Parents and educators, does this conversation sound familiar to you?
Me: Kai, tell me what you want to do with your life after you graduate from high school.
Kai: I want to be a TikTok influencer.
Me: What topics would you create content about?
Kai: I don’t know.
Me: Are you currently creating content that people are watching?
Kai: Nope.
Me: …
This can be a tough conversation to navigate. We want to be the biggest champions of our students’ dreams, especially when those dreams are still taking shape. But here’s the thing: as they get older, those post-graduation aspirations can have a big impact on everything from high school course selection to extracurricular activities.
When writing measurable postsecondary goals for IEPs, the next part of that conversation often sounds something like: “Well that’s a pretty big dream and there are a lot of people who try to get famous online. Do you have any backup plans if you don’t make it as an influencer?” Although this redirection might seem helpful, the truth is, a lot of times it just results in the student giving us an answer they don’t really care about so that we’ll stop bothering them.
So, what’s the alternative? Instead of focusing on the “what” of the career goal, what if we focused on the “why,” especially during those younger transition years. Here are some questions we can ask instead of “what is your backup plan?”:
- What makes you interested in that as a career option?
- What special skills do you think a person needs to be successful in this field?
- What careers do you think people in this field would be good at if they decided they no longer wanted to do it?
- Which of those careers do you think you’d be interested in if your first choice turns out to be the wrong fit?
Do you see the difference in this approach? Instead of dismissing and redirecting, we are exploring their interests and validating their dreams, all with the intention of developing measurable postsecondary goals that are meaningful and actionable.
On top of that, the last question leads us to implementing a meaningful transition assessment for the student (which is required under the IDEA). Instead of dusting off a checklist that’s been photocopied and passed down for the last 20 years, we can give the student the tools and resources to explore that question, set them loose to do a little research (or supported research when necessary), and get relevant, individualized information back that informs the plan we’re writing.
Join me for the next article where I’ll focus more on using that information to develop measurable postsecondary goals. As a bonus, I’ll also provide you with a handy resource that you can download or print to begin using with your child or student immediately.
Until next time!