>> Rosemary Alexander: My name is Rosemary Alexander and today I'd like to talk to you about [Slide start] the things that professionals can share with parents as they help them through the transition of their children with disabilities into adulthood. [Slide end] I feel like an expert in this field because I have a 30 year old who has gone through this process. He has significant disabilities and so I've really lived all of these areas of trying to find supports and services for him. But I've also worked over his lifetime for many years at- with families in several non profits and also for Austin ISD. So I was a Parent Liaison worked between Special Ed staff and families for 10 years in Austin school district. So I've tried to glean ideas and experiences to assist you as a professional as you work with your families. At this time, I work for Texas Parent to Parent which is a statewide organization that assists families, parent to parent model, assisting families with a wide variety of issues. So I'd like to start today by thinking about what are the emotional issues that families face as their children grow up [Slide start] and it's a very time for parents. As I've said here parents' emotions run high through these years of approaching graduation. So the question is how can school staff support families emotionally through this process. So one idea is to acknowledge that it is a hard time. I think it's always fair for school staff to say you might feel grief, anxiety, fear, worry, all of these things as your child is aging out of the school system. And then I think it's important to have faith in every family's process. [Slide end] Different people go at different pace and yet they still are going to get where they need to get to. Realizing that you need to honor each parent's take on transition and on being a parent. [Slide start] Also you can help families priorities. They're faced with so many different decisions and issues all at once. And so helping them realize these are the things to work on now and you can put these off to a little later. Also I think it's important to help families keep their hopes for the future alive and their hopes for their children [Slide end] so avoid saying never. 'Your child will never be able to do this or that,' but always keeping the doors open. Also, talking positively about the future and about each student. So whenever you encounter a parent thinking of that positive thing that you can say about that student that the parent will really appreciate and understand that you care about that student and his future. [Slide start] And then offering positive planning sessions so that parents have an opportunity during the school year to plan and to think within a positive setting about the future. Respect unrealistic dreams [Slide end] and by that I mean when I student says, 'I want to be a jet pilot' and every body in the room sort of rolls their eyes and thinks, 'This student's never going to be able to do that'. But instead of judging it as unrealistic, regarding it as a way of opening the door to discuss an area of interest or a passion that that child may have. Maybe not being a jet pilot but working in an airport, wearing great uniforms and assisting with luggage who knows but never saying that any dream or hope for the future is totally unrealistic. And then you can help parents get organized. [Slide start] They face may decisions. They've acquired so much paperwork. Encountered so many organizations. So helping them so helping them learn how to organize the material and keep their records. [Slide end]