VIDBE-Q Volume 67 Issue 4
a one-to-one intervener to help address her communication and learning needs.
Ivey's intervener is Mrs. Stephanie Garrett.
Ivey is currently served in a self-contained setting primarily for students
with Autism. The focus of this setting is very much academic. The majority of her
classroom peers are verbal communicators working on the general education
curriculum. In 2016 and prior, however, she was in a self-contained classroom
primarily for students with severe and profound disabilities. The majority of her
peers in that setting were non-verbal, and they were working on an adapted
curriculum. Ivey's Individualized Education Program (IEP) team attempted to give
her access to verbally communicative peers through many different avenues
(inclusion for one class period a day, reverse inclusion where peers without
disabilities would come to her for one class period a day, etc.), as Ivey is highly
motivated by peer interaction. However, none of the options attempted gave her
consistent access to verbal peers throughout the school day. Ivey's IEP team at that
time determined that she needed to be in a setting with verbally communicative
peers for the entire school day, so that she would have the consistent motivation
she needed to increase her receptive and expressive language skills.
It was at this point that I met Ivey. Please allow me this opportunity to
introduce myself. My name is Erica McKinney, and I have been an educator for
eighteen years. I currently work as a teacher of the visually impaired, orientation
