Student Strengths for IEP Writing: An SLP Guide

Marisha (00:01.281)

Hey there and welcome to the SLP Now podcast. I am super grateful to have Stephanie DeLessie with us here today. She is a dual certified veteran special education teacher, IEP coach, author, teacher, mentor. She does all the things and I'm really excited. I was looking for someone to have a conversation about strength-based IEPs with and just

from following her on social media and checking out her resources. I thought she would be a perfect person to have that conversation with. So hello, Stephanie.

Stephanie (00:39.656)

Hi, thank you so much for having me.

Marisha (00:41.663)

Yeah, I'm really grateful for your time and just generosity today. But before we dive into all things strengths, strengths based IEPs, I'm curious to hear just a little bit more about you and your story. Like what kind of led you through this journey? Because you have a site now like the intentional IEP. So you do a lot around IEPs. I'm just curious to hear how that all came to be.

Stephanie (01:10.188)

Yeah, so I'm one of those people who has always wanted to be a teacher. And I don't remember how old I was. I don't, couldn't pick this person out of a lineup, but I remember being at Walmart of all places with my mom and she met one of her friends was there. Like we saw them in passing. And I just remember hearing, you know, this person saying, my son needs more supports. He needs more supports. And so that's kind of how I got into special education instead of just doing

general education, although I am dual certified in special ed and gen ed. But, you know, I taught in the classroom for seven and a half years, I believe, and ended up leaving due to my own mental health. This was pre-COVID, but I've taught pretty much everything from kindergarten through 12th grade. I've done inclusion. I've co-taught, done resource, self-contained.

I've taught extended school year for a couple of summers for an intermediate unit, and I've taught in both public schools and charter schools. in a couple of different states, I lost count of how many states now, but yeah, so I've kind of run the gamut of all the things. And so when I left the traditional classroom setting, I had already built Mrs. D.Scorner, so I was kind of doing that, but I was like, I, there's something else. Like I just felt like something was missing from me that I was missing of not being in the classroom.

I am that weirdo that really likes all the paperwork that comes with IEPs. And I'm fully aware that I am like one of like out of every 1,000 special educators and IEP team members who's like, yes, hand me all the paperwork. I'm ready to go. And so I took that and that is kind of where the intentional IEP was born. And so now I do Mrs. D's corner, but I also do the intentional IEP. So the intentional IEP is more where...

I do all the IEP things and then Mrs. D's Corner's more resources classroom things.

Marisha (03:06.987)

I love that story. So cool. I can, so I don't know, I, especially as a new SLP paperwork was a little bit overwhelming and I'm kind of a perfectionist. So I wanted to do it perfectly, which kind of adds to that, but it is a cool opportunity. Like the IEP is a really powerful document. And so even if...

Stephanie (03:22.669)

Yeah.

Stephanie (03:29.635)

Yes.

Marisha (03:32.757)

If someone who's listening isn't a lover of paperwork and all the things, I think it is really helpful to think about just how powerful these documents are and how amazing they can be for our students, especially when they are needing those supports and we're able to set them up.

Stephanie (03:50.452)

Yes, we can make such a big difference with a 40 page document or a 12 page document depending upon where you are and what format you're using for IEPs, but they are so important and we can do so much good for our students with them.

Marisha (04:03.029)

Yeah. So it might be a little bit of a cringy topic for some people, but we can make the most of it. And I'm really excited Stephanie, because I think you can help make this even easier for us. But we're focusing on strength-based IEPs today. So let's just make sure we're all on the same page. What is a strength-based IEP? Why is it important?

Stephanie (04:16.194)

Yes, I'm ready for it.

Stephanie (04:25.494)

Yeah, so strengths based IEP, that is a mouthful by the way, strengths based IEP to get that to come out in the right way. It really focuses on the individual. So you're leveraging a student's strengths, their abilities, their interests, their preferences, as really the foundation for what support you're going to use for addressing that student's needs and helping them with their learning. So instead of emphasizing on challenges and deficits or what the child can't do,

The strengths-based IEP approach is really gonna celebrate what the student can do, and then it builds upon what they can do to promote that growth and progress within their IEP.

Marisha (05:08.247)

Love that. And why is this an important approach to take? Why does it matter?

Stephanie (05:14.348)

Yeah, so when you start working in this manner and you start thinking about it from the strengths-based approach, so you're focusing on what they can do, not what they cannot do, you're really gonna see an increase in student motivation and an increase in their engagement because the students sitting there thinking, I can do this and we're gonna do examples and all of the things of like, how do you do this? What does this look like? But when you see it in action, students are gonna be again, more motivated, more engaged.

They're gonna make more connections to what they're currently learning because you're using what they already know and what they already can do to gain that new knowledge. And so they're gonna be able to make more connections to what you're doing in the classroom based on this. And then in full collaboration mode, cause I am very much a, the whole entire IEP team matters. It's not, a lot of times special educators feel like an island of one and we truly are, I have been there, I have felt that.

But the IEP team truly is a whole team. There's a whole bunch of people sitting at that table. And so when the whole team puts this emphasis on what the child can do, you start seeing more possibilities rather than seeing limitations. And when you approach it in this manner, parents get a lot more buy into what you're doing because they're like, my gosh, like I never thought about it this way.

So it really does, there's so many benefits to just strengths-based IEPs.

Marisha (06:42.923)

Yeah, I love that. I just started a separate, well, it's a little, it's been out for a little bit by the time this episode airs, but I have a podcast where I interview special education leaders. And that's been a huge focus on like navigating all of that. So my brain was just like, Ooh, but yeah, I love that. And I think that makes a lot of sense if we're meeting, it's a better way of meeting students where they're at.

And if we can meet them where they're at, they'll be more engaged and we see more of that progress and all of that. Okay. Awesome. So I think we're all sold. I hope we are. So what does this actually look like? Can you walk us through some like tips, strategies?

Stephanie (07:14.552)

Yeah.

Stephanie (07:20.543)

Hahaha!

Stephanie (07:30.156)

Yeah. So when you're writing an IP, I'm going to start at the basics just to give us all in true special ed terms, a good baseline. So we're all on the same page. So when you're writing an IEP, you're always going to start with writing the present levels. And so the present levels is where all of your data is going to be. Every piece of information on that student is going to be in the present levels. The present levels is then going to leave breadcrumbs is the analogy that I like to use throughout the rest of the IEP as to

what IEP goals you should write, what supports you should put in. And then from there you do the service minutes and then you go into the LRE. So everything stems from that present levels. And so when you start there, that's where you're gonna begin highlighting the student's strengths, their talents, their preferences, what they like to do, how they best learn, what their learning style is. And so once you start there,

that's going to bleed into the rest of the IEP and really set you up for success in terms of, okay, well, how can I, I have these goals that I know the student needs to work on, these skills for these IEP goals. What supports does this child need? And so moving from the present level, so start there, put all of your strengths-based wording, which we're gonna talk about here in a minute, into the present levels, then move into your IEP goals. your,

If you have an IEP goal and an objective, there has to be a need written in the present levels. And so that's your connection from present levels to IEP goals and objectives. And so once you go from present levels to goals, you're going to write them in a way that is not only positive, but it also addresses the need because we still do need to do that. But we're not gonna do it in that deficit-based language, right? Which again, we'll get to, I'm gonna share an example for you here in a minute. So for example,

Let's say that a student loves drawing. The student is not me, because I'm a terrible drawer. But let's say that this student loves to draw and they have a need in math. So let's just say maybe they're working on, you could even focus this also into ELA. So let's just say they love drawing. They have a need for comprehension and we're working on math as well. We have some skills we have to work on in math. So if a student loves drawing,

Stephanie (09:51.916)

we maybe instead of having them verbally retell us a story, maybe we're gonna have them draw the story out in maybe four blocks, or maybe we're gonna have them do like a summary comic or something along the lines that lets them use their strength of drawing something they love to do to show what they've learned. And so same with math, instead of maybe using manipulatives instead of counters or little bears,

Maybe you can still do that, but maybe have the student draw the counters. You can laminate them, have them reuse them, or on a piece of paper, have them draw it out instead of writing out the numbers or something like that. It all depends on the student. But using their strength, their focus, and their just love of drawing, you can map that out over into pretty much any academic area or even social skills behaviors.

And so you're using that strength to harness learning new content. Doesn't have to be done for every single lesson that you're doing or activity, but if you're wanting to collect data, that might be a really good place to start. And that's going to be written into your accommodations and modification section. Drawing would be an accommodation, but you can then use their strength again to work on gaining mastery of a skill that they're working on in their goals.

And so you do that again through highlighting the present, the highlighting the strengths in the present levels, you're writing your goals, you're choosing your supports, you're using that positive language. You also wanna make sure that the student is a part of the IEP process. And I know when I say this, because I have not done this in the past. And so again, I've worked with K through 12. I've worked through the whole transition process. I've worked with the kindergartners, first graders.

You can integrate them in throughout the IEP process in different ways and it's going to look different student to student, but include their voice in the IEP wherever possible. Again, you need to know what their interests are, their preferences are, what are their aspirations? You know, maybe in kindergarten they want to be a basketball player, right? Because kids all want to grow up and be singers and I want to be Taylor Swift and...

Marisha (12:02.349)

Thank

Stephanie (12:06.614)

I want to be Michael. I don't think Michael Jordan is the thing where I don't watch basketball, but I just know Michael Jordan was the big thing growing up. I just aged myself. my gosh, but they all have these aspirations and they change over time when they get into new things and when they learn new things and different ages, you know, when they're in high school, they're not really into blues clues anymore. So we have to keep them included every single year and update all of this in the present levels. You also want to make sure

that you're using a collaborative approach. So not only is the student involved, but you want to make sure that the family's involved and that you're asking them to share their insights, share their child's strengths that they're seeing through their eyes and their perspective, their lens. What's motivating at home? What's motivating in the community? What do they like doing? How can we harness that in the classroom to get them to learn content, to master skills that they need to work on?

This also goes for working with therapists or related service providers. So working with the speech therapist, working with the OT, the PT, working with outside service providers as well, if that's an option for some of your students. But really having that collaborative approach is going to help you in building that strengths-based IEP one, because everyone's going to be engaged, because again, they're thinking, there's possibilities. We're not talking about

limitations or my student can't do this, we're thinking about, well, they can do this. So how can we help them do this based off of where they are now? And so you're going to have more engagement in the IEP process, but also then you're not writing the IEP alone. You don't have to come up with, okay, well, the student loves drawing. So how can I, as the teacher, integrate that into ELA and math and art class and music class and in all of these different places?

You don't have to think about that all by yourself because you have a whole team to come up with those opportunities for growth. And then the last thing is, and it kind of goes back until, you know, why is this important? The strengths-based IEPs are really going to build self-confidence, not only in the student, but also in the IEP team. Because once you see the growth that's going to come from this, you're going to be like, my gosh, like we need to do this with everyone. Right. And so.

Stephanie (14:33.772)

The students really gonna feel valued. Your IEP team members are gonna feel valued because they're part of the team. You're using that collaborative approach, but your students are really gonna feel valued. They're gonna feel capable because they're working on things based off of what they can already do. And so we see a lot of students who shut down immediately because like, can't do this. And I'm the same way when there's something really hard, like, I'd rather pay somebody to come do this for me than me learn how to do it.

But if I even, now I'm gonna coach myself here, if I started thinking about it in a way, how can I get this done based off what I'm good at, what I already know, I'm gonna foster that growth mindset and be like, okay, I can do this. It might take me a couple extra minutes, but I know that I can get it done because I have the skills to get there. Might look a little different than how somebody else is getting there, but I'm still gonna get there. And so that was a lot of information, but.

All in all, it's really just about focusing on what the student can do and leveraging that to build those positive outcomes for students for things that they cannot yet do.

Marisha (15:42.155)

Yeah, I love that. And I'm curious too, if you have any, cause I feel like you're kind of like, I feel like you might be like a process gal like me. If you love paperwork, you probably have a bunch of like templates and systems and things for everything. But what suggestions do you have? Because I love the like strategy mindset of, okay, we're

Stephanie (15:52.387)

I do.

Yes.

Marisha (16:07.223)

Like we're starting with the present levels and thinking about including students strengths and we'll use that throughout the whole IEP. And we get to focus on, like we get to include the students strengths and interests and get the perspective from parents and the team. But do you have any favorite, maybe like just in the interest of time, some of your favorite strategies to actually collect this information?

Because I mean, obviously we work with our students and we get to know them. So a lot of it might just be like, do you have a list of questions that you ask yourself or do you send out forms or like what types of things do you think could help make this easier for ourselves?

Stephanie (16:50.134)

Yeah, so I love a good form, which not everybody does, but I will send out typically anywhere from the 30 to 45 days out from the IEP meeting. I'm gonna send out, I call them input forms, they're the questionnaires, but I'm gonna send them out to everyone on the IEP team, but then I'm also either gonna give one to the student or do one with the student. So for a lot of my students when I taught self-contained, it was, had questions predetermined.

Marisha (16:53.473)

Mm-hmm. You too.

Stephanie (17:17.486)

And then I had three different smiley faces. So there was like a happy face, a sad face, and then like the stalled, I'm indifferent face. And so I would ask them a question and then they would pick up whichever smiley face they felt about how to answer that question and hand that to me. And that would be their response. And so then I could take that data and put that into the present levels. And then all of the data that I got from all the gen ed teachers, the related service providers, my paraprofessionals, from the parents, the caregivers, the guardians,

I would throw that all into the present levels as well. And that's why I always start there. So I send out the forms 30 to 45 days out because that gives me time to start working on the present levels and input data that I've collected in the classroom. But then I give them about a week or two to send that form back to me. And I'll give a gentle reminder here at like the one week mark. I'm like, hey, do you need me to send you another form? like, do you have questions? Or is there anything I can help with?

And then once I get that form back then, because my part of the present levels is already done, I did that while I was waiting for the other forms to return, then I can input that information into the present levels. And then I'm very big on sending out that draft IEP a couple of days before the IEP meeting, so parents are on the same playing field. But that also then, once I have that back, I can determine proposed IEP goals.

for that draft IEP. And so in that draft, I'm only sending out the present levels, because that's all fact. Data is fact, it's not going to change. And then I'm proposing IEP goals based off of all of the data in the present levels. And then from there, we have the IEP meeting and we do all the good IEP meeting stuff.

Marisha (19:03.403)

Yeah. Yeah, and I think forums are a really great way to collect that feedback. like we can obviously enter anything that we've learned over the course of interacting with the team members and families and students, but it is nice to have that on paper and it's a good way to make sure we're covering all the bases. And then I'm curious too, so do you do anything differently?

If we're using a strengths-based approach, do you report your classroom data in a different way or are the numbers always the numbers? I'm just curious if you do that a little bit differently.

Stephanie (19:43.118)

For me, the numbers have always really been the numbers. just is like when you're reporting the data. So it really depends. So if we're talking about progress reports and like that annual IEP and how we're putting it into the IEP, the numbers are the numbers, right? Like those numbers aren't gonna change. It's how we are reporting, I guess, like after we've analyzed the numbers and analyzed the data, it's how we verbally or how we write down.

that information or share that information with the team. It could be, you know, here's an example. So let's just say Stephanie has difficulties with writing tasks, right? She can't do them independently. So that would be more of like deficit-based language or deficit-focused language. And that could very well be what the data is showing. Like Stephanie...

is not doing very hot when it comes to writing tasks. So she has difficulty with it. And then you would include other data, like maybe it's because of XYZ. So instead of maybe saying that, you could say something more along the lines of Stephanie has really good verbal communication, and she benefits more from dictating to you or verbally telling you what's in her brain or what she wants to write or the ideas that she has.

before transferring them into writing. So then you could use that as the accommodation, right? So maybe the first step before she writes is she's going to, maybe she's just gonna speak them into like her phone, cause you're gonna be voice to text, put them into a voice to text option and then throw that into a Google doc. And then from there, she's gonna edit what she said to write the writing task or to complete the writing task.

So it's just all about flipping.

Stephanie (21:40.088)

the verbiage, I guess, when it comes to strengths-based IEPs, because the numbers aren't gonna change. They are what they are. They're going to tell you how the student is doing with that skill. It's all in how you present that data and write about that data in the IEP, in the meetings, in your progress reports.

Marisha (21:54.413)

Yeah.

Marisha (21:58.539)

Yeah, that makes sense. I think so. Like if we give whatever classroom based assessment or whatever it is, we can well obviously just report the number as it is. then because even if writing is a struggle, like there's aspects of writing that a student is mastering. So we can say like the student like the student scored this on the assessment. They

demonstrated strengths in these areas, like they did this, and we can analyze the task and we can say what, like if we do some dynamic assessment, we can talk about the supports that are helpful. So there's lots of ways to, instead of just being like, they scored this and they did all of these aspects wrong, we can include. There's so much more to talk about. And it's so much more helpful. Like when it comes to,

Stephanie (22:42.318)

They did not make progress. This is not at baseline. Yes. Yes.

Marisha (22:55.733)

writing goals, setting up accommodations. Like if we, like we've been talking about this whole episode, but yeah. Okay. So thank you for going down that train of thought for me. I think that's super helpful. Is there anything that you want to add?

Stephanie (23:06.199)

Yes!

Stephanie (23:13.748)

No, I think we covered a good starting place for all of the things, just general starting place for like writing IEPs, but really turning it into like that strengths-based focused IEP instead of focusing on what students can't do.

Marisha (23:30.993)

I love that. And then if listeners are wanting to find out more about you and what you do, what are some good places to go? And I'll share all of these links in the show notes. The show notes will be linked in the episode description. But yeah, where can they hang out with you?

Stephanie (23:47.532)

Yeah, so if they want to follow me for all or find me or ask questions about IEP things, I'm at The Intentional IEP on pretty much everything except TikTok. I can't TikTok. I don't get it. But Pinterest, Facebook, Instagram, I am at The Intentional IEP.

Marisha (23:59.007)

Thank

Marisha (24:06.637)

Perfect. And then you have your intentional IEP website and you have, gets a, isn't it a, is it a membership?

Stephanie (24:10.381)

Yes.

Stephanie (24:19.042)

Yes, so the intentional IEP, we have our blog, which is a lot of free advice. And then we also have our membership, includes a, it's a goal bank, but it's so much more than a goal bank. It's so hard to elaborate on, but it's essentially a goal bank that's spiraled with all of the skills from grade to grade. And then you can put in like what your student is struggling with and it'll recommend IEP goals for you based off of that.

And then we have IEP screeners inside of our goal bank. So anything that is pre-K through grade six, that's an academic skill. We have our IEP screeners, which are your baseline data assessments. You can use them for collecting data on that specific skill. The membership also includes a member library with lots of different IEP printables and things that you can use and also member trainings. So we have.

I've lost count, over 150, maybe probably almost 200 different trainings for special education teachers and team members. So that's all included inside of membership.

Marisha (25:22.709)

I love that. That's awesome. And it is more focused for special education teachers.

Stephanie (25:28.512)

It is, but we do have some parents that are also part of the membership and other related service providers. So it's not solely for the IEP goal bank, I would say is solely for IEP team members and teachers to use, not necessarily parents, although I have had parents and I've walked parents through locating goals inside of the goal bank to help them based off of data they've gotten or things they want to work on with their kids.

Marisha (25:56.983)

Love some active parents and some ownership. That's amazing. Okay. Well, thank you so much, Stephanie. This was so helpful. And thank you to listeners for, if you listen this far, I hope this was super helpful. And yeah, thank you again.

Stephanie (25:58.574)

It is awesome.