Transcript Transition: Independent Living

Life After High School:
Preparing Teens for the
Transition to Adulthood
Arlyn Roffman, Ph.D.
Lesley University
[email protected]
Transition Planning
 Process
is legally required under
IDEA
 Begins no later than the first IEP
in effect when student turns 16
 School and family work together
as a team
IDEA 2004 on transition:

Transition planning must allow student
to work toward goals that are
 appropriate and measurable
 based upon age-appropriate
assessments

IEP must describe the transition activities
and courses of study that will allow
student to achieve goals

Focus can’t be just on academics but
should also allow opportunities to
develop functional skills
Post-School Activities include:
Post-secondary education
 Vocational education
 Employment
 Adult services
 Independent living
 Community participation

Who’s on the team?
 Student
 Parent/guardian
 Special
education teacher
 Regular education teacher
 LEA/district representative
 Other agency representatives, as
appropriate
 Advocate, if invited by family
What’s the team’s agenda?
 Identifying
student’s vision/postsecondary transition goals in terms
of
Living
 Learning
 Working
 Leisure

 Discussing
student’s Present
Level of Academic Achievement
and Functional Performance
(PLEP)
 Establishing
a Coordinated Set of
Activities toward measurable
goals
Coordinated Activities can
include:
Instruction
 Related services
 Post-secondary education
 Vocational education (if appropriate)
 Employment
 Adult services (if any are needed)
 Independent living
 Community participation

We need to prepare you
students for your IEP transition
planning meeting by:
 Empowering
you with knowledge
about the process
 The point of the meeting and
IEP/transition document itself
 Who will attend the meeting and
why
 The agenda
 Encouraging
active involvement by
role playing participation, including:
 Introducing self and others
 Describing strengths, challenges,
and interests
 Expressing vision for own future
 Self-advocating for needed
supports
 Thanking all for participation
Parents, you too need to
prepare for the IEP transition
planning meeting by:
 Becoming
informed consumers
 Asking administration how system
handles transition planning
 Asking for mentors, if available
 Using tools to help prepare
 Communicating with your child
about his/her dreams and goals
 At
the meeting itself
 Consider yourself a full member of
the team
 Provide input ahead of time in
writing
 Ask for a separate transition
meeting if time is too limited to
plan carefully in one meeting
 Ask questions about anything that
confuses you
So, where do we begin?
THE FOUNDATION OF TRANSITION
PREPAREDNESS IS SELFDETERMINATION.
Step #1: Building self-awareness and selfunderstanding about:
 Interests
 Strengths
 Areas of challenge
 How to work around areas of weakness
 Developing a Learning Profile helps capture the
above
Step #2: Fostering self-efficacy and
self-acceptance
Self-efficacy = an “I CAN DO” attitude
 Self-acceptance comes from reframing how
one thinks about one’s weaknesses
 Achieved through
 high (but reasonable) expectations
 increasing responsibility

Step #3: Fostering decision-making
skills by
Exposing students to choices and
encouraging them to participate in decisionmaking
 Helping them set personal goals and strive
to meet them
 Encouraging youth to voice their
preferences and honor them as much as
possible

Step #4: Fostering self-advocacy by:
Helping them learn when and how to ask for
help
 Helping them determine whom to ask for
help
 Teaching this and reinforcing self-advocacy
skills in school, at home, and on work
placements

WORK
How LD can impact work
readiness:
 Reading
problems make it difficult to
read memos, emails, manuals
 Writing problems make it hard to fill
out applications, complete invoices,
compose reports, answer emails,
 Math problems make it difficult to
calculate pay, make change
 Language
processing can result in
misunderstood directions
 Memory problems can lead to forgotten
meetings, missed deadlines
 Disorganization may lead to losing
items of importance
 Social skills deficits can lead to
difficulties being hired, maintaining
relationships with co-workers, being
considered for promotions
Students must become aware of their
work-related rights and
responsibilities under the ADA and
Section 504
 Must be otherwise qualified for
position
 Must be able to perform the essential
functions of the job
 Employer is only required to provide
reasonable accommodations if
employee self-discloses and if it is not
an undue hardship to do so
In order to take full advantage of
legal safeguards, individual with
disability must:
Be aware has a disability and understand it
 Know s/he qualifies for civil rights
protection
 Have written documentation validating
diagnosis
 Be able to identify and self-advocate for
accommodations
 Be willing to self-identify

Student should learn about
available accommodations and
which ones s/he might need:
To workspace
 To instructions
 To supervision
 To work schedules
 To equipment related to the position
 To materials
 To job tasks

Great resource on job
accommodations!

Job Accommodation Network (JAN)
 offers individualized consultation
about accommodations
 visit www.janweb.wva.edu on the
Web or call 1-800-ADA-WORK
Important to bring in Vocational
Rehabilitation (VR) as resource

By two years before graduation, Mass Rehab
representatives should
 Provide information regarding available
services
 Identify students who are eligible for their
services
 Attend transition planning portion of IEP team
meeting and help plan work-related goals and
services
 Provide assessment
Vocational assessment should
evaluate:
Interests
 Aptitudes
 Temperament
 Learning style
 Work skills
 Basic skills
 Functional skills needed for work

Critical steps toward employment
for youth:
Developing career awareness
 Exploring interests and finding field that
meets “goodness of fit” criteria
 Developing prevocational skills (e.g.,
reliability, promptness, follow-through)
 Learning job-seeking skills
 Finding work, assimilating into workforce,
and learning how to hold on to a job

Transition Planning Portfolio
should include a work section:
Results of any vocational assessments
 Listing of all work experiences, paid and
unpaid
 Names of companies/organizations where
worked, including supervisors’ full names
 Dates held each job
 Titles of each job
 Responsibilities of each position held
 Letters of recommendation

Getting ready for
community life:
INDEPENDENT LIVING
SKILLS
Domains of independent living
Meal preparation
 Consumer skills
 Self-care
 Housekeeping
 Mobility/getting around
 Leisure/recreation skills
 Social skills

The complexities of getting a
meal on the table!

Meal preparation entails
 Planning a nutritious meal
 Creating shopping list and shopping for
ingredients
 Following recipes and cooking using related
vocabulary and appropriate timing
 Maintaining kitchen hygiene and safety
 Setting the table
 Serving the meal, using social skills
 Cleaning up, storing leftovers
The impact of LD on meal
preparation:

SHOPPING
Math- problems calculating sale prices (e.g.25% off)
 Visual memory- problems remembering layout of store
 Visual figure-ground- difficulty finding one item among
many on store shelves
COOKING
 Reading- difficulty decoding/understanding recipes
 Math- trouble measuring
 Visual discrimination- discerning teaspoon from
tablespoon
 Temporal- trouble timing courses to serve together


To help students with
community living skills
Provide authentic experiences whenever
possible
 In the home
 In the community, whenever possible
 Help them learn community social skills
and offer opportunities for practice
 The goal, as always, is generalization, being
able to use the skills from setting to setting
and from one time to the next

POSTSECONDARY
LEARNING
Preparation for postsecondary
learning entails

Knowing that for ALL students there are
postsecondary learning options, including:
 Non-degree transition-focused programs
 Technical schools
 Adult education centers
 Community colleges
 Junior colleges
 Four-year college/universities
Preparation for postsecondary
learning entails
Learning about the differences between
high school and chosen learning
environment
 Conducting a search for the appropriate
learning setting
 Narrowing down choices
 Following Transition Timetable in book, pp.
197-205
 Making application

Preparation includes learning about
the laws that protect them and that…
IDEA does not apply to higher ed
 Under Section 504 and the ADA,
discrimination based on disability is
prohibited
 Otherwise qualified students must have
equal access through provision of
reasonable accommodations
 But students must self-disclose to be
protected

Preparation includes adding learningrelated materials to Transition
Planning Portfolio :

School records: past and present IEPs,
transcripts, one-page summary of extracurriculars

Disability documentation: most recent psychoed evaluation, listing of all approved
accommodations, copy of ACT/SAT scores

College-specific information: questions to ask
at interview, competed “Common App”, updated
resume, essay describing disability, nonconfidential letters of recommendation
Transition team must carefully
consider if college is the best path
for this particular student
Consider motivation
 Weigh whether teen is prepared for the
academic and social demands
 If college is not the path…
 Provide support for making alternative
plans

Thank you for participating!
Feel free to contact me at
[email protected]
617/349-8995