Expectations in Common

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

After School, Then What?

What do our children with cognitive disabilities do after they graduate?

What are their options?

Do we as family members have to schedule and plan everything?

I'm doing a work session at the Florida State Down Syndrome Conference on February 24 at the University of Central Florida Campus in Orlando on just this very topic. Friday from 2 - 5 pm at. Follow the link to register. (http://www.dsacf.org/programs-services/for-parents/)

You will spend more time talking and brainstorming, and planning for your son or daughter than listening. This is truly a work session. Come prepared to attack some tough life questions. Joining me will be an independent Life Coach, Employment Manager, and Director of Supported Living, some of the best in their fields, to guide families through a "Vision" process toward answers to just these questions. No, it is not easy, but you will leave with the right questions to ask AND an Individual Vision Plan for your son or daughter focusing specifically on them.

Expectations in Common

Expectations are something we all have in common, whether we have a diagnosed disability or not.The expectations that others have for us may give us the incentive to "Be All That We Can Be" or strip us of any efforts toward achievement.

Expectations or lack of them often greatly impacts the direction of someone's life and can mean the difference between success or failure. How powerful it is when someone believes in me. And how devastating when someone, especially in authority tells me, or shows me by their actions that I am not worth their time. Expectations for ourselves is something we all have in common. It is the hope that is part of our humanity.

My son and his friend, both 8th graders really struggle with reading and math. Right now their expectations of their own success are pretty tentative. They are afraid to expect it. It is my husband's and my responsibility to show our son and his friend, that we 'expect' them to succeed. At what, we may not know yet. But expectation of accomplishment is something we all have in common. The challenge of course is finding what a person excels at.

As Parents, Teachers, Neighbors, Business Leaders, our instinct when meeting someone is to first expect competence. Except when our misconceptions about disability get in the way. We see the disability instead of the person and forget to expect ability at all. We forget that what we have in common with every individual with or without a disability is the hope, the expectation of happiness and success.

One precious treasure each of us shares is our expectation to succeed at something we are good at. And it is in our failing and yet still expecting to succeed, that we begin to sift through experiences until we find our strengths and gifts. We all have expectations for success and happiness in our lives. We have that in common, those with and those without disabilities.

Well, Welcome to my blog. I hope to reach others; families, self advocates, teachers, administrator, businesses, employers,public servants, and students and peers of children who have disabilities. that's a pretty big group, I know. As the saying goes... "It takes a village to raise a child."

I want to encourage families and teachers that children with disabilities CAN succeed if expectations are held high, in the regular classroom accessing the general education curriculum. Notice I didn't say INCLUSION? It's not a bad word, there is just a lot of confusion surrounding it.

Is there one model that works for everyone. Absolutely not. Every school has different resources, every child has different needs. The trick is identifying the supports and services needed by a child and matching them to the resources, knowledge, and staff in the child's school and district.

Expectations in Common

Experience

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

After School, Then What?

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