Functional curriculum Christine A. Macfarlane, Ph.D. Sped 535 Integrated Curriculum and Methods for Students with Disabilities: Functional

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional2 Skills must be chronologically age-appropriate  Can interview peers  Survey peers  Observe peers Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional3 Functional skills  Immediately useful  Demanded in everyday activities and environments, both in and out of school  Result in greater independence & less dependence  Allow access to less restrictive environments

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional4 Criterion of ultimate functioning  Skills that adolescents and adults with severe disabilities would need in order to function as effectively and independently as possible in vocational, residential, and social environments  Should reflect need for transitions from one environment to the subsequent or next environment

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional5 Criterion of the next environment  Skills a student needs in the next educational environment

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional6 Criterion of the immediate environment  Consider needs for student to function in the immediate or current environment(s)

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional7 Criterion of the least dangerous assumption

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional8 "A functional curriculum could be defined as the life skills needed by a student in the current environment in which he or she was functioning, the life skills needed in the student's immediate next education environment, and the skills the student would need after leaving school to function in vocational, residential, and recreational environments."

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional9 Personalized Curriculum

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional10 Domains of Adult Life Skills Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com CommunityDomestic Leisure/Recreation Vocational

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional11 Ecological inventories  A systematic, flexible process for determining a scope and sequence of functional living skills

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional12 Relationship of domains  Not all skills fit tidily into one domain.  Many have application across more than one domain.  "More bang for the buck".

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional13 Related skills Functional academics Communication skills Motor skillsSocial skills  Clip art licensed from the Clip Art Gallery on DiscoverySchool.com

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional14 Community-Referenced Instruction  Aligning assessment and instruction to the natural cues in the environment  Referencing instruction to your community!

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional15 Life in a Greek Hotel

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July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional21 Oregon Statewide Assessment  Extended CIM  Math  Reading  Writing  Extended Career & Life Role Assessment System (CLRAS)

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional22 Principal of partial participation  Can't deny child access because of physical or cognitive deficits  Individuals with (severe) disabilities can acquire many skills that will allow them to function, at least in part, in a wide variety of least restrictive environments and activities.

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional23 The child should be allowed to participate in the activity even when:  the child does not exhibit all the necessary prerequisite skills,  the child will not be able to acquire all components of the skill,  the child may not complete the entire activity or skill independently, and  the child's developmental age is lower than his or her corresponding chronological age.

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional24 Frequently thought of as providing physical assistance, but that is too narrow a definition  Can be physical assistance  Can be a prosthesis  Can be communicative in nature to determine quality or make choices.

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional25 Types of adaptations  Provide personal assistance  Modify skills or activities  Use an assistive device  Modify the physical and social environments Orelove & Sobsey, 1996

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional26 Can't always come up with a modification that will allow the person to function independently, but can increase level of participation and thus independence.

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional27 Patterns of error in using partial participation Ferguson & Baumgart, 1991

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional28 Passive participation  Sitting in a classroom, i.e., just being present, doesn’t necessarily make it active participation  Example: going to music class, but not being able to sing or play the instruments  Nonexample: Listening to a book being read

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional29 Myopic participation  Focus is too narrow, doesn’t meet full needs of student, family, or community  Example: parent requests help with shopping; teacher implements in nongeneralizable environment

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional30 Piecemeal participation  Not connecting in-class instruction with out-of-class instruction throughout the day  Example: Instructional lesson aimed at object permanence, public library outing in afternoon, play story tape in evening at home

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional31 Missed participation  The length of time required to learn to do something independently may be too time consuming, might be better to simply rely on personal assistance, so valuable time can be spent learning other skills as well  Example: Can’t grasp items in cafeteria to place on tray, can’t carry tray. Since there are always people present in the cafeteria, might be better to just leave it at that.

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional32 Remediation strategies

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional33 Active participation  Rather than worry about expanding a behavioral repertoire, concentrate on strengthening a small set of behaviors

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional34 Attend to multiple perspectives  Use family and community-referenced assessment  Use ongoing instructional information systems  Use ongoing outcome information systems

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional35 Use information from multiple sources  Merge “competing” perspectives  Ongoing planning and program improvement

July 13, 2004SPED 535 Functional36 Enhance image and achieve interdependence