Transition Plan, Essay Example

In this discussion, we will explore strategies for assessing family strengths and needs. Sometimes, families who have been coping with the needs of an exceptional child neglect other children or needs. It is essential that family needs are stabilized while the child receives assistance because a part of the intervention is to help families to reconnect as a unit and to not continue to focus on one child’s needs exclusively.

Name some strategies that can be used to help families adjust to having to work with relative strangers. How would you feel if you had to work with a few different people who know about your family’s problems?

Families have strengths and needs which need to be assessed continually so that family ties are tightened for better family relationship. In the family, it may happen that one child exceptionally needs more than others. This has caused many families problems in dealing with such cases especially if the family concentrates in meeting the needs of the exceptional child and forgets other children or needs. Stabilization of family needs is one way of ensuring that each child receives necessary attention from the parents /guardians in the family and helps to reconnect the family as single unit (Blalock, & Benz, 1999).

Assessment of family strengths and needs is one way of trying to find the problems that are affecting the family and devising ways of dealing with problems which are identified. Family strength and needs assessment can take many strategies which include;

Child function: it entails measuring child self protection, social development/ cognitive development, emotional or behavioral functioning.

Adult functioning: this strategy entails assessment of cognitive abilities, physical health, mental health functioning, domestic relations, substance use, response to stressors and parenting practices.

Family functioning: it entails recourse management and household maintenance, extended family, social and community supports and family roles, interactions and relationships.

Historical strategy:  which deals with caretaker’s victimization of other children, caretaker’s abuse / neglect as a child, and impact on past services?

The above four strategies can be used to asses the strengths and needs of the family. The need to identify the family strengths and needs is not to ascertain that there is no family problem or need, but rather to give the family needs and strengths a new look of perspective. It provides the family with a new perception of its strengths, problems, and areas in which they have expressed the need for help to be able to protect their children (Blalock, & Benz, 1999).

Because of the diversity of the world and workplaces that exist, meeting and working with strangers is a normal encounter. Therefore, families must cope up with working with relative strangers. This needs possession of certain traits which include;  cooperation, showing appreciation, communicating properly, offering necessary help, being emphatic by trying to see the situation from a family perspective, working to resolve problems/conflicts, and knowing when outside help is needed. Besides the above strategies, understanding each others perspectives will serve as an icebreaker, which will help make family members, more comfortable with working with individuals who are relative strangers. Working with people who know your problems may some times be intimidating and stressing. This situation calls for high ethical standards so that you feel protected and your private life is secured.

As children grow close to graduate from high school, an Individualized Transition Plan (ITP) is created to ensure continued services for those who need it. Use the information from our book and from the internet to list as many transitional services as you can find. Summarize the service, tell what children would benefit from it, and what role you could play in helping a child and his or her family transition from receiving services in school to working with social service agencies Also, add your thoughts about how you can help students who have been receiving services for most of their lives, but are ready to be independent of them.

How do ITP and IFSP differ from each other? When is each used?

Graduation from high school is the beginning of adult life. Therefore students who are about to graduate need to have a transition plan which will guide them from high school life of receiving education services into adult life of offering services to the community. Transition services are intended to transform students from the world of high school to the world of adult hood. The services include; instruction, community experiences, development of employment and other post school living objectives, acquisition of daily living skills, and functional vocational assessment. Other transition services include, job corporations, adult education programs, community colleges, transition partnership programs and higher education studies Blalock, & Benz, 1999).

All the above services will help the student to adapt to the real life situation and make him/her an active member of the society development team. The services will as well help the student’s family to have a good time to plan for career development of the student after high school. Most importantly, transition services help the student to be independent persons in the society and behave maturely (Barclay, & Cobb, 2001).

How do ITP and IFSP differ from each other? When is each used?

IFSP focuses on the child and the family and other services that the family needs to assist them enhance the development of their child. In other words, IFSP is family based and is broader than IEP since it covers children from infancy through the age of 2 years. It involves family more and some tines include professionals(PACER Center, 1996). On the other hand, IEP is focused on the education needs of the child. It is an educational document for children of ages ranging from3-21 and focuses on special education and other related services in education center e.g.  School (PACER Center, 1996).

Reference

Barclay, J., & Cobb, J. (Eds.). (2001). Full life ahead: A workbook and guide to adult life for students and families of students with disabilities (Rev. ed.). Montgomery, AL: Southeast Regional Resource Center. (Available on-line at: http://edla.aum.edu/serrc/resources.html.)

Blalock, G., & Benz, M. (1999). Using community transition teams to improve transition services (Pro-Ed Series on Transition). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed.

PACER Center. (1996). Transition trek game. Minneapolis, MN: Author. (Available from: PACER Center, 8161 Normandale Blvd., Minneapolis, MN 55437-1044. Telephone: (952) 838    9000; (952) 838-0190 (TTY). Web: www.pacer.org