Samantha Seeger

SPED 854 Family Interview

Mr. and Mrs. D have four children who went through the general education program at a local public

school. Their last child, MD struggled through elementary school due to a change in curriculum. The district was no

longer teaching a letter a week, but teaching many at once with only one strategy. Unfortunately, this did not work

for MD. He slowly began to fall behind. Mr. and Mrs. D decided to have a meeting with his teacher and requested

that he get tested. He got diagnosed at an early age with LD. Although MD had his struggles through public school,

he graduated high school last week and is going on to attend a community college for fire sciences. I met with his

mom to discuss her experience with communication and collaboration with the school personnel, her challenges and

successes, and her thoughts about improvement.

Mr. and Mrs. D’s role in the collaboration and communication process with the school was one of heavy

involvement. Mrs. D expressed that they were constantly involved with MD’s schooling. They would communicate

with the teachers via email and phone conversations, as well as meeting face to face quite often. She felt that

meeting face to face was the best way to communicate because it was so authentic and you really understood

everyone’s ideas and perspectives. Moving forward, I will definitely implement this in my classroom.

Overall, Mr. and Mrs. D had a good experience dealing with the school personnel. They were constantly

involved. In the beginning, they were more involved than the teachers wanted to be which is why they fought so

hard to have their child tested and labeled. As a teacher, this hit home for me. I could never imagine not wanting to

fight for my students in any way possible for them to succeed the way that they need to. When I was talking with

Mrs. D, she went through some struggles in order to even have a meeting. She stated, “At first they seemed reluctant

to test MD. They said they had to wait until a certain age even though he was falling more and more behind. But

once we finally met, everyone that was on the team was great, especially when we got to middle school.” Some of

the successes they had in collaborating with the team was the ability to meet with the teacher any time they had

requested once he was in Special Education. Mrs. D liked to know what MD was doing in each class so she could

implement them at home as well. The teachers and the parents were constantly on the same page so that MD’s

parents could implement the working strategies at home to be consistent, and to have MD be successful. From

listening to Mrs. D say that she wanted to be on the same page as the teachers really motivated me to make sure I

can do the same thing for my student’s parents. I know some parents now that if we communicated a little bit more
Samantha Seeger

would love to be on the same page and implement strategies at home. Mrs. D also loved the passion of the teachers

especially in high school. She said, “They really took him under their wing and elevated his level of reading and

reading strategies.” Mrs. D spoke so highly of a few of MD’s teachers. Listening to her speak so highly of the team

changed my perspective. It pushed me to think of ways I can better serve my students and their families in order to

relay that passion I have.

With successes comes challenges, with MD it was no different. Aside from the struggle to get MD tested,

Mrs. D expressed a few others as well. She pinpointed a few specific instances. She states, “a challenge we

experienced was having him get lumped into Special Education and not having a specialized instruction that worked

for him; that was specialized to him. They were doing outlines and flashcards, which was an area he did not struggle

with. That was something I can implement at home, he needed specific reading strategies and decoding. He needed a

program that was called Wilson. It was a struggle for us to call yet another meeting. I contacted the assistant

principal and requested a meeting with the team so we can express our concerns. At the meeting the assistant

principal was very accommodating and asked each teacher for the data on MD to show that he in deed does not need

flashcards and outlines (especially to be done for him). The assistant principal went as far as to order hearing and

vision testing to find out more about MD’s disability. We started the meeting with ‘basic’ instruction and direction

and ended the meeting with ‘specialized’ instruction and direction.” Mrs. D went on to say even though it was a

struggle it ended on a positive note and she has respect for the assistant principal. She said, “If it wasn’t for Mrs. K

MD would not have received the help he needed.” Listening to Mrs. D talk about her struggles gave me a new

perspective on the process. It allowed me to realize that I need to make sure my instruction fits each student. It also

created something new that I would like to implement and that is to interview my student’s parents prior to the start

of the school year in order to better understand their child from their perspective, get their ideas and concerns, as

well as gain more insight into their family. Mrs. D’s struggles with communication and collaboration led me to

discover new ideas to implement.

We ended the interview with any recommendations Mrs. D had to enhance collaboration in the future. She

suggested that there be more individualized attention and to have the team go case by case, meaning based on each

child. She would not like to see anyone lumped into a general special education like MD had experienced. She

would like to see each child receive the individualized instruction needed for them to succeed. She would also like

her district (and any other district) to get rid of the spiral program/curriculum. She mentioned going back to having
Samantha Seeger

the students learn a letter a week and focusing in on that letter, which helped her other students. She believes the

lack of this hindered MD and is the reason he does not know letter sounds.

Interview Questions

What was your role in the collaboration process?

What were challenges, if any, you experienced?

What were successes you experienced?

Do you have any advice to education personnel about improving the special education collaboration and/or

communication process?

Do you have any questions about special education services?

This interview was very beneficial and insightful. This family allowed me to see a different side of the Formatted: Left, Indent: First line: 0.5"

process. The fact that this family fought so hard to have their child tested was the biggest learning curve. Growing

up, going through various schooling, and on the job, I always thought that everyone was for the children. What I

mean by that is I thought no matter what it took school personnel would do what they had to in order to benefit the

child. In this situation, that was not the case. The family taught me that being persistent is key when you are on that

side of the scenario. The teaching side of the scenario surprised me. I did not understand why there was such

hesitation. The interviewee taught me to be persistent for your own child. As a future mother, I will definitely do the

same. I will also definitely stick with my beliefs that whatever benefits the child I will do. This interview will stick

with me throughout my career.

Samantha Seeger
Samantha Seeger
Samantha Seeger