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First, the school administrator and professionals develop a supportive relationship with the parents of a child who has a physical disability, beginning when a child is first eligible for special education services. As a teacher, my first priority is to familiarize myself with the child’s IEP. The school district will arrange for delivery of services, such as OT, PT, speech therapy and so on. At the child’s annual review meeting, the special education teacher starts interacting with parents and services providers. During these IEP meetings much collaboration takes place. Parents, teachers, and service providers meet and communicate about the child’s strengths, needs, and probable services. 

I see several barriers to collaboration between teachers and other professionals. These include: lack of communication and lack of time to engage in collaborative discussions (Hartas, 2004). Furthermore, the employment of professionals by different agencies can create a barrier to effective collaboration. Differences between the required teaching content of teachers and professionals and “the different priorities of the two professional groups have also been reported as hindering joint professional practice” (Cavkaytar, & Pollard, 2009, p. 388).

Cavkaytar, A., & Pollard, E. (2009). Effective of Parent and Therapist Collaboration Program (PTCP) for teaching self-care and domestic skills to individuals with autism. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 44(3), 381–395.

Hartas, D. (2004) Teacher and speech-language therapist collaboration: Being equal and achieving a common goal? Child Language Teaching and Therapy 20(1), 33-54.