Reply to What happens in college? I'm constantly worried about DS' future

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[quote=Anonymous]

As the wife of a recently retired professor of engineering who is teachiing one course this fall to help out his very dysfunctional department, he over his 30+  year career has been more than happy to accommodate students,BUT it is up to the student to give him the paper work identifying the disability and accommodations to be made.  What not to do happened this semester when a girl sent him a email telling him she needed extra time on exams etc. (which does mean extra work on the prof. part) AND "Oh she would not be in class on Monday because it was Labor Day!"  Guess what it was a regular day for all the other college students .......so it did spark a very pointed email to the disabilities office about what students ought not to do.....And my husband says some of his most successful students have been community college transfers who really seemed much more mature and invested in their engineering studies.

And we are very unusual family in that we do have one with Down syndrome who lives with us and works in a college dining room.  An older daughter, although a top perforer K-12, experienced mental health issues in college and later graduate school so from both low functioning and high functioning aspects, this professor was more than willing to be understanding, including cancer in the one with M.H. issues early in her work career.  The point is that you have to tell the professor what your disability is and what accommodations you will need and go from there.  My husband is more than understanding .......  and had one of the saddest yet positive cases this past fall of a junior engineering student coming to class in a wheel chair with his Mom every day.  He has Muscular Dystrophy which will only get worse, and his Mom takes notes for him.

*****Relevance to this thread is that he started out at the local excellent community college in Virginia and transferred.  And the idea of starting out local, living at home with the lower tuition rate and the flexibility of the community college is a route that many might consider now or in the future.   One can  often start to acquire community college credits now with dual enrollment in h igh school, start off slowly going year-round, do a blnd of working or volunteering and school, and also get any required course work in an area of weakness out of the way by being able to focus just on it

To give one hope, my closest friend has a son who bad Tourette's, ADHD and OCD.  He got a high school diploma due to parent support, but never went on to school or couldold a job for long.  He qualified for disability and Medicaid and more or less drifted for ab out 10 years which was too bad.  BUT last year he started back to a community college and actually won college award for students in sociology this past spring with an award being presented to him at the awards ceremony!! His parents had never been to such a ceremony or either son.  He is going part-time for credit and doing very well, gradually to increase the load to be able  to handle a fulll schedule by the time tranfers.

Just to point out it is not always a straight path for one no matter the level of innate intelligence.  For the OP  with the young child, you really have no idea how your son will d as he matures and gains the skill to deal with the dyslexia.  It is always good to  try to help him find areas of his life where he can feel he is is doing well and can enjoy what he is doing be it in the arts, a sport, a group like scouting or church based, or volunteering.

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