Teaching Daily Living Skills Special Needs Students - In this "apartment" we help older children learn daily activities. It looks like a very typical one bedroom flat or efficiency flat. And here we are teaching children skills they will need in life!
Our apartment has its own Murphy bed! It folds right off the wall. We can take the bed and learn how to make the bed, put the sheets, put the pillows in the pillowcases and how to fold everything and put the bed back.
Teaching Daily Living Skills Special Needs Students
We have a working washer and dryer. Our kids learn to take the sheets off the bed, put them in the washing machine, add soap, run them through the wash cycle and put them in the dryer.
Teaching Daily Living Skills To Special Needs Students Using Video Conferencing
We have a refrigerator that we also use for our children who need feeding therapy. (Many of the things we have in our apartment are dual purpose and can be used for different types of therapy.)
We have a toaster to learn to make cookies with! This is where our children learn about safety and how not to burn themselves when using the oven. Along with the toaster, we also have a microwave, so we will learn how to cook simple dishes. We also have a pantry where we learn organizational skills (we keep snacks in the pantry).
We have a toaster to learn to make cookies with! This is where our children learn about safety and how not to burn themselves when using the oven. Along with the toaster, we also have a microwave, so we will learn how to cook simple dishes. We also have a pantry and use it to organize (we keep snacks in the pantry).
We have a fully functional, brand new dishwasher! But along with that we also have a sink where we can learn how to wash dishes by hand.
How To Set Up A Special Education Program
We have a toilet behind the kitchen. This is a very important component of the apartment, because many children need to learn not only how to use the toilet, but also how to take a shower. When we have a client who needs to learn how to use the shower, they'll put on a bathing suit and we'll teach them how to shampoo, take it back, clean their body. , get out and dry. And of course, another very important skill is how to clean the bathroom! We all need clean bathrooms, so we learn to do all the housework necessary to keep the bathroom clean.
Come and check out our flagship apartment for daily living skills! We'd love to show you around and answer any questions you may have! I am so excited to share my mockup series with you! For the first 2 months of school, I've been working to get my schedule together and I can't wait to share so many pieces with you!
First of all! My daily schedule. YES, my kids go to special and inclusion and YES, my staff gets lunch. But this is the general schedule that my class follows every day. The students go into special programs with their homes and are pulled into therapy, but things even out and they catch up on the things they missed by the end of the week.
Here are the main things we do every day. The schedule is posted on the white board, mostly for all employees.
Teacher Job Description
YES, each student has a visual schedule or student binder (these are great for kids who go to inclusion more often!) Â that has all of their personal therapies and special products. We also post on the board the special offers and treatments each student has that day so we can quickly look around and prepare the children. (I will write more about this next time) But this is the basic schedule of our daily activities in the classroom.
My students arrive 15 minutes earlier than other students at the building due to van drop off time. I actually really like it because it gives us time to get over the rush of the kids running down the hall, all those first trips to the bathroom, and start our morning routine.
Every student's morning routine is slightly different based on their needs. Some students work on a visual morning schedule, and some have a to-do list written on the board.
Currently, some of my students are able to learn math or ELA with some inclusion support. But most of my students stay in the classroom. We currently rotate through 3 centers and have 2 staff per room.
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1:1 Work: This is a separate testing center where the student works 1:1 with a teacher or a pair to achieve individual goals.
Teacher's Chart: I can currently work with IEP goals 1:1 or 1:2 depending on each day's therapy and special suggestions.
Independent Work: By teaching my student how to do this station independently in the first month of school, this center has become completely independent. At this center, students keep a schedule, clean up and even get rewards. The self-study center allows you to have so many students at the same time with only 2 staff in the room.
This is another bathroom break. We eat snacks as a group and improve our social skills! (I love these question cubes from Amazon!) We try to unpack, eat, behave, and clean up properly. We are also currently working on hand washing and possibly even natural life skills that we teach in our life skills centers such as vacuuming or vacuuming if needed.
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At that time, students may have enough tokens to earn for vacation. Some students earn breaks using the iPad, computer or our toy den.
My students eat lunch in the cafeteria, but it's hard to get data right now. We collect data on lunchtime routines, independence, social interactions and other behaviours.
After lunch we need some time to relax. We use our little bath mats for quiet reading or other leisure skills and proper play with toys. I also play soft music and dim the lights at that time. It's basically a vacation without sleep 🙂
At this point, we're going straight to the comprehension group. I am alone with the students and we play a story on YouTube, project an understanding story and worksheet on the board, or work on WHO questions WHOLE GROUP using an interactive whiteboard to keep everyone engaged. Since this is a very engaging activity, I like to do it at a time when the staff is low so that everyone doesn't end up far away.
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Group work is different every day. Sometimes it's an art group, an exercise group, News 2 You, fine motor skills, or even a board game. I mix it up to keep everyone on their feet and engaged.
Our Life Skills Centers change every month, we focus on a specific skill and send home letters to parents to tell them how they can help get stronger at home. The way I manage my centers is that this month we work on skills with extra support in one center and then generalize 2 skills from the last 2 months and more independence and less in the other two centers. You can read more about my Life Skills Centers here.
When students complete three centers, they know it's time to brush their teeth. Each student has a labeled basket with their supplies, and parameters take data on this skill each afternoon, providing support as needed.
This is also part of my Life Skills block, but I thought I'd break it down and explain it to you more. After we're done handling the centers and brushing, we "clean and pack." This is when I take the time to communicate with parents using communication sheets, students come to collect their communication binders from me, empty the school bins, pack their backpacks and grab their coats from the hook. We leave the backpacks on the wall so they are ready to go at the moment of dismissal.
Special Education Teaching Undergraduate (turkish)
I can't say more about these contact sheets. I've been using them for three years and parents love how quick and easy it is to look and take notes - so important!
This is also known as "timing trading". Most of my students work all day to earn this coveted activity. Students can take turns choosing pre-selected age-appropriate YouTube videos. We practice raising your hand, following a schedule, choosing and waiting in line.
My students also earn good behavior dollars per week (you can see the chart to the right, more about this process!). This is a specified time trade. Students can go to our school
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