Google+ Hangout and we’d love for you to join us tomorrow. This time around we’re discussing bilingualism and children with special needs. For those of you who’ve never joined a Google+ Hangout, you should know that it’s just like hanging out with a bunch of friends, except that you’re not all in the same room. In case you missed them, in our first Hangout we discussed dual language immersion programs and in our second one weRead More ...

Almost a month has passed since el quince de septiembre, Costa Rican Independence day. That weekend I set up a meeting point with a good friend, also a tica, gathered up my sons and our Metro cards and we trekked up to the Costa Rican Embassy in Washington, D.C. to check out the festivities, the third year in a row we’ve done so. I can always bribe my children with a ride on the bus or the Metro, because thereRead More ...

I’m raising bilingual kids with special needs. You can do it too. When my first child was born, I was immediately warned that I shouldn’t expose a child with special needs to two languages. The reasons were that: — Their speech development will slow down from trying to learn two languages — Their brains don’t have the capacity to make the switch from one language to another — They are already challenged with the disability, so I shouldn’t add anRead More ...