Preparing high school students with learning disabilities for the transition to postsecondary education: teaching the skills of self-determination.

Abstract

Increasing numbers of students with learning disabilities (LD) are looking to postsecondary education and training to help them achieve success in career development and eventual job placement. Unfortunately, research suggests that many of these students are having difficulty staying in and completing postsecondary programs. A number of self-determination skills have been identified that are related to students' making a successful transition to postsecondary education. These include stating one's disability and its impact on school performance, and identifying instructional accommodations and strategies for arranging those accommodations with their regular classroom teachers. The purpose of this study was to examine whether these self-determination skills could be acquired through direct instruction, and subsequently generalized to general education classrooms. The results of the effectiveness of this self-determination training are reported and their implications for teachers, parents, and students discussed.