By: Jourdain Matadi, B.A., D.E.S.S, (Mental Health)
Transitioning from high school to post-secondary education is a crucial, challenging, and exciting moment in a student’s and parent’s life. Students often describe it as an “Acute Stressor.” Numerous factors, such as socioeconomic status, geographic location, gender, grades, family structure, and race/ethnicity, significantly influence this transition. The most effective way to succeed in the transition is to be prepared in advance.
What does it mean to be prepared in advance?
In High School, teachers and parents can start by allowing students to pursue their independence and develop essential living skills. For example, at home, a mom can encourage her children to do their laundry. In school, they should be encouraged to respect their schedule without being reminded. Students need to be encouraged to develop self-discipline and independent thinking while developing their own approach to and perspectives on life.
Time Management
Parents and teachers may need to introduce time management techniques like the Pomodoro Technique. These techniques counteract the current tendency to social media addictiveness that creates attention span issues when performing tasks. This time management method involves breaking tasks into segments of between 20 to 30 minutes with short breaks of 5 minutes between segments. This method is very effective because it helps create the balance between being efficient and effective while limiting and controlling distractions.
A mastery of time management skills helps smooth the transition to post-secondary institutions where there is a higher probability of being overwhelmed with an increased workload. Increased workload and mental exhaustion are major issues that first-year post-secondary students often find is a major hurdle to success.
Resilience
Parents need to help increase the resilience of their children. This involves changing their perspective on failures, bad grades or unfavourable experiences with peers so that they can see them as opportunities for learning. It is not helpful if the parent always protects the child and solves the problems. Challenges teach life lessons and help students understand that they can problem solve on their own and so improve their overall functioning. Overcoming challenges provides the reward of self-fulfilment after an objective is achieved. This helps boost student confidence and self-esteem. Resilience skills along with increased confidence eases the transition into post-secondary school where they face a new environment that is a challenge worth overcoming.
Overcoming Anxiety
LeBlanc and Marques (2018)1 assert that anxiety is very common with first-year students in post-secondary education. Over 60% of Freshers feel overwhelmed and about 23% receive treatment by mental health professionals for extreme anxiety. Freshers in post-secondary need to be aware that it’s common to feel lost during the first semester and that is okay to ask for help.
Making Friends
Ability in making friends varies from person to person, but having an open mind and willingness to learn from students with different backgrounds and other cultures helps improve transition. At post-secondary educational institutions, diversity in culture and clubs is prevalent and creates the opportunity for a student to embrace new values that may be helpful to their academic life and future career.
Religious clubs, sports clubs, dancing clubs, service clubs, and competitive clubs like chess and gaming, help Freshers make friends, find supports, feel less anxious and develop a sense of belonging. Encouraging first-year students to join clubs creates a support system through finding shared values and interests and increasing competence. It is much easier to begin socialization with people who share the same interests and values.
International Students
The number of international students has substantially increased in post-secondary institutions. Factors like long distance from home, cultural shock, language barriers and institutional racism can be challenges they face and that can increase their anxiety and loneliness. This is often exacerbated because there is also no local family support system. It is especially helpful if international students become involved in school cultural clubs as being around people with similar cultures helps build a good and ongoing support system.
Special Needs and Accommodations
Students with disabilities and special needs may need accommodations to succeed. In High Schools in Ontario, students with disability can receive flexible academic accommodations. But academic accommodations can be a major challenge for students with a disability during post-secondary transition as some courses and schools are less amenable to modifications in coursework process and level2.
A Psychological assessment can be helpful at identifying special needs and recommending accommodations to help address those needs Parents with students in transition should help the student determine what accommodations will be needed and then help find post-secondary institutions that will provide those accommodations. Most Colleges and Universities will assist with arranging accommodations if provided with the proper information and documentation ahead of time. Freshers with special needs should learn their rights before and during the application and admission process. This knowledge builds confidence and reduces the possibility of stress, anxiety and abuse. Early preparation also helps the student fight for their rights and the standard of care due to them. Students should be encouraged to ask for help when they need it, and many schools have counsellors and system navigators whose role is to help students find the help they need and obtain accommodations.
Accommodations For School
Academic Accommodations:
- Extended time for tests and exams, modified assignments, or alternative formats
- Second language accommodations
- Assistive technology, visual aids, captioning services
- Tutoring services
- Quiet testing rooms
Support Services:
- Counselling services
- Peer mentoring
- Specialist assistance for physical disabilities
- Workshops and training on time management and study skills
Campus Life Accommodations:
- Accessible housing, restrooms, workstations, and ergonomic equipment
- Accessible transportation
- Adaptive sports, recreation, and inclusive social programs
Employment and Internship Accommodations:
- Job coaching
- Adaptive internship opportunities
- Workplace accommodations
Continuing Support
Oftentimes colleges and universities initially provide good information and support during the first orientation days or weeks. But then this support drops off as the academic year progresses. So, it is very important to set up an ongoing support system. Parents need to make a special effort to be available when needed while encouraging their child to become involved in the academic community, obtain supports and accommodations, and most importantly make friends, all of which will help build confidence and resilience leading to a successful academic transition.
Essential Transitional Life Skills
- Financial management, banking, budgeting, cash flow, and investment.
- Working, responsibility to the employer, and the value of every dollar earned.
- Time and schedule management to accommodate different demands, needs, wants and priorities.
- Household life skills, cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping.
- Resisting the addictive lure of social media in favour of extroverted activities and real relationships.
- Finding your way around new locations, with and without GPS, paying attention to which places are safe and which may not be safe.
- Be comfortable in a new environment approaching new acquaintances and forming new relationships. Be prepared to take risks.
- Be resilient and able to manage and adapt to new circumstances, failures and disappointments.
- Be able to deal with adversity and conflict both verbal and physical.
References:
1 Harvard Health Publishing. (2019, May 28). Anxiety in college: What we know and how to cope. Harvard Health. https://www.health. harvard.edu/blog/anxiety-in-college-what-we-know-and-how-tocope-2019052816729
2 Toronto Metropolitan University. (n.d.). University accommodations. Toronto Metropolitan University. https://www.torontomu.ca/ accommodations/registration/uniaccoms/#:~:text=How%20can%20 I%20learn%20about,entry%20into%20your%20academic%20journey.