Crafting Effective Curriculum

Today we are going “Beyond the Basics” in the world of curriculum. We all know about the core curriculum and the expectations of academic advancement from year to year. So, the question becomes how to expand the core curriculum to include and support the child who can not always

By expanding curriculum, focusing on functional skills across environments and using assistive technology devices/ services to support progress, access to any curriculum is more than possible.

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WHY EXPANDED CORE CURRICULUMS ARE SO IMPORTANT

The expanded core curriculums can address:

Career Education

Provides students with an opportunity to learn through hands-on job experiences
Observe people working so they learn incidentlally
Learn work-related skills such as responsibility, punctuality, and staying on task.
Career exploration and discovery of strengths and interests and plan for transition to adult life

Compensatory Skills

Learn the use of compensatory skills necessary for accessing the core curriculum
Address concept development, communication modes, organization, and study skills
Access to adapted print or audio materials
Use phone to take picture of homework - (just the word math vs. pages)
Pre-printed notes
Taping of class or
Books on tape

Independent Living Skills

Learning the tasks and functions performed in Home, Community, School, as well as Participation, Independent Living and Vocational Skills
Refer to the AFLS for a fairly comprehensive list
Increase independence and decrease prompt dependence
Need to generalize across environments learn compartmentally
Using systematic instruction and frequent practice in these daily tasks until mastered and retained

Orientation and Mobility (O&M)

Instruction in motor abilities to be oriented across settings – home school and community
To move as independently and safely as possible.
Spatial relationships, and purposeful movement
Travel in the community and use of public transportation

Recreation and Leisure

Awareness and exploration of recreation and leisure options
Instruction in organized or individual recreation and leisure skills
WE do this because it facilitates community inclusion and participation

Self-Determination

Decision and problem-solving skills
Thinking for oneself
Personal advocacy, assertiveness, and goal setting
This can be included in teaching a student to facilitate or participate in their own IEP meeting

Sensory Regulation

Development of the proprioceptive,(where you are in space) kinesthetic (touch), and vestibular (balance) systems
Use of Assistive Technology to use their senses efficiently (optical devices)

Social Interaction Skills

Awareness of body language, gestures, facial expressions, and personal space.
Management of interpersonal relationships like friendship skills
Self-regulation skills
Understanding of one’s sexuality
Instruction in social interaction skills across varied settings
Group participation skills

CURRICULUMS SPECIFIC TO A DISORDER

Deafness
ASL Sign language
Lip reading
Blindness
Mobility training
Braille reading
Writing with a Brailler
Autism
Hidden/covert curriculum
Social cognition/ social judgment curriculum
Friendship curriculum
Stranger Danger curriculum (Circles)
Intellectual Disability
ADLs
Language
Functional communication SGD or AAC
Augmentative and Alternative Communication Devices
Speech Generating Device
Physical disability
Power mobility training
Behavioral
Pattern recognition, emotional regulation,
Skills that move from mimetic, parallel, automatic, rule or habit based to conscious, deliberate, and ToM analysis based.

Expanded core curriculums must ensure:

Specialized instruction especially for students with low incidence diagnoses or presentations.
Availability of resources, including services, technical support, and professional development
Accountability by development of highly specific outcomes based on areas of need.
Best practices and research-based programming for teaching and evaluating students

Sample List of Functional Core Curriculum Areas:

Awareness of the motivation of others
Bill paying
Clothing and laundry management
Communication skills
Community transportation usage
Dressing skills
Eating at restaurants
Grooming
Health, safety & first aid
Household maintenance
Housekeeping and chores
Hygiene
Interacting with co-workers or peers
Interacting with supervisors or teachers
Job search and interview skills
Knowing one’s rights
Leisure skills
Making and keeping appointments
Medication management
Money /banking management
Nighttime routines
Office and organizational skills
Phone usage
Preparing, cooking and eating food
Relationship management
Routines and managing other’s expectations
School and classroom skills
Self determination
Self-regulation skills
Shopping
Social awareness and manners
Support personnel management
Technology access and usage
Time management
Toileting
Unwritten curriculum / knowledge
Using bank cards
Vocational skills / payroll AND
Workplace safety

THE ROLE OF ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY

Don't forget AT may be needed to assist any functional skill in the expanded curriculum:

ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY DEVICE means any item, piece of equipment, or product system, whether acquired commercially off the shelf, modified, or customized, that is used to increase, maintain, or improve the functional capabilities of a child with a disability.

It includes high and low tech assistive and adaptive tools including hardware and software
instructional services that can enhance communication, mobility, access, and learning
It includes the use of school-purchased assistive technology devices in a child’s home or in other settings as required if the child’s IEP Team determines that the child needs access to those devices in order to receive a Free and Appropriate Education - FAPE.
It includes Universal Design for Learning (UDL) principles for designing curriculum that provides everyone with equal opportunities to learn. This includes:
Presentation of information, concepts and ideas being learned
Accessibility to information, concepts, and ideas
Planned and applied learning tasks
Engagement and sustained attention to learning tasks
Promotion of inclusion
Reducing barriers to curriculum
Offering personalized options and choices, as well as
Access to required technology in an equally effective way

Assistive technology can include computer software and hardware, environmental modifications or assistive devices to facilitate tasks related to:

Mobility - wheelchairs, walkers, scooters, orthotic devices

Cognitive - computer or assistive devices for memory, attention, language or organization,

Speech – speech generating devices

Writing - voice recognition, grips, adaptive paper, braille, keyboards, note takers, word processor, word predictor, spell or grammar checker

Reading - screen readers, screen enlargement applications, magnifiers, book readers

Vision –enlargement or magnifiers of all kinds, books on tape, brailler

Fine motor- page turners, book holders, pencil grips, switches, utensils /handles, eating assistance

Sensory Efficiency - environmental changes

Hearing - FM systems, closed captioning, narrated videos

Gross Motor - ramps, grab bars, widened doorways, reach extenders, mobility, cooking, dressing and grooming, playing games

Device modification- phones, lights, computers, desks, chairs

Environmental modification - taping of environmental borders, adapting sound or lights

Including Assistive Technology in the IEP

IEP must include ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY SERVICES, as appropriate
Assistive technology service includes any service that directly assists a child with a disability in the selection, acquisition, or use of an assistive technology device. Such as:

Assistive technology specialist to do a functional evaluation at home, school and community environments
IEP must note the start and finish dates of eval
IEP must note the start of services and qualifications related to supports
Purchasing, leasing, or otherwise providing for the acquisition of assistive technology devices
Selecting, designing, fitting, customizing, adapting, applying, maintaining, repairing, or replacing AT devices
Coordinating and using other therapies, interventions, or services with AT devices
Training or technical assistance for the child, instructor, aide, the family/caregiver and for school professionals

Assistive Technology Services Assure That:

Individuals with disabilities receive an equal opportunity to participate in and benefit from goods and services because:
Individuals with disabilities may not be excluded from participation in nor denied the benefits of the goods, aids, services, programs, or activities of public schools,
Individuals with disabilities must have an equal opportunity to achieve the same result or the same level of achievement as others.
Separate or different aids, goods, benefits, or services given to peers may occur only if doing so is necessary to ensure that access is as effective as that provided to others.
Create a blog for advanced advocates that goes beyond the basics by creating specific curriculums that have the potential to meet specific functional needs for children who are challenged. the tone should be strategic, motivational and empowering with authority and motivation. Highlighting how the training with NSEAI and the national board certification BCEA ensures such expanded consideration of so many possibilities. Freely support with research.

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