If you have a child with autism or sensory processing disorder this list of Special Education Acronyms will help you familiarize yourself with the “lingo” you need to know.
I’m just going to be honest with you. My son’s first IEP Meeting was a nightmare!
I wasn’t prepared, and I didn’t understand what they were saying.
I mean, they might as well have been speaking a foreign language.
So. Many. Acronyms.
I couldn’t keep up.
The next day, as I was attempting to organize the 2.5 million pages of paperwork, I decided to make myself an acronym dictionary.
I spent three hours bouncing from one website to another. I couldn’t find one resource that had it all.
I needed a list of Special Education Acronyms that I could read without a magnifying glass and print without using several hundred dollars worth of ink!
Honestly, the more I read, the more I felt like I needed to go back to college to take a few SPED classes. You know, just to get up to speed.
I felt so behind and I hate that feeling.
See, I didn’t even know what The Individuals with Disabilities Act was about.
I do now, of course, but back then I was a new special needs mom who was stressing out over my son’s preschool placement.
I didn’t have anyone to call-none of my friends at the time had special needs kids.
I had been living a life of blissful ignorance.
Anyway..
If you’re feeling like I was and you need info ASAP-this is for you. See, I’ve gotten a lot more savvy as time has gone by and kind of made it my mission to help special needs moms.
Here’s the Acronym Guide I created. I made a pretty cover for it, but the actual acronyms are in black on a basic white background. Hopefully this won’t take up too much of your printer’s ink! (They’re so expensive!)
On the last page there’s a list of websites full of great legal and financial information. The links are not clickable, but you can easily copy and paste them into a new browser window. I hope to fix this soon – when I created this guide I had no idea how to insert hyperlinks!
Hopefully having a resource like this will help you with the stress and overwhelm of being a special needs parent. I know it’s tough and trust me, the learning curve at the beginning is scary for everyone. But it does get better.
What are you struggling with today? How can I help?
What To Read Next
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