Transition: It’s Not Just for Kids – Parents Need A Transition Plan Too!

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)

2. 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

3. 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.

4. 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:

5. 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.

6. Step Four Your child will graduate with skills and knowledge to help him/her:

7. 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.”

8. 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.

9. Open your head to new ways of thinking!

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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.”

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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!

17. 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?

18. . . . 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

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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

22. 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!

23. Independence ≠ doing everything for yourself We all need a little help from our friends.

24. Support vs. control Don’t let helpers control your life

25. Families need to support sons and daughters as they set their course.

26. 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

27. Use Teachable Moments • Use real life situations • Making choices • Reasonable level of risk • Living with the consequences

28. 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?

29. 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

30. 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

31. Transition Planning is a Partnership Let’s look at The Quality Indicators for Programs Promoting Self-Determination • Who should be involved in each indicator?

32. She was unaware of my limitations. ~Helen Keller • poet • author • scholar • feminist • political activist • advocate • lecturer • teacher

33. 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.

34. 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.

35. Letting Gogoes hand in hand with Self-Determination

36. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. Eleanor Roosevelt Dan Wilkins, The Nth Degree

37. 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 • Mentoring Parent Project-rural northwestern counties of PA 888-447-1431 • HUNE-Hispanics United for Exceptional Children- Philadelphia area • 215-425-5112

38. 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

39. 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” March 25th- 9:00 am - 3:00 pm COP - Self Determination Videoconference 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 May 3rd - 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm PYLN Webinar July 22-24, 2009 Transition Conference- there will be NO pre-conference