Tips for Teens: Use Your IEP Meetings to Learn How to Advocate for Yourself

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Raising a child with a spinal cord injury requires that parents and caregivers learn about how to promote a child’s physical health and wellness, as well as their emotional and social well being.

Explore this section to discover resources that explain how a child’s growth and development is impacted by a spinal cord injury, and the developmental milestones to be reached at various ages. Adaptations and accommodations will be required to support learning at school. Resources are available to support a child’s social and emotional development and help foster self-confidence, friendships, and ongoing development of independence.

Promoting a child’s recovery from a spinal cord injury often requires a new approach to communication. Discover resources with advice on how to talk with children and teens about their spinal cord injuries, and how to find therapists who can help children develop positive self-esteem, manage traumatic stress, and PTSD. Resources are included with helpful information on interacting and communicating with extended family, friends, and teachers about spinal cord injury.

Learn how to collaborate with healthcare professionals and educators to develop an Individualize Education Plan (IEP) to ensure learning needs are addressed at all stages of education – preschool, elementary school, middle school, high school, and college. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 requires that students with disabilities be educated along with their non-disabled peers to the greatest extent possible. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) also applies to children.

Tips for Teens: Use Your IEP Meetings to Learn How to Advocate for Yourself This consumer education sheet provided by the PACER Center provides useful tips for teens in developing self-advocacy skills. It provides information on how to begin to express needs and wants by participating in their Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings. At these meetings, teens can learn ways to talk about their disability to others, set goals, build teamwork skills, ask for accommodations and practice other self-advocacy skills. This single copy form from the PACER publication catalog is for your personal, noncommercial use only. For permission to reprint multiple copies or to order presentation-ready copies for distribution, complete the PACER Reprint Form at www.pacer.org/forms/request.asp or PACER Publication Order Form at www.pacer.org/publications/OrderForm.pdf