The stress of progression from school to work for adolescents with learning disabilities … What about life progress?

Abstract

Four students with learning disabilities were interviewed about their experiences at work. Two students, one male and one female, were high school seniors and two students, one male and female, were freshmen at a community college. Individual student interviews ranged from 2 to 4 hours. Informal interviews were conducted with students' teachers and parents. At the time of the interview, students had part-time, unskilled jobs in which they had worked for at least 6 months prior to participation in the study. Themes that emerged from analysis of the data included students' reactions to entering the workforce, stress in learning the job tasks, overcoming difficulties by developing coping strategies, learning work values and parental influences. Student interviews underscored the importance of practice runs and real life learning to reduce stress prior to entering the work force.