Special Education Transition Curriculum: A Journey of Love and Connection with Leigh Laird

🧐  Have you ever wondered how students with intellectual and developmental disabilities carve their path beyond the confines of high school?

Leigh Laird joins us to unravel the journey of her son Michael, who, with the help of  Functional Academics, has taken significant strides towards independence and personal growth and is now continuing to develop his skills and journey at Judson University in the RISE program for students with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.  . Together, we explore the powerful role of specialized educational strategies tailored to equip young adults with the essential life skills that many of us take for granted. From overcoming social withdrawal to mastering the intricacies of language with tools like Rosetta Stone, Michael's story is a testament to the adaptability and potential that lies within every individual.

Amidst the triumphs and challenges, our conversation sheds light on the meticulous process of preparing Michael for life's transitions, emphasizing the value of daily to-do lists and executive functioning skills that foster autonomy. We delve into the importance carefully navigated pathways and  Functional Academics, which is a beacon of hope for those navigating similar paths, and discuss how incredible preparatory post-secondary programs like Judson University's RISE are paving the way for the future.
 
Leigh's candid insights provide a massive dose of inspiration not only for parents and educators but also for anyone who believes in the transformative power of education and the bright horizons it can reveal.  #teaching #specialeducation #transitioncurriculum

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Fast 15 podcast offering game-changing tips, advice and motivational tools for special educators, designed to transform your special education classroom in a quick 15-minute format. Our podcast includes authentic stories from amazing educators like you and is proudly sponsored by the publishers of the Functional Academics Program, specially designed education services. Join us as we endeavor to transform the landscape of special education. I get the chance to be with Lee Laird today and it is such a joy to get to talk with you and get to know a little bit more, even though we've been together for a long time. Michael, your son was in my classroom in high school and spent a lot of years just connecting and working out the IEP together and trying to just find what will work best for Michael in his life, his education, life after high school.

Speaker 1: 0:58

People just love being around him. I guess I first want to talk about the skills and abilities that you really wanted to foster with him for a life after high school and trying to focus in on what role functional academics played for Michael early on. And I guess if you could give just a little bit of a history and understanding about Michael and your journey with him, that'd be awesome.

Speaker 2: 1:23

He was diagnosed on the autism spectrum when he was six and, as we were sharing before we started the show, he was a kid who had chronic ear infections that were really bad between starting at about the age of two until about the age of five.

Speaker 1: 1:38

So that was definitely.

Speaker 2: 1:39

I think it was three when we finally put the first set of tubes in his ears. So there were definitely some physical things that certainly impacted his development. Prior to his becoming sick with ear infections, his speech and language skills seemed to be right on track. And then things just started going south. And there were a number of years I want to say probably starting from about the age of three until he was an older elementary age student where just he was so withdrawn. He was a very withdrawn child. He just really did not like socializing. And then when he got into junior high, he had a great teacher in our junior. He's had great teachers all along. I don't mean to imply that he's had great teachers all along.

Speaker 2: 2:24

But the junior high teacher. She somehow unlocked something in him.

Speaker 1: 2:29

She saw him.

Speaker 2: 2:30

Yes, and she found a reading plan that really helped him, and so I think being able to develop some stronger reading skills gave him a lot of confidence. And another thing that we did I think that really helped in his social skills was we took him through Rosetta Stone for English. If you can believe that At the time that we got, this.

Speaker 1: 2:53

What a great idea.

Speaker 2: 2:54

Yeah, we got the suggestion to do this. We were seeing a doctor in a different state who had a lot of success treating kids with autism. So you know, being people who really did not want to leave any stone unturned, we pursued that for a while, okay, and there were certainly some good things that we took away from that, one of which was he shared with us one day. He says I have a mom who's a speech and language therapist and she got Rosetta Stone, the English version, for her child who has who's very similar to your child in the language and skills development. So for probably more than a year he would sit down every day and he would do Rosetta Stone for English, because it was. He would see words, he would say words, he would type words out on the computer, he would observe these conversations. That would happen in the day to day life, exchange with people at the store, at a restaurant, whatever, generalizing those skills to his context outside of the school, exactly.

Speaker 2: 3:51

So that, combined with what he got in his junior high years, he just blossomed in those years and then he went to high school and you were his teacher for his sophomore year, that's right. And he just, we had met you before through some mutual friends and just clicked and just hit it off right away. And so we just we talked you up to him a lot.

Speaker 2: 4:14

So he was excited to come into your class. Good, and you, just like his junior high teacher, you just seem to really you gave a lot of thought to how to help him be successful and when you found something that we agreed would be good, you had implemented and I think that was a huge you know, just huge for him.

Speaker 1: 4:33

Well, you were doing things at home that really supplemented and helped out what we were doing in the classroom, right so? He comes to us, comes to my classroom with skills and abilities and interests to capitalize on those strengths, right, yeah, so then you can take those and it was easy for us to build on those and to explore together.

Speaker 1: 4:53

What direction do we want to go with reading and writing and his math skills? I know he spent a lot of time with functional academics we had. He was in another classroom just next to me, has some functional academics going in there and some great peer tutors, peer coaches who came alongside him as well, and the power of all of those meaningful, functional and meaningful approaches to what he's learning. We also had to make sure that he was going out to general eds. How is?

Speaker 1: 5:25

he being supported in those areas to get the credits that he needs. So I'm interested from your perspective as a mom, now that he's a few years out of high school and did go to an adult transition program. I'd love to hear a little bit more about that experience that you had. So can you tell the listeners about where he's at right now? Currently?

Speaker 2: 5:45

Yeah, right now he is attending a program at a college in Illinois. It's called Judson University and it is in Elgin, illinois. It's about 40 minutes outside of Chicago and Judson University is a small Christian college and about five years ago there was a mom who lived in the area. She has four daughters and two of her four daughters are special needs and she thought what am I going to do with them after high school? And so she started this program and this is a two-year program. It's called RISE.

Speaker 2: 6:16

It's a two-year program for special needs young adults Incredible and it gives them the opportunity to live on a college campus and live in a dorm and attend college and have that college experience. And the curriculum is very much tailored to the special needs young adults. So it's not academics driven like it would be for a traditional student who's in college. But they just the first semester. They get them accustomed to living on their own and having to manage a daily schedule of classes, and then the second semester they continue with that and then they add in a couple days a week of on-campus internships where they're doing they're actually on a job site, okay, so this week Does he get to choose what type of internship he does, or is it do you know yet?

Speaker 2: 7:08

I'm not sure. If he got to choose, he may have actually been able to just to list some ones that he might enjoy, right, but on campus he's going to be working at the spirit store, which is the store where they sell all the Judson sweatshirts and the t-shirts and all the swag.

Speaker 2: 7:23

So I think he will. I think he will enjoy that. It's just a couple days a week for two hours a day, but it gives them, gets them into just this job training mode and then the second year they are actually doing jobs off campus. They have a number of businesses within the community that they partner with for this program, and so they will list their top three sites of where they would like to work. Okay, and that's what they'll do.

Speaker 1: 7:50

Wow, so that's part of it. Okay To your program, and so you mentioned that there's a potential of furthering that. Yes, so, after that kind of what is? What does that look like?

Speaker 2: 8:04

third year, fourth year so they do have an optional third and fourth year of the students want to the rise program itself. You commit to those two years and but the third and fourth year have been those have been recent additions, it didn't start out that way. But in those third and fourth years the students instead of living in the dorm they're living in an on campus apartment. So they're sharing an apartment with one other roommate Okay, and they are learning how to pay rent. Okay, All right, and go grocery shopping.

Speaker 2: 8:32

Functional math Very much all just those very those functional skills that we all need to have to live life as an adult and to live on our own, independently, yeah yeah.

Speaker 1: 8:42

All right. So, knowing where he's at right now and some hopeful years just following, the two if you and I were to sit down and write an IEP and we were back in the high school, yeah, and you wanted to really get him prepared for where he's where he is now.

Speaker 2: 8:58

We didn't know at the time.

Speaker 1: 8:59

No, we had no idea what the transition plan really was going to look like. But you know how would we write that IEP? What would you want Michael to be prepared for? That he's experiencing now? Oh, that's a really good question.

Speaker 2: 9:15

Yeah, I guess I would answer that by looking at the things that that Michael are some weaknesses that he has that have always been a challenge for him. That where he's at now, we he's there they're proving to still be challenges. Okay, and so that would be number one time management, Okay, so a curriculum that really implements okay. Where do you need to be right now and how how much time do you need to get yourself from here to there? Because it's your next class starts at 11. That means you have to be in your seat at 11, not walking to the class in your seat in your seat with a five minute buffer maybe three minute buffer between the time that you get there and the time it starts.

Speaker 2: 9:57

So that would be one and executive functioning yeah that executive functioning thing.

Speaker 2: 10:02

And again for Michael and I know this was something that you guys worked on, but for him, learning to advocate for himself huge. I, mrs Beck, I need help, I don't know where, I don't know where to go and learning to that. It's okay to ask questions, it's okay to do that, and what is my next task? So those would be some things that I think in retrospect, having built those things in a little more, where it's very intentional, we are going to be intentional about teaching you how to manage your time and how to know what your schedule is and how to manage that, how to be on time and then also how to ask for help when you're not really sure what to do. That's something for him in particular has been hard, I know.

Speaker 1: 10:44

Michael struggles a lot more than average students just with confidence. Yes, yes, and you said from the time he was really young two, three, you saw that struggle of confidence and comparing to his sister, or whatever, but instilling that sense of confidence that you can ask a question that you aren't.

Speaker 2: 11:07

There isn't something wrong with you because you don't know yet.

Speaker 1: 11:10

You just need the support and the structure to get there.

Speaker 2: 11:13

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 11:13

I love the team meeting that you mentioned, that you had earlier today. As far as partnering with the leadership, the directors there, what can we do to make sure? That he's more successful to plan out what he's doing for the week. What were you thinking were some strategies that you and your team there with the college would be most helpful for him?

Speaker 2: 11:35

One of the things that we noticed and particularly over these last few years, as he's been at home more and just as all the kids got older was he's good at following a to-do list. So if I would write down okay, michael, here's your list of things I want you to accomplish today. I need you guys to do this, and this is your sister's chores, is your brother's, these are yours and he was really good at going through and just marking off, crossing off everything he needed to do. So, instead of having his, the team provides a weekly schedule. They have the schedule all mapped out for the students so you can see the week at a glance, but for Michael, that's a little overwhelming and he does better if he has.

Speaker 2: 12:17

What do I have to do today? Okay, and so, as we shared with him, yeah, this was what. So, with his job that he had last summer, these were the tasks that. So we did a list. Okay, these are your Monday tasks and these are the tasks when you go back to work on Thursday. These are the tasks they need you to do on Thursday. Once you are finished with these, ask them what else they need you to do that day. Report completion to your supervisor or to whoever's watching over things that you're in your dorm situation.

Speaker 1: 12:46

Let them know that you're done in what's next Great skill.

Speaker 2: 12:49

And then we also shared with them just some particulars about Michael that maybe they weren't aware of, but I think it's something that a lot of special needs kids struggle with. But change, transition, is hard. He has always had a very hard time with that and for Michael in particular, he the two things that are probably the have been the hardest for him to learn over the years money and time. Okay, money and time and time management. It requires understanding. What does it mean when I look at my watch and it says 10 o'clock? What does that mean? Yeah, that tells me the time of day it is, but that also tells you where you need to be right now.

Speaker 1: 13:25

What is happening at 10 o'clock on your schedule, where you need to be Right, and what does in 30 minutes mean yeah, and what does that feel like? What can I do in that amount of time?

Speaker 2: 13:35

Exactly.

Speaker 1: 13:35

Making those decisions for what's?

Speaker 2: 13:36

reasonable, and those are things that, those are concepts that are very still very hard for him to grasp and to work with.

Speaker 1: 13:42

Yeah, and I know Suzanne Fitzgerald with her functional academics program really focuses in a lot with that time management, understanding a calendar, the time management, money management, reading, writing. There's so many different content areas that the curriculum is so good, oh yeah, so to build in but to generalize those skills outside of the classroom setting.

Speaker 2: 14:09

Yeah.

Speaker 1: 14:09

You never know fully what the young adults gonna be walking into, what they need to be prepared for it's. We're all working on all those things.

Speaker 2: 14:16

I'm still working on my own time management.

Speaker 1: 14:18

I'm sitting here looking at my desk and I've got my calendar blank right now. Right now Shouldn't be blank, but I need to work on those, so anyway, thank you so much. This is so much fun to get a chance to talk to you and I hope this is an encouragement to other families too, other parents who may be listening and know that there is hope and there's opportunities and activities to participate and there really is hope for the future, and even if you don't see it in high school, right.

Speaker 2: 14:48

Or early on.

Speaker 1: 14:49

It can be confusing, but when you hear from other voices like yours, Lee, thank you for sharing your story and your love for Michael and centering in on that and just the support all the way through that you've provided such an amazing advocate for him. Oh, thank you. You and your husband are incredible that way and he's becoming a really strong advocate for himself and I'm excited to hopefully get to work with him a little bit maybe this summer.

Speaker 2: 15:14

Oh yeah, I hope so, I hope so. That'd be awesome. Yeah, that would be awesome.

Speaker 1: 15:18

Yes, thank you for being part of our Fast 15 and I hope to talk to you again soon. I would love it. Thank you for having me. Thank you Well, friends.

Speaker 1: 15:26

That's it for this episode of the Fast 15, but real quick, let's focus on three main takeaways from what Lee shared with us. Number one remember the pivotal role that special education teachers can have in a student's life. By taking the time to truly understand our student's present levels of performance, but also keeping in mind the hopes that they have for the future, just like Michael's middle school teacher, we can really have such a powerful impact. Number two don't underestimate the power of early learning of functional skills. They play a critical role in the success of our students as young adults in their future post-secondary transition opportunities. And number three keep the importance of teaching executive functioning skills and developing the concept of time with all of our students' daily living tasks and schedules in mind.

Speaker 1: 16:15

You can find great resources to help you and your students with the Functional Academics Program. Together, let's keep focusing on the importance of considering individual preferences and tailoring strategies to our students' needs. Thank you so much, lee, for these reminders and the encouragement to keep going. That's it for now and we'll catch you in the next one. A heartfelt thank you to our generous sponsors. Specially designed Education Services. Publishers of the Functional Academics Program, please take a moment to learn more about the only true, comprehensive Functional Academics Program that enables students with moderate to severe disabilities to improve their ability to live independently and show meaningful growth both academically and personally, while creating accountability with data-driven, evidence-based results. Visit sdesworkscom to learn more.