threshold presentations & Publications

Periodically Threshold faculty make presentations at local and national conferences. 

Presentation Based on a 2007 Study, "Life as a Married Couple: Rewards and Challenges Times Two"

Presenter: Fran Yuan, M.A, M.Ed
Threshold Program, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA

Presented at the 45th Annual International Learning Disabilities of America Conference, Chicago, IL, February, 2008

This LDA presentation provided a portrait of couples whose experiences underscore the rewards and struggles faced in their marriages. The insights and experiences of these individuals suggest positive ways to succeed as a married couple.

Marriage between any two individuals can prove challenging, but there are specific challenges, and rewards, for those with significant learning disabilities and/or ADHD. When both individuals in the couple have a learning disability and/or ADHD, there may be a greater mutual understanding and acceptance of what it’s like to live with these conditions.  When both individuals in the couple understand not only their own, but the other’s, learning style, communication characteristics, cognitive and practical areas of strength and challenge, and response to stress, this inevitably enhances their day-to-day interactions and the development of effective coping strategies.

Individuals in couples who accommodate and complement one another’s skills discover a primary reward of marriage in functioning as a unit, thereby strengthening the combined skills they can utilize in daily life. Despite this, support from family members and professionals are crucial at certain junctures in these couples’ lives and help to expand their skill set and enable them to develop further coping strategies. Many of these married couples enjoy the companionship, understanding, trust, and continued growth that their relationships offer. At the same time, some of these couples have faced the challenges of under- or unemployment, financial constraint, physical limitations, negotiating an adult relationship with parents, and parenthood.

The 2006 Threshold Graduate Follow-up Study

Conducted in 2006, the aim of the follow-up study of Threshold graduates who graduated in the years 1996-2005 was to determine specific outcomes for Threshold graduates. A similar study was conducted in 1996 of graduates from 1984-1995 (Yuan and Reisman, 2000). Specific outcomes for graduates that were of interest included their financial and living situations, employment status, social lives, marital status, independence levels, and educational pursuits. The study also provided feedback about the perceived benefits, shortcomings, and overall impact of the Threshold Program on graduates' ability to function independently in community life from the parents of graduates. Finally, it also provided information about the stability of these many measures over the first 20 years of the Threshold Program in an ever-changing economic and employment climate.

Download a copy of the study here (.pdf format)

Learning Disabilities Association of America
2006 National Conference, Jacksonville, FL

Abstract: Stress Management: Survival Skills for the New Millennium

Presenter: Fran Yuan, M.A, M.Ed
Threshold Program, Lesley University, Cambridge, MA

Stress is an unavoidable part of modern life. In the new millennium, the challenges of dealing with stress are multiplied by one’s exposure to an ever-growing range of stressors - from the ordinary rigors of daily life in a global economy to the ubiquity of technology to the realities of terrorism and a media that exploits frightening and bizarre news stories. Furthermore, competing in a fast-moving, demanding academic and work environment requires a positive, goal-directed attitude, technological savvy, and the ability to multi-task and work collaboratively with other people, even difficult ones. For individuals with learning disabilities, this is compounded by cognitive limitations and the emotional overlay that may accompany learning challenges. While stress itself cannot be eliminated completely, one’s responses to stress can be modified.

This gives one hope that the demands encountered can be met in a way that preserves one’s overall health, self-esteem, and, in the best of circumstances, empowers the individual to see challenges as opportunities and meet them with confidence.

Individuals with learning disabilities often favor structure and predictability, enabling them to be prepared for what they need to accomplish with the help of appropriate accommodations and strategies. As a result, being prepared to deal on a daily basis with the inevitability of stress is of particular benefit to individuals with learning disabilities. This session will focus on the experience of many individuals with learning disabilities as it introduces the important components of stress management.

These include:

• understanding the nature of stress and its impact;
• identifying specific symptoms and causes of stress;
• understanding the relaxation response, its impact, and how to bring it about;
• learning various strategies aimed at stress reduction; and
• developing a written Personal Stress Management Profile.

This profile includes individualized information about one’s stress and outlines a program that can significantly impact one’s well-being. This session will also suggest ways in which this process can be carried out in a range of settings available to teachers, parents, therapists, and individuals with learning disabilities.

Abstract: Seven Essential Steps to Becoming an Effective Self-Advocate

Presenters:
Fran Osten, M.A., M.Ed.
Fran Yuan, M.Ed., M.A.
Terry Bromfield, M.Ed.

The Seven Steps

1. Gaining self-knowledge and self-awareness
2. Understanding why this self-knowledge is important
3. Learning self-advocacy skills
4. Rehearsing and practicing skills
5. Looking at life’s opportunities and challenges
6. Applying to real-life situations
7. Evaluating and learning from experience

Below are further descriptions of each step:

1. Gaining self-knowledge and self-awareness
Individuals with LD need to be aware of their strengths and how to utilize them as well as their challenges and how best to compensate for them. It is important that information come from the person’s own experience and at times a mediator can help facilitate and clarify an effective expression of this information. Sharing information from testing and other sources can be important to encouraging a discussion of learning styles.

2. Understanding why this self-knowledge is important
This step is an important motivational factor. Individuals must understand how this self-knowledge and awareness will enable them to communicate their needs and subsequently negotiate needed accommodations. In addition, this understanding contributes to the sense that individuals have some control of their own destinies.

3. Learning self-advocacy skills
A basic three-part model is presented with a rationale for each part.

4. Rehearsing and practicing skills
Role plays are an effective way for individuals to become comfortable asserting themselves and adept at using the three-part model to self-advocate.

5. Looking at life’s opportunities and challenges (for application)
The next step is to identify opportunities and challenges in one’s current life and possible situations in which self-advocacy might be beneficial. It is important to look at how one’s strengths and challenges play out day-to-day: at school, work and in leisure time. They can be important in one’s choice of a career path. It is also important to develop an awareness of how one’s learning style can impact other areas, such as maintaining a household, budgeting, organization and social life.

6. Applying to real-life situations
Once an individual has identified the implications of one’s learning style to vocational or school settings, and in daily living, one must look for opportunities to use areas of strength and to develop specific strategies and accommodations for areas of challenge. Ways to disclose information to room mates, family, supervisors and co-workers to promote an environment conducive to growth of skills and success will be discussed.

7. Evaluating and learning from experience
On-going evaluation and adjustment of accommodations is important as is the periodic setting of new goals. One must learn to elicit and incorporate feedback from others to help in self-evaluation and reflection on the effectiveness of accommodations and strategies one has developed. The challenges of each step along the way will be discussed. Illustrative examples will be presented.