Guiding Teens with Learning Disabilities: Navigating the Transition from High School to Adulthood [Paperback]

Arlyn Roffman (Author)

Book Description

Release date: September 4, 2007

Parents of teens with learning disabilities face a wide range of questions and concerns regarding the education of their children. Periods of transition, particularly the movement through high school to the working world or to further education, can be particularly difficult to navigate. Guiding Teens with Learning Disabilities helps parents as their children shift from teenage life to adulthood. It includes sections on planning for transition, post-secondary education, vocational training, career preparation, and life in the community.

Guiding Teens with Learning Disabilities also covers issues like defining learning disabilities properly, getting eligibility for various educational benefits, understanding disability laws and protections, dealing with mental health issues, figuring out what entitlements a student is eligible for at various stages of his/her educational development, and much, much more.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Princeton Review (September 4, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375764968
• ISBN-13: 978-0375764967
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.7 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #275,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A valuable contribution! October 27, 2007

By Jerome J. Schultz

Format:Paperback

This is a concise, well-written, very understandable guidebook for parents and teens with LD facing a challenging time in their lives. Most delightfully, this book is very positive (while realistic) in its tone and suggestions. For a small book, it is simply packed with practical strategies (with emphatic finger-pointing bullets!) and guidance. The timetable is an easy to use resource for those with attention challenges! Dr. Roffman intersperses case vignettes to show the human side of these issues, and she shows what the individuals can and did do to deal with the challenges. Very good role models for success! All in all, an excellent book. I'll keep this copy on hand to show parents and will certainly recommend it to staff and patients. It's a must read roadmap for families who find themselves at this intersection.

Jerome J. Schultz, Ph.D.
Clinical Neuropsychologist
Director, Center for Child and Adolescent Development
Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Well Organized, Practical, a Reference, not a story book. February 8, 2008

By Cnotta

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is organized well. It explains what you need to do in a step by step fashion. It has tables, and checklists. It pulls in essential information that you need in reference like style that is easy to go back to.

Other books on this topic, which I've obtained, review, and returned because they read like a story book because they were difficult to reference later on. This one is not a story book, by an emotional author. Its written with facts, objective recommendation and suggestions that you can apply to your own situation as you see fit or as you need.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A clear roadmap for supporting your ld teen February 16, 2008

By Sarah Haavind

Format:Paperback

Dr. Roffman has thankfully written exactly the guide book I needed as my Down Syndrome son turned 16. As a parent, I had no training in how to think about transitioning my son to adulthood. He has been in an inclusion school environment all his life, from infant day care to high school. But the transition to the wide-open space of adulthood, when the structures of schooling were gone, was a complete mystery to me. How could I prepare? How could my son be best prepared during his final few years of secondary education?

Roffman's guide is a step-by-step roadmap for parents, of what to do, what to ask, who to ask, and when to ask. It is also useful for anyone on the service side of transitioning learning disabled teens. The book seems most specifically addressed to the parents and service providers of children with more common learning disabilities than Down Syndrome. Yet it helped me to raise my hopes and standards of what to expect for outcomes of my son's transition as well. For example, with proper preparation, perhaps my son could attend a community college or build a more advanced skill set toward future employment than I was thinking previously.

When I attended his 10th grade IEP review meeting, I felt completely prepared, and for the first time, I knew what I wanted to have happen during the meeting, and it did! This book made the difference. I have recommended Roffman's book to everyone in our school district's SPED PAC, to those who work with my son in the high school, and to members of the school committee. I no longer feel like "the blind leading the blind." Instead, I feel confident that I will be able to support my son's transition with confidence, even if I don't know all the answers yet. Now I know how to ask the questions, of both my son and his service providers, in time for us to figure out the best answers together. If you are parenting a learning disabled teen, or providing services for ld teens, I highly recommend you get a copy of this book. You'll be glad that you did.