Of course each kid is special to us as parents, but for a variety of reasons some children may have had a more complicated path through childhood and high school than others. Some of our kids seem to live front and center in the “worry” part of our brains. When they prepare to leave for college, it may make us even more anxious. Some advance planning can make all the difference—for the student as well as the parents.
Over the past few years, I have worked with a variety of families to prepare students for “switching nests.” And switching nests is what it needs to be for some kids. Although some teens go to college ready for a lot of independence and responsibility, others may not be fully prepared to function independently without someone watching their back. These students may need reliable links to therapists, doctors, clinicians, counselors, and coaches.
Kids who require some parental oversight come in many categories. Here are a few:
Learning Disabilities: Many of these students will have made it to the college level with help from a team of educators and clinicians. A frank talk with either a counselor or a parent about what has been successful and what has not is key. If it’s hard for the teen to talk or you’d like specific advice for this type of child, check out: “Learning Outside the Lines” by Jonathon Mooney and David Cole.
Many schools now have excellent facilities for help with study habits, writing skills, remedial math, and so forth. It’s important for you to take the first step and introduce your teen to these opportunities as opposed to waiting for him or her to discover them.