Another site, Unigo, uses the slogan “College students tell you what colleges won’t.” All the information on this site is from the “horse’s mouth”. Included are great articles, videos, and forums.

The only important thing lacking in both these sites is information about disability services. Unfortunately, you will have to research that separately. Exploration of these sites, however, exposes you to the vast differences among colleges, including tuition–not an insignificant concern!

Does that mean that we are also supposed to give to our kids unconditionally?

That’s where I have trouble.

What exactly do we owe our kids?

The way I see it, we owe them food, shelter, clothing, and of course, love and affection. Beyond that, what else?

* Do we owe them the latest video game system?
* Do we owe them $75 jeans?
* Do we owe them moral values?
* Do we owe them a college education?

While many would argue against #1 and #2 above, few would disagree with #3 and #4.

I have no trouble with #3. It’s #4 I want to discuss with you.

I believe we can assume that “good enough” parents want the best for their kids. For many parents, a college education falls under the same “basic needs” category as food, shelter, clothing, etc. However, it doesn’t for me. Why not?

That’s easy. I’ve seen too many parents throw thousands of dollars down the drain, with the best of intentions, assuming college is a basic need. They feel guilty if they don’t provide it. They spend their hard-earned savings or take out mega loans because they feel they “owe” it to their kids. They fail to see that this hefty financial outlay, second only to their homes in many cases, requires something in return– cooperation.

College is not a right, it’s a privilege. It’s a privilege that comes with strings attached. Think about this scenario for a second: If your teen is awarded a scholarship, will the donor continue to pay if your teen doesn’t maintain a certain grade point average? Of course not. Scholarship money is awarded to candidates who, according to their academic history, appear to be safe risks. It’s also awarded with the expectation that the student deliver. It’s similar to a contract.

That’s the way parents need to see college–as a contract between them and their teens. They should only sign on the dotted line if the odds are in their favor that they’re making a sound investment.

How can parents tell if their investment will pay dividends? After working as a learning specialist on the college level since 1993, I know which kids make it. You are making a sound investment if your teen–

* wants to go to college and is not being coerced
* is able to articulate his disability and learning style
* knows her strengths and weaknesses
* agrees to disclose her disability to a college in order to obtain accommodations and/or services
* realizes that seeking help is empowering and knows where to find it
* is open to the idea of using technology to compensate for weaknesses
* understands the value of delayed gratification and can say “no”
* has some ideas, even vague ones, of a career direction
* knows how much it costs to sit in on one session of a college class
* agrees to attend every class (unless very ill)
* has a system for time management
* can get out of bed on his own
* knows how a checking account or debit card works
* signs a FERPA waiver
* agrees if she doesn’t give college her best efforts, the “free ride” ends

You’d be amazed at how many times I’ve heard students who’ve failed classes say, “Oh, I’ll just take it again, my parents are paying for it.” I think to myself….if only their parents could hear them. These are the same students who retake the class, do things the same way, and fail it again.

College, particularly for students with learning disabilities, is not a natural extension of high school. There are too many new variables and too many potholes waiting to suck them in.

Those who proceed through college successfully are able to check off most of the items on my list. If that’s not the case in your house, it’s not too late to begin preparing…. no matter your child’s age.

Once your child can reassure you regarding the checklist above, then, and only then would I get out my checkbook—not one minute sooner.

What are your thoughts?

That’s why we’re so lucky to live in the 21st century. There are so many opportunities to level the playing field with technology, yet most high school students remain unaware of them.

Did you know there are scads of free books online (many of them assigned in school) that can be downloaded in different formats? In a perfect world, your teen would follow along with the book to increase sight word vocabulary. However, if that’s not practical, these books can be listened to while driving, exercising, or just relaxing.

Parents – be careful NOT to put your teen down for reading poorly. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter HOW we acquire information–just that we do. It’s time students with learning disabilities stopped feeling inferior and developed an enthusiasm for books. In this age of technology, books can be listened to or watched instead of read; in the end, the outcome is the same.

Downloadable books open a whole new world that may have previously been closed off to your child. How exciting is that??

Here are some great sites where you can download books in a variety of formats, even some customizable!

Books Should Be Free http://www.booksshouldbefree.com Your source for free audio books in mp3, iPod, or iTunes format

Thought Audio http://www.thoughtaudio.com Their journey has always been one of making classic literature available to anyone willing to listen, and now in their next phase, they will expand their scope to include more thinkers, writers, and essayists.

LibriVox http://librivox.org LibriVox volunteers record chapters of books in the public domain and release the audio files back onto the net. Our goal is to make all public domain books available as free audio books.

Open Culture http://www.openculture.com Open Culture scours the web for the best educational medial. They find free courses and audio books, language lessons and movies, and all sorts of enlightenment for the listener.

Learn Outloud- http://www.learnoutloud.com/ Learn Out loud is your one-stop destination for audio and video learning. Browse over 20,000 educational audio books, MP3 downloads, podcasts, and videos.

Planet Ebook http://www.planetebook.com Classic literature available for download as free ebooks

Librophile http://librophile.com 4,300 free audio books, 33,037 free ebooks, 108,532 books in total.

Well, people, what are you waiting for? Start your…………… DOWNLOADS!

I found 2-Way RF FOFA® Find One Find All® 2 Key Finders and 2 Wallet Locators (4 Piece Set) billed as a “key finder”, and decided to give it a try. It turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.

If your teen is typical of those with ADHD or executive function issues, she’s left a jacket here, a pair of gloves there, perhaps a cell phone somewhere else. While it’s exasperating as a parent, according to Dr. Kathleen Nadeau, a nationally-recognized ADD expert and author whom I interviewed last year, the pre-frontal lobes of our brain–the sections responsible for planning, organizing, and thinking about consequences–continue to develop until we’re about thirty years old. Wow! That means our kids aren’t losing things purposely to aggravate us! It also means it can go on happening for a l-o-o-o-n-g time!

So, if forgetting is rooted in physiology, what can we do to prevent it?

You’ve probably tried rewards, consequences, Post-It notes, etc. to no avail, right? I am happy to report I have finally found something that does the trick. It not only prevents loss, but it salvages self-esteem, just when your child starts to convince himself he really is a bumbling fool!

Find One Find All consists of six transmitters that all act as base units. You can use as many as 6 sets, or 36 transmitters. So, when you find one, you now have a way to locate any of the others!

I never recommend anything I don’t have personal experience with, so when I endorse a product it’s because I have seen results first-hand. To my client’s credit, he was well aware of his tendency to lose things, and he was fed up wasting countless hours searching, when he could be putting that time to better use. In his case, he purchased 6 sets, or 36 transmitters, in all! At the time we met, he was preparing to travel to a 4-week academic program and was bringing ALL his gadgets. He wanted to be certain not to lose anything.

He attached sensors to everything from his Ipod, to his keys, to his wallet, to his computer, to his countless adaptor cords, and to his notebooks. He even managed, through a feat of engineering, to attach a sensor to his Livescribe pen! The results were amazing. Now he was able to locate misplaced items (within 30 feet). This made all the difference in the world to him.

As one woman said in an online review, it’s like buying an add-on hard drive or RAM for your brain!

Now, this is a technology I can endorse!

Below, see an article that discusses Livescribe’s uses for our students.

By Christopher Dawson | August 20, 2010 (from ZD Net)

Since I posted my review of Livescribe 4 GB Echo Smartpen“on Wednesday (in ZDNet, Education), I’ve received several emails, talkbacks, Facebook postings, and tweets about possible use cases of the device for students with special needs. I was so excited about the device itself that I overlooked one of the most important markets for the pen.

No smartpen will be the magic bullet that lets a child who is struggling because of a disability suddenly succeed. Success is based on a lot of hard work for the student and parents and complete commitment for the teacher. The right resources and supports have to tie all of these elements together. That being said, there are several classroom models where students with disabilities can easily benefit from the echo smartpen.

The first case is actually being used in both regular education and inclusion settings right now. Some progressive teachers (in fact, whole schools have started doing this) have been willing to let students turn in their assignments as a Livescribe pencast (via the web) in which they speak out loud as they work through assignments. Thus, if a student did a math problem with the pen and described his steps out loud, the teacher could hear what he was doing and provide feedback or partial credit even if he couldn’t read the assignment or the student could organize speech better than written work. Even for regular education students, math teachers constantly struggle to get students to show their work; with a pencast, students must show and explain their work on the fly.

Taking reasonable notes can also be a serious struggle for students with disabilities. The average kid with attention deficit (speaking from my own experience here) won’t be able to concentrate on both the writing and the speaking. If the student can be taught to focus their writing on a few big ideas, then the spoken lecture is always available to students and their parents.

The parental component is worth highlighting as well. Whether parents simply need a refresher on trigonometry or need to reteach and reinforce for students who struggle to comprehend in class, a recording of the lecture tied even to a few headings or key words on a page can make a parent’s life much easier.

Finally, for all the talk about multimodal learning, it’s a difficult thing to implement in class. Teachers using the echo immediate tap auditory and visual learners who can review with the sensory input of their choice at night if the instructor uploads pencasts to the web. Students using the echo, on the other hand, can receive the kinesthetic feedback they might need, again related back to auditory and visual cues later on.

The echo has the potential to level the playing field in many ways, not only for kids with specific disabilities, but for kids with learning styles that don’t match an instructional style or who simply need to access and recall information in a non-traditional way. (By the way, a high school student reviewed the new Livescribe pen for the 8/19/10 issue of the New York Times and gave it a “thumbs up”!

Joan’s note: Notebook paper for the Livescribe pen is available here: Livescribe Single Subject Spiral Notebook, 4-Pack, Nos. 1-4

In recognition of the 20th anniversary of the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), Bookshare is offering a free 3-month trial membership good for 20 book downloads per month to all Americans with qualifying print disabilities. Please tell everyone you know who could benefit from this promotion. From now until August 31, 2010, any individual with a qualifying disability can sign up! At the end of the 3-months,new members will receive suggestions about how to sign up for individual memberships.

Here are 4 easy steps to follow to get the free trial:

1. Sign up before August 31, 2010. Select the 18 and over Individual membership option.
2. Complete the online contact forms. Enter ADA20 in the promotion code field.
3. Agree to the terms of use online.
4. Fax proof of disability to 650.475.1066