1. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Chapter 14 Facilitating Self-Care, Adaptive, and Independence Skills

2. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Definitions Functional skills—skills that, if a child cannot perform, someone does for them. Adaptive behaviors are determined by culture, but include eating, dressing, toileting. Self-determination—people with disabilities are taking an active role in making choices about their own life.

3. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Self-Care Skills and the Curriculum Self-care skills are taught so that the children can be as independent as possible with or without their disability. Culture impacts the age that these skills are taught. They should be taught throughout the day when they are naturally occurring.

4. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Self-Care Skills and the Curriculum (continued) –Embedding self-care learning Self-care skills should be taught to generalize skills. Self-care skills like eating can combine eating and pre-academic skills like color words, vocabulary, and number. Communication can take place encouraging a child to share information during the teaching of self-care skills.

5. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Self-Care Skills and the Curriculum (continued) –Individualizing self-care programs Building independence—allow children to demonstrate their independence in skills and practice, practice, practice. Building in success—celebrate the success of doing a skill on their own, rejoice in the accomplishment.

6. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Self-Care Skills and the Teacher –Let the child do it As much as the children are able to do, let them do. Encourage them to try, and reward the success. –How much assistance? Teachers need to evaluate each child and learn when to help, how to help, and how much to help. Avoid teaching learned helplessness because of your lack of time and experience.

7. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Self-Care Skills and the Teacher (continued) –When to help Least intrusive assistance –Offer help in unnoticeable ways so that the child feels success. Excessive demands –Watch for children who are seeking attention by demanding adult help. When children can’t –If a child is having an “off” day, offer support and encouragement; if needed, a little assistance as well.

8. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Self-Care Skills and the Teacher (continued) –Game-like assistance Making learning fun is a way to keep a child involved and interested. It is also more fun to play a game than complete rote practice activities.

9. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Self-Care Skills and the Teacher (continued) –How to help Demonstrate Encourage Assist Practice Reinforce

10. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Self-Care Skills and the Teacher (continued) –Five steps of a systematic approach to teaching self-care skills Specify a goal for learning Break the skill into small steps Use a systematic teaching approach Use data to evaluate progress Modify the teaching as necessary

11. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Self-Care Skills and the Teacher (continued) –Step-by-step planning Evaluate each child on a skill and plan the steps needed to help the child be successful. –Maturation and learning As children mature, their skills level should as well. Toilet training programs are available to ease the traumatic events involved. Chaining is linking events together like you would a chain to organize skills.

12. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Self-Care Skills and the Teacher (continued) –Monitoring progress and communication All parties working with the child need to know the skill sequence and the accomplishments of each child. As the child progresses, the skill chart is updated showing that the child is now more independent than before.

13. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. It is suggested that buttoning, zipping, and lacing boards may not be appropriate for a young child to learn those skills. Why?

14. ©2012 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. Self-Care Skills and the Teacher (continued) –Special considerations When demonstrating a skill, do so from the child’s perspective. When zipping, stand behind the child. When learning to tie, put the shoe in front of them the way their shoe looks on their foot. When learning to dress, try to avoid pretty shaped buttons, tight fitting clothing, and tags in funny places. Use clothes with elastic waists and items that are a little large.