Transition Planning

I had an interesting thought the other day when working with a high school student. I was thinking about what this student will do after graduation. A few questions came to mind and I would like to share my idea with you.

Is this program of therapy what is best for the student and how was this original plan established? Hopefully, we thought about the end goal when writing the plan. What does our student want to accomplish? How can we support our team? These are all questions that should come to mind before we even begin to write an Individualized Education Plan.

If we work from the anticipated end result back to the beginning, then we know the path we should take to get the right results. What does our student want to do after their school career? College? Job training? Participate in a day program? In order to reach these goals we need to consider how we can each contribute to help our student succeed.

This is a great article about helping students prepare for adulthood:
https://www.understood.org/en/school-learning/special-services/ieps/iep-transition-planning-preparing-for-young-adulthood

I think a major area to consider for involvement is that of the Physical Therapist. Often times as students get older, we decrease services or move toward indirect services. What if this student needs specific physical training for a career or to be mobile in the college environment? Consider bringing PT back in for this specific task. A PT can be a valuable addition for work hardening activities or for equipment suggestions to help this student be a successful adult.

After all, isn't that our goal? To prepare our students for their interests and careers? Maybe we need to take another look at our processes for helping students be successful after they leave our Middle Schools and High Schools. Together we can help each student achieve their goals and make this world a more accessible place!