Topic 4.1 Starting Early

Preparing for Work: Starting Early

Here are some different strategies for making sure your son or daughter understands what kind of jobs are available and that might be interesting.

1: Compliment and cultivate skills/talents

When your son or daughter shows that he or she has a skill or talent, be sure to compliment them and look for ways to further develop talents. For example, if a young person shows a talent for photography, you can compliment his talent and hang up his photos in the house, enroll him in classes, encourage him to enter school contests, sign him up for yearbook as an extracurricular activity, and take him to photography exhibits.

A poster titled "So you want to be a vet?"
2: Ask about interests and potential jobs

As a student develops an interest, talk about the different jobs that involve that interest. You could talk to a child who likes animals about becoming a dog groomer or a veterinarian, and you could talk about working in a kitchen to a young person who likes to cook. You can also look online for different kinds of jobs in different areas of interest.

The Berenstain Bears book "When I grow up"
3: Read books about employment and working

You can also encourage children and young adults to read books about different kinds of work. There are books about specific kinds of careers for older students and basic books about work for younger children.

4: Give your child chores and responsibilities.

  • Assign household chores
  • Give supports/motivation/consequences
  • Use social stories & charts
  • Demonstrate how to do chores & break into steps