"SAY IT IN CRAYON" AT IEP MEETINGS

MAKING YOURSELF CLEAR

“SAY IT IN CRAYON” means to put your thoughts in the simplest and easiest wording so that it can be readily and immediately understood by anyone.

AND HERE’S MY ADVICE:

List your concerns in bullet fashion—short phrases/brief sentences.

List your issues in behavioral terms. For example, if you want the school to conduct an FBA, cite the behavior(s) of concern (stating exactly what it looks like so anyone would recognize it, when and where it occurs/when and where it does not occur, and for how long or often.

Define words like “hyper” or anxious in a way that the reader can “picture and see” what you see. For example:

My daughter is hyper. What I mean by that is, when asked to sit in her seat, after 3 minutes she will

• be shaking her legs,

• get up out of her chair

• or both.

This is extremely easy to picture and is precisely explained.

Avoid writing long paragraphs or pages of text, unless you are writing to explain multiple actions/discussions you had with a teacher or school administrator for documentation purposes. But even then, you want statements to be as precise and factual as possible.

So, when writing concerns, or making requests, or even creating IEP goals WRITE THEM IN CRAYON so anyone can understand them, and I mean ANYONE.

WHY? Because they will:

• be easier to read and understand, and

• be factual statements void of emotional tones/comments (which can take the focus off the original concern)