The Importance of Understanding Developmental Sequence in the IEP Process

Parenting is a challenging journey when your child has special education needs. Special education parents play a vital role in supporting their child's growth and development. One essential aspect of this role is understanding the concept of developmental sequence. By comprehending the stages of development and their significance, parents can better advocate for their child, make informed decisions, and provide the necessary support for their unique needs.

It helps identify delays early.

Knowledge of developmental sequence equips parents to identify potential developmental delays early on. Parents can identify lags or deviations by knowing what skills and milestones their child should achieve at various stages. Early intervention is crucial for effectively addressing delays; understanding the expected progression enables parents to seek professional help promptly and advocate for their child's needs.

It guides expectations.

Understanding developmental sequence helps parents set expectations for their child's progress. Every child follows their own developmental path, and having a clear understanding of where a child falls in development can prevent undue stress and frustration by helping set expectations that meet the child's needs. It allows parents to recognize and appreciate small but significant milestones, fostering a positive and supportive environment.

It prevents the development of splinter skills.

Splinter skills are skills developed in a particular context, such as a classroom, but cannot be generalized or transferred to other settings, such as home or the community. Often splinter skills occur when developmental milestones are skipped. For example, if you have a child work on writing/tracing activities before they have mastered the motor, academic, language, and visual motor prerequisites related to writing/tracing, they can develop splinter skills. Splinter skills can be exciting for the IEP team, but in the longer run, they will prevent a child from expanding upon those skills to meet other IEP goals.

It assists with finding the right advocate.

Knowing if your advocate understands the law AND developmental sequence is essential if you are using an advocate. Often, advocates will request goals that are not developmentally appropriate for the child, which can cause frustration for the child and the IEP team, decreasing collaborative efforts. Ensuring your advocate understands developmental milestones AND the law will improve the IEP process.

Most importantly, not understanding developmental sequence can frustrate the child.

In our rush for achievement, IEP teams often write goals that skip critical developmental milestones. In doing so, the child struggles to gain the underlying skills to make achieving the goal easier. A well-intentioned IEP team can cause more harm than good by asking a child to do something they are not fully equipped for. For example, you cannot ask a child who is starting to stand to run without working on walking first. This is often the case with IEP goals that are based on something other than sound developmental principles. When this occurs, children will either express their frustration through maladaptive behaviors such as acting out or they will check out.

By understanding the significance of milestones and their interrelatedness, parents and educators can collaborate to provide tailored interventions and support systems that promote well-rounded development. Every child deserves the opportunity to reach their developmental milestones, and by addressing gaps early on, we can help them thrive and overcome challenges on their unique developmental journey.