College & Kids with Special Needs: Can They Go Together?
Sometimes thinking about the future is hard for parents of kids with special needs. If a child is severely developmentally delayed, parents worry about who will care for their child after they die. If a child’s needs are less severe, they worry about whether or not their will find work and be able to live independently. If a child struggles in school, parents wonder if they’ll graduate from high school. If their child graduates from high school and wants to pursue higher education, they wonder if such dreams are unrealistic.
Northwestern College
Knowing those worries can eat away at parents’ hopes for their children’s future, I was delighted to read an article in the current issue of the Classic. This quarterly magazine is published by Northwestern, the small Christian college my daugther attends in Orange City, Iowa. The feature article profiled three differently abled students who currently attend Northwestern.
Academic Support Department
According to the article, “Northwestern’s academic support department offers assistance to all students with documented disabilities. Services include reading tests orally, securing a quiet location for testing, and reviewing papers. The department also offers assistive technology, such as software able to type the spoken word and read scanned book aloud.” Wow.
Free to Be
But more impressive than the description of the support center were the stories of three student currently using them. You can read the article, Free to Be, at http://classic.nwciowa.edu. What you learn there may restore the hope eaten away by your worries. If you know of other colleges providing support services for students with special needs, leave a comment and a URL so we can check them out, too.
Hopeful,
Jolene Philo
