Adult Treatment Planner
15: Educational Deficits
SNOMED Terms
- Borderline mental retardation (I.Q. 70-85)
- Developmental reading disorder
- Intellectual functioning disability
- Mild mental retardation (I.Q. 50-70)
- Moderate mental retardation (I.Q. 35-49)
- Profound mental retardation (I.Q. below 20)
- Severe mental retardation (I.Q. 20-34)
Goals
- Recognize the need for high school completion or GED certificate and reenroll in the necessary
courses.
- Seek out vocational training to obtain marketable employment skill.
- Increase literacy skills.
- Receive high school diploma or GED certificate.
- Establish the existence of a learning disability and begin the development of skills to overcome it.
Behavioral Definitions
- Failure to complete requirements for high school diploma or GED certificate.
- Possession of no marketable employment skills and need for vocational training.
- Functional illiteracy.
- History of difficulties, not involving behavior, in school or other learning situations.
Diagnoses
- Academic Problem
- Occupational Problem
- Disorder of Written Expression
- Reading Disorder
- Borderline Intellectual Functioning
- Mild Mental Retardation
Objectives and Interventions
- Identify the factors that contributed to termination of education.
- Explore the client's attitude toward education and the family, peer, and/or school experiences
that
led to termination of education.
- Gather an educational history from the client that includes family achievement history and
difficulties he/she had with regard to specific subjects (e.g., reading, math).
- Verbally verify the need for a high school diploma or GED.
- Confront the client with his/her need for further education.
- Assist the client in listing the negative effects that the lack of a GED certificate or high
school
diploma has had on his/her life.
- Support and direct the client toward obtaining further academic training.
- Reinforce and encourage the client in pursuing educational and/or vocational training by
pointing
out the social, monetary, and self-esteem advantages.
- Complete an assessment to identify style of learning and to establish or rule out a specific learning
disability.
- Administer testing or refer the client to an educational specialist to be tested for learning
style,
cognitive strengths, and to establish or rule out a learning disability.
- Cooperate with a psychological assessment for symptoms of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) that may have
interfered with educational achievement.
- Refer the client for or perform psychological assessment for Attention Deficit Disorder (see
ADD-Adult chapter in this Planner).
- Complete an evaluation for psychotropic medications.
- Refer the client for medication evaluation to treat his/her ADD.
- Encourage the client to take the prescribed psychotropic medications, reporting as to their
effectiveness and side effects.
- Monitor the client's psychotropic medication prescription compliance, effectiveness, and side
effects.
- Implement the recommendations of evaluations.
- Encourage the client to implement the recommendations of the educational, psychological, and
medical
evaluations.
- Identify the facts and feelings related to negative, critical education-related experiences endured from
parents, teachers, or peers.
- Ask the client to list the negative messages he/she has experienced in learning situations from
teachers, parents, and peers, and to process this list with the therapist.
- Facilitate the client's openness regarding shame or embarrassment surrounding lack of reading
ability, educational achievement, or vocational skill.
- Verbalize decreased anxiety and negativity associated with learning situations.
- Give encouragement and verbal affirmation to the client as he/she works to increase his/her
educational level.
- Assist the client in developing strategies (e.g., deep breathing, muscle relaxation, positive
self-talk) for coping with his/her own fears and anxieties in learning situations.
- Identify own academic and motivational strengths.
- Assist the client in identifying his/her realistic academic and motivational strengths.
- Verbalize positive self-talk regarding educational opportunities.
- Reframe the client's negative self-talk in light of testing results or overlooked
accomplishments.
- Agree to pursue educational assistance to attain reading skills.
- Assess the client's reading deficits.
- Refer the client to resources for learning to read. Monitor, and encourage the client's
follow-through.
- State commitment to obtain further academic or vocational training.
- Elicit a commitment from the client to pursue further academic or vocational training.
- Make the necessary contacts to investigate enrollment in high school, GED, or vocational classes.
- Provide the client with information regarding community resources available for adult education,
GED, high school completion, and vocational skill training.
- Assign the client to make preliminary contact with vocational and/or educational training
agencies
and report back regarding the experience.
- Attend classes consistently to complete academic degree and/or vocational training course.
- Monitor and support the client's attendance at educational or vocational classes.
Index