Are You a Parent of a Child with Disabilities? Know Your Rights and Duties in Your Child's Educational and Rehabilitation Journey

Are you a parent of a child with disabilities? Did you know that you have the right to participate in choosing your child's educational and rehabilitation path? Your participation can encompass many areas, starting from recognizing that your child needs screening and diagnosis, all the way to the rehabilitation stage and then choosing the appropriate career path.

1. The Referral Stage

Your role in participating begins when the physician or psychologist feels the need to assess and diagnose your child's abilities. Here, your role lies in providing initial information about your child, developmental history, time and place of birth, whether there were any complications or difficulties—God forbid—during birth, or any medications your child is currently taking or has taken in the past.

2. Participating in the Assessment

As a parent of the child, you are one of the most important pillars of the assessment process through your participation in filling out some electronic or paper questionnaires that the physician or diagnostic team may request from you. Some of these questionnaires will include questions about a range of aspects that help identify your child's abilities, such as language in both its receptive and expressive aspects, communication ability, cognitive abilities, social skills, play skills, self-reliance skills, academic skills (for those of school age or younger), and whether there are behavioral issues such as screaming, not following instructions (sometimes referred to as stubbornness), temper tantrums, and crying.

Additionally, the physician or psychologist may ask you to provide some information through direct conversation (interviews) or over the phone. Sometimes, you may be asked to record and send a video clip of your child, as this gives them a picture of your child's level. At other times, you will be asked to allow the team to observe your child for a certain period (which could be hours or days) to understand their abilities more accurately. This information will give the specialist the ability to take appropriate measures, whether diagnosing a certain disorder or specific disability, or enabling them to pursue advanced diagnostic procedures or determine your child's needs.

3. Participating in Developing the Individualized Education Plan

Your role here is no less important when determining the appropriate educational and rehabilitation goals for your child. There is no doubt that the specialist and the assessment team have developed an appropriate program for your child based on their abilities and needs, but you can also suggest goals you would like the specialist and assessment team to work on. This should be done in a clear manner, and any suggested goal or specific aspect to develop should have clear and convincing justifications.

4. Participating in Implementing Some Goals

You know that your child receives services for several hours a day at the center or school, which is wonderful, but in reality, they spend most of their time outside the formal education environment. You also know that every learning opportunity can make a difference in the pace at which your child acquires the skills and knowledge that the service delivery team is working on with your child (special education specialist, speech-language pathologist, behavior analyst, occupational therapist, and others). Therefore, your role here is to contribute to teaching your child at home and outside school. We know you have many responsibilities and commitments. However, there are some aspects you can work on at home spontaneously without the need for preparation. These aspects vary according to your child's needs. But working to create learning opportunities for social skills, communication skills, and self-reliance skills in dressing, eating, and other areas can be possible despite your busy schedule.

How Does Ynmo Help You Secure Your Rights and Participate in Your Child's Education?

At Ynmo, we strive to be a connecting link between you and the service provider (school, center, clinic) to help your child reach the highest levels of independence.

1. The Referral Stage - You can retain all documents, the medical file, and your child's developmental history. The specialist working with your child can upload these documents through the Ynmo platform, and an electronic copy can be obtained via the family app.

2. The Assessment Stage - The specialist can ask you some questions via the Ynmo app, and by doing so, you will help them understand your child's abilities. This data will be saved in your child's private file, and no one can access it without your permission.

3. The stage of participating in implementing some goals of the intervention plan outside the school/center. You can speak with the specialist to select some goals that you can work on at home and how to teach them to your child.

If you have any topics you would like us to write about, we would be happy to have you reach out to us via our social media accounts.

The Ynmo Team

Originally published in Arabic. This English version was produced with AI-assisted translation; the Arabic original remains the reference.