I have a 21 year old daughter with multiple learning disabilities and lower than average intelligence as measured on IQ tests. Through a great deal of parent advocacy and tons of hard work on her part, she graduated from high school with a B average. Because we live in a state that requires students pass a standardized test before they can enter community college or a college, she has few options for continuing her education.
She has lost two jobs, one in child care and one at Target, and has little motivation now to try to find another one. She spends her time using AOL instant messenger - which has actually improved her writing skills! - but communicates less and less with me. Any advice from any parents who’ve been through the transitioning to adulthood stages would be most welcome!
Thanks so much,
Vicki
Re: Post-high school
While your local community colleges may require that incoming students take a standardized test, do they care about the score? Community colleges often accept students who don’t even speak English. Community colleges are supposed to the ‘open door’ to anyone who wants to go to college. I’d be surprised if they turned your daughter down even if her scores on the standardized tests were very low.
Does she want to take some more courses? If she does, have her take the standardized test.
In the meatime, Foothill College in California will allow her to take on-line courses without standardized testing. She could even get an Associate’s degree on-line. As long as she spends so much time on line anyway, she could be getting some college credits while she’s doing it.
There might also be school to work programs in your community for young people with learning differences. My supermarket, Genuardi’s, is a national chain I think and it has a committment to hiring people with learning differences and giving them support to be successful in their work. Also check with your local YMCA which often has similar programs.
Good luck.
Re: Post-high school
Harley Davidson has a programs that give priority hiring to some special needs people. Here in Pa they do most hiring from a Vo Tech School.
If you have any HD near you check them out.
Re: Post-high school
I too have a daughter that sounds very similar. She is will graduate from high school this year and has a strong desire to go continue into a college program and live away from home. I have looked at the whole range of programs available and feel that a life skills component will give her the extra help she will need to eventually live independently. She insists on having the option of attending college classes and I believe she will be successful with support in the areas of organization and writing.
Mary, if you don’t mind sharing, what program does your daughter attend? What kind of support does she get for academics, for life skills? With the experience you’ve had, are there questions that you wished you had asked while you were selecting a program? With so few programs that fit this profile I want to be sure to pick the best fit.
Vicki, here are a couple more programs that I have found:
College Living Experience - Davie, FL - www.CLEinc.net
Life Development Institute - Glendale, AZ - www.LIFE-DEVELOPMENT-INST.org
If there is anyone else out there with experience with any of these programs I would love to hear from you.
Re: Post-high school
I met a lady the other day that told me to keep in mind Easter Seals when it comes time for my son to go to college. She said they would do further testing and also help the student decide what career field would best fit them.
A couple more
Beacon College in Florida is a college strictly for LD students and offers a *lot* of life-skills and job-skills options. There’s a program in Indiana called PACE
I have a 20 year daughter who fits the same description in your first two sentences. She, however, was very determined to go to a residential college directly upon graduating as this is all virtually everyone in her high school talked about. We knew that college academics were beyond her abilities but agreed that the transitioning to adult independence might be aided by attending a residential program geared to students with similar issues. After much searching we identified a handful of programs that work on independent living skills, vocational training, continued academic instruction at the student’s functional level and do have the option of attending a community college with tutorial support of the program. She has attended such a program for two years and there has been a lot of growth in independent living skills, maturity of behavior, good workplace experiences, development of a social life with a peer group and she is very happy to be taking developmental (non-credit) classes at the community college near the program. The down side is that all of these programs are expensive. Here is a short list of a few programs to look at:
Brehm Postsecondary Options Program, Carbondale, IL (www.brehm.org)
Maplebrook Center for the Advancement of Postsecondary Studies, Amenia, NY (845-373-8191)
Riverview School GROW Program, East Sandwich, MA (508-888-0489)
New York Institute of Technology Vocational Independence Program, Central Islip, NY (516-348-3354)
Lesley College Threshold Program, Cambridge, MA (www.lesley.edu/threshold/threshold_home.htm)
Also, a program that has all the other aspects, but not the community college attendance option:
Horizons School, Birmingham, AL (www.ed.uab.edu/horizons/index.html)
Another option is to work with your state’s Department of Vocational Rehabilitation. Your daughter should be eligible. The federal mandate of this program (available in every state) is to help disabled adults be as independent and self-supporting as possible. Often there are very good support services, job training, job coaching, etc and cost is usually on an income-based sliding scale. The downside here is that these programs vary a lot of place to place in quality and bureaucratic hassle. We are also pursuing this with our daughter for the day when she is ready to set up her own apartment and work full-time. Best wishes.