Transcript Slide 1

Transition: It’s Not Just for Kids –
Parents Need A Transition Plan Too!
March 3, 2009
Session #1
You Can’t Move Forward
Until You Move Backwards
PaTTAN
Hispanos Unidos para Ninos
Excepcionales (HUNE);
The Mentor Parent Project, Inc.;
Parent Education and Advocacy
Leadership Center (PEAL);
Parent Education Network (PEN)
What is Transition?
Is focused on your child’s preferences and interests
Address your child’s individual needs
Plans for a successful outcome for your child
Is a coordinated set of activities,
services and goals
Promotes the movement
of your child from high
school to adulthood
Steps to a Successful Transition
Step One
Your child will begin to explore their
goals for life after high school and
develop a plan to achieve
these goals.
Step Two
Design a program, at school and in the
community, beginning at age 14, to help your
child gain the skills necessary to achieve his/her
goals.
This should include information on:
The progress your
child is making on
his/her school
subjects (course of
study/IEP goals)
The career
they dream
of
Your child’s
understanding of
his/her disability and
what helps your
child meet success
Step Three
Develop a team of
people who will help
your child reach
his/her goals. This
may be people in the
family, in the school
and in the
community.
Step Four
Your child will
graduate with
skills and
knowledge to
help him/her:
Set and
achieve
career &
personal
goals
Identify
strengths,
achievements
& personal
goals
Be able to
advocate for
his/her
needs
Identify
services &
agencies that
can support
their goals
Transition – What the Law Says……
Individual with Disabilities
Education Act
(IDEA-2004)
“To ensure that all children with disabilities have
available to them a free appropriate public
education and related services designed to meet
their unique needs and prepare them for further
education, employment and independent living.”
Age Requirement
Transition services must be addressed in the
IEP of the student in the year in which the
student turns 14 years of age.
The IEP team does not have
to wait until the students’
approaching 14th birthday
year to consider the
students’ transition needs.
Open your
head to
new ways
of thinking!
Work backwards
• Start now to build for the future!
• Parents make the difference
• Your child’s self-perception as a capable
person is influenced by you and their
experiences
• Expectations make a difference
• Develop a transition plan for yourself to
move from primary care taker to
secondary support person
Universal Truths!
• Learned Helplessness or Independence
come from you
• There is true dignity in risk
• The development of self-determination is a
learned behavior, based on experiences,
attitudes and opportunities
Why Let Go?
• Self-determined students twice
as likely to be employed after
high school
(Wehmeyer & Schwartz, 1997)
• Greater post secondary
enrollment
(Mason, McGahee, Kovac, Johnson &
Stillerman, 2002)
• You won’t be there forever
What the research says…
• “Students who are more involved in
setting educational goals are more
likely to reach their goals.”
• Wehmeyer found that “students with
disabilities who are more self-determined
are more likely to be employed and living
independently in the community after
completing high school than students who
are less self-determined.”
How to begin
• Timeline: When to begin
• Sky is limit
• Regardless of the extent
of your son’s or
daughter’s disabilities
you can still begin the
process of letting go
Self Determination Theory
Intrinsic motivation (doing something
because it is inherently interesting or
enjoyable), and thus higher quality
learning, flourishes in contexts that satisfy
human needs for competence,
autonomy, and relatedness.
Ryan and Deci, 1999
Develop Self Determination by
fostering COMPETENCE
• Students experience competence when
challenged and given prompt feedback.
• Provide opportunities and lots of them!
• Beware of Learned Helplessness!
• Starts when they begin to develop skills
• If you do it for them or demand that they
ask your permission for everything they
will learn to be helpless!
Dignity of Risk
Opportunities to develop competence
involve risk taking
• Look at the handout
• Ask yourself those questions
• Which of these questions would you want
your child to ask?
. . . the fine line of overprotection versus
putting her in risky situations is hard to find and
continually moving, we often go too far in each
direction.
Some times, we knowingly overdid, . . . but
it was a trade we felt was worth the experience
she had . . .
As a parent, our goal is to encourage our
children to be as independent and self reliant as
possible. We will not always be there to make the
decisions and take care of things. Permitting
them to do age-appropriate activities and make
age appropriate decisions is difficult but
necessary.
Joan Badger
Develop Self Determination by
fostering AUTONOMY
• Students experience autonomy when
they feel supported to explore, take
initiative and develop and implement
solutions to their problems.
Parents and autonomy
• Autonomy and dependence on others are not
opposites.
• A parent can support autonomy while still caring
for his child, or an adolescent can develop a
secure relationship with his parents without
feeling controlled in one’s actions.
• Parents who are sensitive to their children’s
needs and who are able to provide choices for
their children facilitate feelings of autonomy and
choicefulness.
Provide opportunities to practice
• Celebrate successful choice making
• Celebrate both big and little successes
• Support them in learning from poor
choices
• Don’t stop providing opportunities because
of past poor choices
• They need the practice of experiencing
consequences of their choices
Develop Self Determination by
fostering RELATEDNESS
• Students experience relatedness when
they perceive others listening and
responding to them.
• If no one is listening they will stop trying!
• Our children have very important things to
say and we can learn a lot if we listen
• “Not being able to speak is not the same
as not having anything to say.” We still
need to LISTEN!
Independence ≠ doing everything
for yourself
We all need a
little help from
our friends.
Support vs. control
Don’t let helpers
control your life
Families need to
support sons and
daughters as
they set their
course.
Practical applications
• Help students to identify their needs and
develop strategies to meet those needs
• Help students acquire knowledge, skills,
and beliefs that meet their needs for
competence, autonomy and relatedness.
• It will only increase their quality of life now
and when you are gone
Use Teachable Moments
•
•
•
•
Use real life situations
Making choices
Reasonable level of risk
Living with the
consequences
Let’s Take a Look
Look at the handout:
What Parents Can Do for Self Determination
• Which is a strategy that you can begin to
try out now?
What you can do now
• Increase self-awareness
• Improve decision-making, goal setting and
goal attainment skills
• Enhance communication and relationship
skills
• Develop the ability to celebrate success
and learn from reflecting on experiences
• Help them identify information they would
like to share with the educational team
More activities
• Reflect on daydreams to help them determine
what is important to them
• Teach how to set goals and then, with the
support of peers, family members, and teachers,
taking steps to achieve those goals
• Provide contextual supports and opportunities
such as coaching for problem solving and offer
opportunities for choice
Transition Planning is a Partnership
Let’s look at
The Quality Indicators for Programs
Promoting Self-Determination
• Who should be involved in each indicator?
She was unaware of my
limitations.
~Helen Keller
•poet
•author
•scholar
•feminist
•political activist
•advocate
•lecturer
•teacher
The Real World
• Everyone has a place in the real world.
• Everyone adds value to our community
and makes us richer.
• Everyone has hopes and dreams and they
need to come to fruition.
• Agencies and organizations should work
to help fulfill families’ vision of living in the
real world.
Seamless Transition
First day of adult
life should not look different from the
last day of services with the school
district.
As you look forward at your adult life,
look backwards and build on the skills
you have been practicing for a
lifetime.
Letting Go
goes hand in hand with
Self-Determination
The future
belongs to
those who
believe in the
beauty of their
dreams.
Eleanor Roosevelt
Dan Wilkins, The Nth Degree
Steps to Getting the Best Transition
Program for Your Child - Resources

Consultline
Information for families and advocates of children with disabilities
Toll free information line
1-800-879-2301

Community Parent Resource Centers
 HUNE-Hispanics United
for Exceptional ChildrenPhiladelphia area
215-425-5112
 Mentoring Parent Projectrural northwestern counties
of PA
888-447-1431
Steps to Getting the Best Transition
Program for Your Child - Resources
Parent Training and Information Centers
Parent Education and Advocacy Leadership
Center (PEAL)-West and Central PA –
866-950-1040
Parent Education Network (PEN)-East PA
800-522-5827
Upcoming Events
March 24th - 12:00-1:00 & 7:00-8:00 pm
Parent Webinar “It’s a Brave New
World: Introduction to Secondary Transition”
May 3rd 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
PYLN Webinar
March 25th - 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
COP - Self Determination Videoconference
July 22-24, 2009
Transition
Conferencethere will be NO
pre-conference
April 4, 2009 - 9:00 am-12:00 pm
Parent VC “The GPS of Secondary Transition”
April 5th - 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
PYLN Webinar
April 14th - 9:00 am - 3:00 pm
COP - Self Determination PaTTAN Harrisburg