Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Four More Days

I just got a text message from my son: "Four more days." Although by his own admission he is both excited and a little nervous about starting college, lately it's apparently very satisfying to him to make sure I'm aware of exactly how much time remains until our worlds begin to separate.

Part of me wants to jump right in with things he needs to know; but as long as I still have "four more days," I'll say a little more about how I arrived here, thinking I can help.

There have been dozens, perhaps hundreds of books written for educators and parents to support them in helping the children in their care deal with the challenges of a learning disability. From my personal point of view, I've found some of them useful and informative; but I couldn't imagine my son gleaning any practical information from them. Such books typically focused on the diagnosis itself, or on strategies for raising and educating a child with a social communications disorder. What our son needed was practical advice on how to succeed outside the classroom.

All of the lessons that will follow have arisen over the past eighteen years from very specific experiences with my son. I will surely omit situations that might apply to others, which is why a blog might be more effective that a book.

My son was very successful in the one cooking class that he took in high school because he is really exceptional at following clearly written, straightforward directions. So for my son, and others like him, I hope you will find here directions that will help you be successful in Life 101 and Advanced Life.

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