Date of Award

5-2012

Degree Type

Creative Project

Degree Name

Master of Education (MEd)

Department

Special Education and Rehabilitation

Committee Chair(s)

Robert Morgan

Committee

Robert Morgan

Committee

Chalres L. Salzburg

Committee

Sarah Rule

Abstract

Parents of high school aged children with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities sometimes experience fear and anxiety associated with transition of children to post-­‐secondary programs. Most information is disseminated to these parents from local education agency staff, including: special education teachers, transition specialists and administrators. This project examined the effects of a parent-­‐to-­‐parent interactive session on knowledge and perspectives of parents in transition. Parents of youth (ages 14-­‐20) who are diagnosed as having moderate to severe intellectual disabilities who live in the school boundaries of the high school within which the researcher teaches were part of this study. A group of four parents who have recently experienced the transition process (post-­‐transition group) shared information on transition and post-­‐secondary programs to a group of 16 parents who will soon be going through the transition process (pre-­‐transition group). The pre-­‐transition parent group served as the participants in this study. The knowledge of the participants was measured using a survey given before and after the parent-­‐to-­‐parent interactive transition information session. Results showed that all of the participants recorded an increase in knowledge gained on transition items and a clearer understanding of specific programs and transition information based on analysis of post-­‐test responses. The results of this study showcased a potentially effective way to share post-­‐secondary transition information from the parent perspective.

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This work made publicly available electronically on June 4, 2012.

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