Facilitating postsecondary transition and promoting academic success through language/literacy-based self-determination strategies

Purpose: As noted by Powell (2018), speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are an integral part of the overarching curriculum for all students in schools, and this holds true for adolescents who require transition planning. The purpose of this tutorial is to focus on transition planning for secondary school students with a language-based learning disability (LLD) and provide a case illustration for how SLPs may use self-determination strategies to facilitate postsecondary transition while promoting academic success. Method: As students with LLD enter secondary school, they are expected to write and think at more complex levels than ever before to meet post-graduation workforce demands, yet the provision of needed language–literacy intervention services drastically declines. Teaching students with LLD self-determination skills, such as awareness of their own strengths and limitations, self-advocacy strategies, and self-regulation, is found to be related to positive post-school outcomes and can be readily integrated into transition planning by the SLP. Conclusion: SLPs may ideally support secondary school student language–literacy needs in transition planning by using self-determination strategies to help access the curriculum and experience postsecondary success.