Transition Services from School to Adult Life for Secondary Students with Moderate Intellectual Disabilities in Saudi Arabia: Perceptions of Parents and Special Education Teachers.

Abstract

Over the years, providing services that support a smooth transition from school to adult life for students with intellectual disabilities (ID) increasingly has gained attention in the United States. However, the same level of importance placed on postschool outcomes of secondary students with ID has not yet been achieved in Saudi Arabia, in spite of it being a high-income country. In regard to services to support transition from school to adult life for students with ID in Saudi Arabia, a close look at the special education publications in the Saudi Arabian literature suggests a noticeable lack of information or focus on secondary transition from school to adult life of students with ID. Although a few studies provided valuable contributions to our knowledge about secondary transition from school to adult life for students with ID in Saudi Arabia, they focused mainly on special education teachers’ perceptions and attitudes toward either general transition services, a specific transition area (i.e., employment services), or a specific transition approach (i.e., community-based vocational instruction). The purpose of this study was to investigate the provision of transition services from school to adult life for secondary students with moderate ID in Saudi Arabia. I conducted semi-structured interviews over 4 months with 12 participants, including 6 special education teachers and 6 parents of students with moderate ID. I discussed 4 major findings related to transition services provided for secondary school students with moderate ID in Saudi Arabia, including (a) lack of pedagogical content knowledge related to the transition from school to adult life (i.e., what they are teaching and how they are teaching that content), (b) lack of services that reflect pedagogical content knowledge related to the transition from school to adult life, (c) insufficient infrastructure, and (d) lack of hope for long-term outcomes (e.g., quality of life). Furthermore, I share the implications of the findings, delineate the limitations of this study, and outline recommendations for future research