I'm new here and hope someone can help me

Is this going to be a permanent disability? There is social security for such cases, though I don’t know much abotu the process.

The other angle is to look for ways to get those skills, and specifically job skills. He doesn’t have to put up with arbitrary graduation req;uirements :)
Many places have adult literacy classes (often free) and courses in things like office skills - how would he be at things like typing?

Sounds like he *has* done work? Just labor-type things? During his “rehab” down time, is there somebody who could take him through, say, the exercises in “What Color Is Your Parachute?” THey are *very* good for ferretting out interests and strengths. If somebody could read through it with him, and then perhaps type out his answers, he could end up recognizing that he’s picked up some useful skills/attributes - or he’d have a better idea of what skills he needs to do things that interest him.

Another option is looking at some postsecondary programs like Brehm school has. \
It’s not to late to have a future…

If you’re located in the Pittsburgh PA area, I would check out on enrolling you son in a GED preperation program through the Community College of Allegheny County. For a community college they offer a lot for students with LD.

The knee disability is not to be permanent. In fact he hurt it some time ago in school weight lifting trying to prove himself. He squatted 450 pounds in 9th grade, his first year to play football. He was trying to gain acceptance, instead he damaged his knee which he kept to himself until recently and never reported to the school.

He has worked on a farm, and is very good at heavy equipment operation, and passed three interviews for a plant job as he is very personable, but they gave him a written comptancy test and he failed.

As it turns out he would not have been able to take it anyway as he would not be able to be on his feet.

I’m trying to get him to take GED classes again. Last time he quit. He just is so turned off to anything involving school because he is still hurting over what he went through.

He could drive truck, do automechanics, carpentry, farming, but everyone requires a GED or being on your feet and for the next year that is out and he will have no health insurance.

I guess the question is if you have a LD and a temporary health issue is there some type of insurance or extention available and how would I find out about it. There must be others without jobs who are off there parents health insurance and are having it tough due to LD?

For the money issue, go after Social Security. You may need a lawyer but work on it.

You might try vocational rehabilitation, although we hear mixed reports on that.

For the reading/writing, the GED classes usually don’t work in your situation. They are aimed at adults who are already literate and who want a rush brush-up to get through the test; they don’t take the time to teach skills in depth, as most adults would not have patience with that.

I worked over the last two years with a student in a somewhat similar situation. He apparently had some form of PDD. He is actually well within the normal range of intelligence and in some ways quite bright, but he had odd behaviours, verbal expression problems, and socially inappropriate behaviour. He was basically warehoused in school, treated as retarded which he is not, and the only reading and writing instruction he got was rote memorization. I started with him when he was at about a Grade 2 level reading, low Grade 1 level writing and not willing to write especially because he had no idea tha words and sounds related to what letter symbols to use. During about eight months of work spread over a year and a half, we used first children’s books and a good phonics series, then some ESL materials to help with English usage and to give him age-appropriate reading at his level, then with a good youth novel (Hatchet); he advanced to functional literacy, Grade 5 or so level in reading and Grade 3 or 4 in writing, and was no longer afraid to put things on paper.
Unfortunately, someone had previously had a very misguided idea how to help him and had given him a pass in Grade 9 in adult education, which was no way an honest pass. His parents pressured him to go back to adult ed and he was palced in Grade 10 (similar to a GED class) which he could not handle, and after several blow-ups when he could not handle the work he quit; if he had been allowed to re-start in Grade 7 or 8 he would have had a good chance of success.
However, he is now employable and has been working full-time (one reason our tutoring was broken up), and he has been able to fill out the forms required to do delivery work, help do filing in the office, etc. He has even done cross-border deliveries. His self-confidence has grown by leaps and bounds, and he is willing to argue with me when things are not working for him, really positive progress from his previous where he either refused to respond or acted goofy.

A similar approach could help your son; first finding out where his skills really are (usually lower than claimed, since intelligent people develop coping and hiding skills), then working with materials at a level that fit him, teaching skills directly. If you have the time and are willing to do the work, and if he will work with you (always a problem in the parent-child relation) then you can do a lot of this yourself. If not, you can look for a good private tutor.

Thanks for all of your suggestions! I started researching and came across Job Corps. It’s for people 16-24 who have dropped out of school and need job training and a diploma.

It’s free, and they work at the students pace, and they are covered by health insurance, the Dept. of Labor and Industry along with private corporations sponcer it and then they place the person into a job.

They get room, board and an allowance which increases with success.

I talked to the woman at the Pittsburg center and told her of Jeremys Learning disabilities with school and she said, that’s what they are there for. Any one ever here of this?

It was something some of my students did - for some of them it was a good thing, but for others it wasn’t. In that little armpit of Virginia, it wasn’t particularly well run, so some kids weren’t “hard” enough and, shall we say, picked up more bad connections than learned good work habits. For two of my young ladies, though, it was a sort of responsibilty and freedom that helped them figure out that they were the ones responsible for their futures.