Great article by the NY Times discussing Preparing ‘Emerging Adults’ for College and Beyond.
Dr. Ginsberg works with clients on lack of emotional readiness and academic and “adulting” skills, as well as on social anxiety — issues that can become more apparent in college and can lead to students’ lives’ unraveling.
So how can a person develop these skills? In the article there is a list of “exposure tasks” to help students develop strategies for coping with possible challenges and “assertively get their needs met, or manage circumstances that do not go the way that they wished,” Dr. Ginsberg said.
Some of these tasks may seem oddly fundamental, and they aren’t all relevant to everyone. For example, Dr. Ginsberg may ask a perfectionist to turn in an imperfect assignment, she said, “so that they learn to tolerate the anxiety — that it was not so bad after all, that the outcome does not define them and that the incident did not propel catastrophic consequences, as they might have predicted.”
Academic Readiness Challenges:
- Adhere to a schedule consistently.
- Ask for help with or clarification on an assignment or test material.
- Walk into a class that’s already begun, rather than skipping it because you were running late.
- Speak to your teacher or professor after class.
- Make a phone call and ask basic (including “obvious” or “awkward”) questions.
- Call and make your own doctor and dentist appointments.
So….are you ready?
