Summer means…kids headed to college!

Preparing my students for college

Every summer, I have a number of students in my caseload heading off to college. Some to the local community college, some to colleges pretty close to home, and some going out-of-state. Here are some take-aways from this year’s preparations…

• Recommended reading. 📖
  There are four books I consistently recommend (some before leaving for college) that I consistently hear are useful – positive recs from students always says a lot!
  📚 ADHD & me by blake e.s. taylor
  📚 On Your Own – A college readiness guide for teens with ADHD/LD by Patricia Quinn, MD
  📚 My Anxious Mind – A teen’s guide to managing anxiety and panic, by Michael Tompking, PhD, and Katherine Martines, PsyD
  📚 The Asperkid’s Secret Book of Social Rules by Jennifer Cook O’Toole

Check them out if you have students heading out into their lives!!

• Of course, I have experimented with SocialScales!
  In a high school group, we discussed social engagement with texting. 📱 We developed the wording of this scale, then each student placed themselves and considered whether they were happy there, or if they wanted to consider changing. Here is Max’s scale. By mid-August, when he heads to college, he wants to have changed quite a bit. He realized that, at college, most kids will make plans via some sort of social media (eg. Texting, Discord, etc.) so he decided he want to engage a bit more in preparation:

We talked about how it’s “tricky to hop over circles.” He agreed that he will need to take a bit-by-bit approach, but that, with a plan of texting students in group, it seemed doable to him.

Here’s the check-in from several weeks later.

Max reported that having steps spelled out really helped, as well as our discussion that emphasized that there is NO NEED to get all the way to the blue circle. Everyone will find the place that is right for them. He reached out via text 📲, and arranged a fab outing with someone else in group to SF. They hung out at a mall, got food, and overall had an amazing time. This was one of the first times he’d reached out to someone outside of school, and really felt successful!! 🎉 He felt he could do it again, in fact, was pretty excited about his growing skills!

Watch Me Build It Update:

Week 1 was splendid! I accomplished everything on my list, and felt super positive about the 40 scales I’ve sorted out to be in the product.

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Also, feel like I am zeroing in on the title. Love to have your help here!! I have a possible product title - SocialScales: Visual Paths for Social Learning. I have decided NOT to go with continuums – too complicated, the plural should actually be continuua, etc. AI suggested Beyond Binary, but I think that might confuse my audience. If you have a sec, I would love your reaction/input, so drop me a super-short email! 📧

Unfortunately, last Thurs night, after all these years of dodging the bullet, I tested positive for COVID. 😷 Darn it! Not sure how that will affect me this week, although I do feel like I am slowly crawling out of sulky Project Runway binging in the guest room. Hopefully I will be able to finish a 3-article series on SocialScales. 🤞 Stay tuned!!

I hope all of you are having a super, healthy summer!! 🏖️