We all know the law says we have to begin planning for the transition to adulthood when our child is in high school, but many families and professionals have begun to realize that this may be too late. There are many ways that we can begin transition planning and teaching independent living skills and vocational skills at a very young age.
A third way we can begin working on these skills at a very young age is to begin facilitating person-centered planning with the child and the family. Often times, we wait until a child is in adolescence to begin the person-centered planning process (if we do it at all), but we do not need to wait. We can begin facilitating this process in order to ensure a well planned and successful transition of a two-year-old from a nursing facility to his or her family home, or to create a smooth transition from early intervention to preschool. There is a wonderful book entitled, Little Ones Have Big Dreams Too: A Guide for Facilitators by: Ann Donoghue Dillon, that looks at, specifically, the person-centered planning process for very young children.
Book of the Week: Person-centered planning made easy : the PICTURE method / by Steve Holburn, Anne Gordon, and Peter M. Vietze. P.H. Brookes Pub., 2007.
Contents: Person-centered planning and PICTURE -- A step by step guide -- Using evaluation to improve the PICTURE -- Tools to use with PICTURE.
This book is in the SESA Library. You may search the library catalog via the SESA website (http://www.sesa.org), or contact Anne directly by email at afreitag@sesa.org or by phone at 907-334-1301.
