This book helps parents prepare their child for independent adult life. It’s full of practical tips and step-by-step instructions to help families envision their child’s future, develop a transition plan, and implement it. The book is the culmination of the author’s professional and personal experiences guiding hundreds of families through the transition process, and parenting her own son with Down syndrome, now an adult living independently. Its conversational style reassures parents overwhelmed by a complex process and its frank advice offers a reality check for parents whose child will soon venture into the adult world, or whose adult child has yet to leave the nest. It outlines the steps of transitioning, with an emphasis on the necessity of the child playing an active role in the process. It considers everything families need to know–from meeting broad, basic needs such as finding meaningful ways to fill one’s days (work, volunteering, leisure activities, training and education, exercise) and how to get around (driving vs. using public transportation) to addressing specific needs such as whether to leave high school at age 21 or earlier and how to maintain eligibility for benefits by keeping income and assets within allowable limits.
© 2010
Audience: Parent, Professional