Welcome to back to my series about navigating the special education system. Today I want to talk about the difference between IEPs and ISPs. I've previously touched on what an IEP is, so head back to that post first if you need a refresher if you need it, but I wanted to go more into depth on what an ISP is and the difference between the two.

When we lived in Argentina last year, one of the things that I started doing was a life skills to help my autistic daughter with activities of daily living. I did "taking a bath", but also made a "taking a shower" version of it as well because they require different steps. When we were in Argentina, I put it up on the wall in the bathroom so that she knew exactly what she needed to do with pictures and a checklist. In the time that we've been back she's stopped baths altogether and has struggled a little bit with the steps in the shower. So, I decided to pull the "taking a shower" download back out to help her.

Today I want to talk about the things that we do in our house to help get us through the unpredictability of summer. If you're new here, I have ADHD. I thrive on just waking up in the morning and decided then what we're going to do for the day. However, my daughter is autistic, and she does so much better on a schedule. She thrives on the structure and schedule of the school year and we even do the summer school program that our county offers because she loves the structure so much. So, I have a few free downloads that help her with the unpredictability of summer that could maybe help your little too!

I'm currently building wall to wall built-ins in my daughter’s room. She is autistic and one of her special interest is toys. She has SO many little figurines she collects and knows and plays with each of them. I'm building this so she has a place to keep all of them and we can still stay organized. I want to go over how exactly I'm organizing all the stuff to best fit her needs, so today we are going to sort, label and dejunk her room.

Lets get back into navigating the special education system. I've talked about my personal experience as a kid, then my experience as a parent. Now I want to start getting into the nitty gritty and give information about HOW exactly to advocate. First I want to give a couple of caveats. 1) I am not an educator or a professional, I'm a parent. There are so many other creators out there that are IEP advocates, teachers, and professionals in these fields that you should seek out, as well and do your own research. 2) I live in the United States. I have zero experience with any other country other than the United States. Along with that many things vary from sate to state and I only have experience with states that I have lived in. With that, I've done a lot of research myself so lets get started.

Remember when there was a trend going around where people said the quirky things that “just make sense” in their home? Well, today I want to talk about things that make sense in my neurodivergent house, that might not in others.