Consensus Statement # 4

An LD Adult Education student who attended my class a few years ago was very articulate in her daily conversations and enjoyed sharing her life experiences with her classmates. Her identified disability was in reading comprehension and language writing skills.  My director decided to hire a person to answer the office phone for 2 hours a day while the office staff was not in. I encouraged her to apply for the position.  We practiced interviewing skills, filling out job applications, and answering the phone before she applied for the job.  I am pleased she got the job and worked in the office while she worked toward taking the GED test.

Comments

That's a great story, Lela.

One of my first students who I knew had documented dyslexia became a master carpenter. He can't read very well, but he can work well with his hands and calculate the measurements he needs for his work.
 

I have a student who has difficulty reading and comprehending what she has read. She actually falls asleep when she reads. I offered her to listen to the book on DVD and watch Mometrix Academy Videos based on the subject area she was working on to prepare for her TASC test. 

I knew someone who had dyslexia. He struggled with reading and writing. He was a home and building inspector and in order to provide customers with a detailed and accurate report, he would create forms and templates that he could easily insert statements into from a "bank" of comments he'd created based on building codes.

Q: Are there examples of matching work environments to individual strengths that you can provide from your experiences with adults you have served? 

Our students are now required to participate in the Indiana Career Connect survey to help find their strengths and their interests, and this program points out career paths that may interest them.

Very interesting read on work environment as it relates to individual strengths.  An experience I will never forget was when I visited my son's classroom which was set up as 4 pods. My son was seated toward the back of his class pod.  I now conclude we both have LD because our attention was focused on the other three teachers and what they were doing in their pods.

As a requirement of entering our program students must register with jobs.mo.gov and complete a career survey. Most of the adult students are employed in minimum wage positions, but strive to obtain their high school equivalency and move to a better job and hopefully a career. Several of my students have taken post secondary training courses. On student has completed classes for Technical Writing and has his own business.