Advocating: There's Always New Territory!

This was a year of new territory:  my son started college.  I was tired of advocating, to be perfectly honest, toward the end of high school.  I did not read books on preparing a child with learning disabilities/ADHD/Asperger's for college.  In fact, I didn't read even one of these books.  I didn't do much preparation.  I know that goes against everything I say about advocating.  I have to come clean and admit the truth.  So what happened?  Let me share our family's experience.

My husband and I decided to enroll our son in a local community college.  He only went part time but it was at an urban campus.  He had attended a Christian School from kindergarten through high school. Everyone knew him and there was a great deal of compassion shown.  The community college had an incredible amount of diversity.  There were many nationalities, lots of languages spoken, various types of international dress, various religions and lots of other things that hadn't been present at his Christian school.  The culture of the school was enough change for him to manage but add the workload---too much.  He dropped his classes and he enrolled in one class at a smaller suburban campus.  It was just right.  He finished the semester well.  

Second semester rolled around and he signed up for two classes.  I thought it would fine but there was a snag.  One of the classes was in a subject that didn't interest our son.  He can do boring but he didn't make good eye contact and often closed his eyes to limit the visual distractions so he could listen better.  The instructor didn't understand all that was going on internally so he often embarrassed him by asking him if he was having a good nap.  This happened several times a class and really took it's toll.  It was time to fight the battle or drop the class.  You guessed it:  he dropped it! 

 During second semester a new provider began to work with our son.  They work on job skills and social interaction skills out in the adult world.  They have done a number of different things but with a heavy concentration on doing volunteer work.  It is job coaching without the pressure of the actual job.  This has been a fantastic experience.

This was quite different from my other children's first year of college.  It is slow and there were definite bumps.  It was 2 steps backward at times but in the end there were 3 steps forward.  That's a net gain of one step.  

As I look back, I think it was a successful year.  I don't know if it would of been, if we had asked much more.  It is slow, but it is going in the right direction.