Dr. Warren Rosen Gives More Post Secondary Tips

Dr. Warren Rosen Gives More Post Secondary Tips

On Tuesday, September 14, The Cove Parent Association held its first general meeting at Cove. The guest speaker was Dr. Warren Rosen, Neuropsychologist and member of the Cove Academic Advisory Board. Dr. Rosen spoke last year to our Parent Association about transition and college readiness. This presentation continued that discussion and gave parents an outline of the academic, social, and emotional skills that are helpful in order to have a successful post-secondary transition.

Dr. Rosen said that one of the biggest challenges students face when starting college is not having the same scaffolding to support them as they did prior to college.  Sometimes, the executive functioning required to make it through a schedule that changes daily is overwhelming. Or the challenge might be learning the expectations of each professor and how to manage them. One of the hardest things he said, is that there can be a breakdown in how a student is able to express themselves in written or verbal forms in response to how they process the complex information they are now being taught. Dr. Rosen recommends that students that are not ready for the processing, reasoning, and inference needed to reach hypotheses and conclusions, might be better off in a pre-college program or a gap year to build those necessary skills.

Students must also learn to manage daily living tasks. Waking up, taking medication, doing laundry and budgeting expenses might all be new skills for a child who has always had these tasks managed for them.  Then there are social and leisure activities, which can sometimes be a minefield. College can offer students potentially dangerous and illegal enticements, that if not handled properly, can lead to a self-destructive path. He cautions again, that these skills can be worked on as part of pre college preparedness.

In conclusion, Dr. Rosen gave this list for considerations for a student’s transition readiness:

·      child’s abilities

·      child’s self-understanding, self-acceptance and self advocacy

·      child’s drive and passion

·      child’s determination and persistence

·      child’s executive functioning in life

·      child’s social needs and affiliative skills

·      parents’ psychological and interpersonal readiness

·      unconscious translation of parents’ readiness to the child

Here are links to recordings of both of Dr. Rosen’s talks.

April 12, 2016 - Not available.

September 14, 2016 

Part II