Dr. Lisa Dieker, a professor at the University of Kansas in the Department of Special Education, and Dr. Rebecca Hines, a professor at the University of Central Florida in the College of Community Innovation and Education, have worked with schools and parents across the country. Dr. Dieker directs a center in the Achievement and Assessment Institute called Flexible Learning through Innovations in Technology in Education (FLITE) and Dr. Hines directs several doctoral grants and the teacher preparation program. In this podcast, they take a fun and informal look at "practical" solutions from teachers, parents, and people with disabilities. The approach in this podcast is to provide fast, flexible thinking about "real" life problems. This podcast is not about the "legal" approach but their best advice from personal and professional experience.
Drs. Rebecca Hines and Lisa Dieker, UCF Faculty members, answer a parent question about how to pick a hobby or volunter experience that could lead my child with a disability to a jobb? They share practical ideas to help teachers, and parents instill a voice to help students or their child consider future careers. Remember questions can be shared on Twitter @accesspractical. Follow us on itunes or iheart podcasts.
Lisa Dieker:
Welcome to practical access. I'm Lisa Dieker. And I'm Rebecca Hines. And
Rebecca Hines:
Lisa, we've been talking a lot about different different skills and soft skills, etc. And I know a lot of things that people have asked us about, informally. But I understand you have a specific question that we wanted to address tonight.
Lisa Dieker:
Yeah, we had a parent ask a question, how do I help my kid find a job, I mean, a daughter job, that's what they're hoping for a hobby or interest that might lead them to a job in the future? If they have a disability. So what are you thinking there? Becky, I'm gonna throw it to you first.
Rebecca Hines:
Huh? Well, I would say first of all, of course, things like the age of the child really, rwould help inform this particular discussion. But I would say, first of all, exposure to multitude of professions and talking about professions with younger kids, you know, mean, obviously, in play the things kids you know, play different roles, etc. But as kids get older, let's think as
Lisa Dieker:
Yeah, I'm gonna go a little bit different pathway and think about like summer camps. This is a great time. I know, it's kind of a unique time, but summer day camps, you know, is there a one day robotic? Is there one day writing? Is there one day, you know, especially and to think about the level of the disability of your child? Would they be really anxious to be away from you for an
Rebecca Hines:
Well, Lisa, my niece and I counted up one time and I had before I started working at UCF, or being a professor before I even became a professor. I had 51 jobs. Because I was really, really poor. So sometimes I would have four jobs at one time, I've had every crazy job you could ever imagine. I think the the most unique job I had, especially because I'm not at all qualified for it exploring to figure that out. There's lots of jobs that aren't things that you just see in the newspaper. So it's some of those some sometimes. It's it's exploring together and talking to people that we know and getting this naturally inquisitive mindset and interviewing the people we meet along the way as well.
Lisa Dieker:
Yeah, I think it's funny, too. I still remember when Josh was in middle school, and we weren't sure if he'd get a high school diploma, because that was a reality in our state, you had to pass the state test. And we weren't sure where we would be in life with him. I found this great article of the 10 jobs that don't require a college degree, and the best paying jobs, and one was an students be successful. For example, I know we have our Saturday, once a month clinic on campus for students with intellectual disabilities, ages 16 to 21. And we teach them about going to college or we attempt to teach them about going to college, what does it look like to live in a dorm if those are skills that you think your child is ready for? Early, early, early experiences, that regard can
Rebecca Hines:
And we really could that actually would be a fun topic sometime. You know, in terms of that original specific question, you know, like, what can we do to help our help our kids learn what kind of specific career you know, I think, I think if we if we break it down into some actual action items, I would say the first thing I would do is to go on any of these online job services
Lisa Dieker:
And I'll just kind of make my last slide, if your child has limited ability to verbalize their interest, do you make sure that you add that to their, picture based system, make sure you add that to the first day of school, make sure if you do send them to a camp or get them involved in a hobby, let people know that they really are interested in in being the person that does the
Rebecca Hines:
And, you know, to that, to that point, giving them opportunities. And sometimes we have to be the ones to initiate them, you know, even to, to really ask in the schools and others to create opportunities for any kind of little internship or service projects. Because anything that has a has a an expectation of going and being in a different setting, the more I can be in a different
Lisa Dieker:
Yeah, and just a great laugh. Remember when you drop your kid off to camp and they never call you it's a good thing.
Rebecca Hines:
It's a good thing,
Lisa Dieker:
even though you might be scared to death and four days later, you call the camp director and beg for the child to talk to you for 10 seconds. Like Yeah, I gotta go I'm having fun Bye. That's that's where we want kids, all kids but especially kids with disabilities, to be able to do is to live a life on their own to whatever level they're they're able to do. Well, thanks for joining
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