Bright Feats Show

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

We interviewed a wonderful mom with two children with special needs, Pam Lindemann. She has been advocating for her with children with special needs for over 10 years and is the founder of an organization called Panda for Parents. Panda for Parents helps parents get what they need in the public school system. Through Panda for Parents, Pam offers a free support group for parents. The support group meets the last Friday of the month and allows parents to help each other and learn how to best advocate for their children in the school system. Following is a question and answer summary of our conversation with Pam.

1. If a parent feels their child needs additional support at school what should they do? “It can be an overwhelming process for parents because it is your child. When you have a typical child in school you want to best for them and when you have a special child it is even more involved and a lot more emotional. First thing to realize is that you are going to be emotional and that is okay, we all are. The second thing many parents don’t realize is that after you have the first meeting, have decided things and have left, you can always request another IEP meeting. Many parents think you can only have one IEP meeting a year. And that is not true. You can have several meetings a year if you need to. If after the first if you don’t get everything you want or didn’t address all the issues you can always schedule another meeting.
2. How important is it to follow up each meeting in writing? “Absolutely important, and the other good thing to do is to put in writing some information before you go into the meeting. Make sure you list questions and list things you feel would be helpful for your child. It is emotional, it is overwhelming, and if you have a list in front of you with things you want to talk to the team about it makes it much more simple.
3. What do you recommend parents do when they go to an IEP meeting? “When I go to IEP meetings, especially the first meetings of the school year, it is important to introduce my daughter to the teachers and therapists. They don’t know your child and have never met him or her. So I bring a photo of my daughter and a list of things I have written down about what her strengths are, things that make her happy, things that she likes and how to understand her signals. You know, as moms, we know our children. We know their strengths and weaknesses and we know their likes and dislikes. And we are putting them in school with people that do not know them. It is important for us to explain to people what our child is like because it makes it so much easier for the staff during the day. I remember after the meeting, the teachers and therapists said they were very grateful and they wish more parents would do this because it helped them out so very much.
4. What does Panda for Parents do? “The purpose of Panda for Parents is to educate, empower and encourage parents with children with special needs. It’s a very lonely road out there sometimes when you have a child with special needs. Especially when they are in the public school system because it is overwhelming, you don’t know what the laws are and you don’t know what you’re entitled to. Sometimes things occur in the school system and a parent doesn’t know who to talk to or who to ask for advice. The purpose for Panda for Parents is to be a support group for parents of children with special needs and it takes many forms. We do the IEP Support Meetings the last Friday of every month as a free support service. We have trainings and workshops about basic information for advocating for your child and more advanced concepts. And different kinds of support groups for parents as well. Our purpose is to be there to support and encourage parents.”

Please look at the Panda for Parents website at www.PandaforParents.org for more information and to connect with Pam and her helpful support group and services for parents.

Remember no one will fight harder for your child than you will!

We hope you enjoy listening to Pam’s helpful advice. She is a wealth of information. It is our mission to connect families with medical, educational and special needs resources. If we can help you please contact us at www.BrightFeats.com.

Download MP3 file