Disabled students deserve the right to come out of public school with an education that helps them attain independence and meaningful participation in society, whenever possible. We help parents make this possible through documentation, case analysis and advocacy coaching.
An advocate can analyze your child’s evaluations and educational data to help parents understand how to help their child get an appropriate education.
Our IEP Game Self Advocacy System helps parents write their own parent concern letter to document their child’s deficits, needs and rights.
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Brenda earned her Bachelors Degree in Criminology, Law and Society in 1998 from UC Irvine, a Masters Degree, from UCI, in 2001 and advanced to candidacy for a Ph.D. in sociology in 2003. However, instead of completing the doctorate, Brenda founded Access Center in 2004.
Brenda has taught at several Southern California colleges and universities between 2001 and 2009 and has been advocating for disabled students since 1998. After founding Access Center, Brenda expanded her specialization from learning disabilities and hyperactivity, to emotional disturbances, developmental disabilities, speech and language disorders and Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD).
In 2005, Brenda created the IEP Game and has been training professionals and parents around the country in socio-legal educational advocacy with the IEP Game case analysis method. Brenda has trained professionals and parents at: at the Consortium for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education, the International Learning Disabilities Association, The National Organization for Disorders of the Corpus Callosum, The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, Orange County Social Services, LA County Housing Authority, UCLA Teacher Training Program, Orange County Foster Care Association, Yorba Linda School District, Costa Mesa Girls Inc., and the Americore Teacher Training Program.
After Covid, Brenda taught in the Salt Lake Community College System and spent three years working as an intake caseworker for the Dept. of Child and Family Services in the state of Utah. Brenda gained her license as a Social Service Worker in 2021. At this time, Brenda is back to her role as Executive Director for Access Center and in the process of creating our new subscription documentation system.
By Brenda Rogers
The Switch
In a meeting with: a public school principal, school psychologist, school nurse, general education teacher, special education teacher, school system attorney, mother of a student and a special education advocate, decisions are made about whether or not a disabled student is entitled to support in school. In this meeting, the law says everyone at the table is an equal member of one team. The reality is that mom and her advocate are not equal members of the team; mom and her advocate have no authority but mom holds the powers of: veto, appealing to higher authority in cases of school district procedural lawlessness and requesting a due process hearing before a tribunal judge, if the school will not appropriately educate her child.
The team’s purpose is to help a struggling student succeed in school. The student’s team comes together to examine evidence that determines if the student is eligible for an Independent Education Plan (IEP). If the student gets the IEP, the student will have government protections as a disabled person. These government protections allow the student to get specially designed instruction, accommodations, modifications and supportive services that ensure meaningful annual progress in school. Without these protections, the student is free to fall further and further behind each passing year, without any special help. The following story is based on real life events but names and cities have been removed to protect the innocent…. Read More on our Classic Blog.
Introduction: It has recently been warned that children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) show a deficit in emotional competence and emotional intelligence, specifically in their ability to emotional recognition.
Patients and methods: A systematic review of the scientific literature in reference to the emotional recognition of facial expressions in children with ADHD is presented in order to establish or rule the existence of emotional deficits as primary dysfunction in this disorder and, where appropriate, the effect size of the differences against normal development or neurotypical children.
Results: The results reveal the recent interest in the issue and the lack of information. Although there is no complete agreement, most of the studies show that emotional recognition of facial expressions is affected in children with ADHD, showing them significantly less accurate than children from control groups in recognizing emotions communicated through facial expressions. A part of these studies make comparisons on the recognition of different discrete emotions; having observed that children with ADHD tend to a greater difficulty recognizing negative emotions, especially anger, fear, and disgust.
Conclusions: These results have direct implications for the educational and clinical diagnosis of ADHD; and for the educational intervention for children with ADHD, emotional education might entail an advantageous aid.
D Rodrigo-Ruiz, J C Perez-Gonzalez, J Cejudo. Emotional facial recognition difficulties as primary deficit in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: a systematic review. Rev. Neurol. 2017, 65(4), 145.https://doi.org/10.33588/rn.6504.2017041
ADHD in Adults
Here is a great study in emotional dysregulation as a core symptom of adults with ADHD.
Abstract:
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a developmental disorder, with an onset in childhood, that accompanies the person throughout their life, with prevalence between 3 and 5% in adults. Recent studies point towards a fourth core symptom of the disorder related to the emotional information processing that would explain the repercussions that ADHD has on the social, academic, and professional life of the people affected. This review aims to describe emotion dysregulation features as well as the brain activity associated in adults with ADHD. A search of the scientific literature was launched in specialized databases: PsycInfo, Medline, Eric, PsycArticle, Psicodoc and Scopus, following PRISMA guidelines. Twenty-two articles met the inclusion criteria: (a) an ADHD clinical diagnosis, (b) participants over 18 years old, (c) emotion regulation measurement, (d) empirical studies, and (c) in English. Due to the heterogeneity of the studies included, they were classified into three sections: measures and features of emotion regulation (ER) in people with ADHD, neurological and psychophysiological activity related to ER, and treatments. The studies found that meet the selection criteria are scarce and very heterogeneous both in aims and in sample features. Adults with ADHD show a more frequent use of non-adaptive emotion regulation strategies compared to people without ADHD symptoms. Moreover, emotion dysregulation was associated with symptom severity, executive functioning, psychiatric comorbidities, and even with criminal conviction. Different patterns of brain activity were observed when people with and without ADHD were compared. These results may suggest that psychopharmacological treatments as well as behavioral therapies could be useful tools for improving emotional difficulties in adult ADHD.
Soler-Gutiérrez A-M, Pérez-González J-C, Mayas J (2023) Evidence of emotion dysregulation as a core symptom of adult ADHD: A systematic review. PLoS ONE 18(1): e0280131. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0280131
Hi Brenda, I wanted to say “thank you” so much for doing the training for our foster parents. They were so excited to feel they now have tools to effectively help their kids. I can’t begin to tell you how fortunate I feel to have done the IEP Game training. I will definitely pass your name along if anyone ever needs IEP info or help. Thanks again for taking the time to help us out.
A Free and Appropriate Education is “an education that aims to provide a child with a disability opportunities to achieve academic success, attain self-sufficiency, and contribute to society that are substantially equal to the opportunities afforded children without disabilities.’” (Endrew F. …v. Douglas County School District, 2017).