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| Tic With It | December 19, 1999 | |
| Tourette Syndrome Association, Inc. | President's Page |
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| Detroit-East Michigan Chapter | ||
From the President's Desk
Art Abbott
From the President's Desk
URGENT
Never in our 26 year history has a new year dawned so brightly for the Detroit-East Michigan TSA. Hope, opportunity, a fresh start and all the trite phrases rolled into one. Maybe my family has an atypical Tourette situation, it varies greatly from child to child, but I really don't think so. After receiving our TS diagnosis on a bright child of 7, who loved school and learning, I remember our first IEP very clearly. Of course it was confusing and frustrating, as were the results. Several years, and many IEP reviews and re-writes later, I came to realize the school staff were finding their way with this complex disorder just as his mother and I were, some more successfully that others.
By middle school, and a new level of academic challenges and frustrations, we realized there are two attitudes about special needs accommodations in those classrooms. Too often the task of educating six teachers each semester in How-to-implement the IEP became overwhelming and less than successful. Many of you know the feeling. We realized one immutable fact: Teachers and special education need to know more about Tourette Syndrome.
Back to hope and opportunity in 2000. Our Chapter is immensely proud to announce the Educators and Parents Seminar, April 7, in Warren, Michigan. The highest caliber national level lecturers will be assembled to educate and inform the very audience who play such a large part in the success of our childrenšs lives, the teachers. We've planned it and we'll make sure your principal and special education director are aware of it. But, we are fearful that the very teachers who should be at this seminar will not be informed on time, or the district cuts the budget, or subs are difficult to find, or any of a dozen reasons not to be there. We feel strongly that the teachers in your child's school will not be aware, unless you bring it to their attention and be a little pro-active. (That's better than pushy.)
