Transition to Adulthood - Questions to Consider
Charting the Life Course is a tool, developed by the Supporting Families Community of Practice and the University of Missouri Kansas City, to assist you in creating a vision for the future. It is designed to help families think about the questions to ask as you “plot a course” to a full and meaningful life for a family member with a disability.
Here's a few questions that the "Life Course approach" encourages families to consider, if they have a child with a disability in the transition stage.
- Does my transition plan include work or volunteer experience, and practicing how to look for a job, get a job and keep a job?
- Have you talked to me about post-secondary education? Taken me for college visits? (*Postsecondary education can also include programs on college campuses for students with intellectual disabilities.)
- Have you talked with me about where I might want to live in the future (after school ends/when I am an adult)?
- Are you helping me learn how to share my goals, hopes and dreams at educational and other support meetings?
- Are you exploring alternatives to guardianship so I can retain my right to make my own choices and decisions?
- How will I maintain and make new friendships outside of school (especially if most of my friends have gone off to college and I have not)?
- Am I dating or starting to think about dating? Have you talked to me about safe sex and sexual boundaries?
- Do I have opportunities to do what other young people do for fun?
- Are you helping me learn how to share my goals, hopes and dreams at educational and other support meetings?
- Are you connected to other families that have experienced or are experiencing the transition from high school to adulthood?
For a full list of questions families can consider for this stage of life, download the Charting the Lifecourse booklet and other resources at http://www.lifecoursetools.com/.
The questions in Charting the Life Course are written to reflect a “first person” perspective across the lifespan to represent the viewpoint of the person with a disability and the on-going transformation to an adult who is self-determined, autonomous and independent.