THE NEED TO DEVELOP LIFE SKILLS IN LITTLE PEOPLE

Author: Shahan Naik| July 27th 2022

Developing life skills is important for all children to attain independence in their homes, school, and community environment but especially important for children with developmental challenges. Children with special needs often require specific guidance and teaching techniques like task analysis, picture representation of tasks, and similar scaffolding techniques to grasp the skills needed for success in life. These skills may include personal skills, hygiene tasks, and effective communication skills to name a few.

Life skills are different from other skills, primarily because of the following reasons:
a. Skills like mechanical, livelihood, vocational, or language skills are technical, whereas, life skills include personal, social, interpersonal, cognitive, affective, and universal abilities.
b. These are skills that check inappropriate behaviour and facilitate appropriate responses or reactions in a demanding situation.
c. Life skills are interpersonal skills, empowering individuals to interact with the self, as well as, others, and develop a healthy lifestyle and responsible behaviour.

A teacher or facilitator can choose any method, as per the composition of the class, to introduce and implement life skills in the classroom.

Teachers, therapists, and parents have developed a set of techniques that, together or separately, can be very effective in teaching life skills to children with special needs. These techniques can be equally effective for teaching just about any skill to just about anyone- no matter what their abilities or challenges are.

Strategies for Teaching Life Skills to Children with Special Needs:-
1. Task Analysis: This is a process for breaking down any given task into its parts. For example, brushing teeth includes finding a toothbrush, toothpaste, and cup, putting toothpaste on the brush, brushing the bottom teeth, rinsing, brushing the top teeth, rinsing again, cleaning the brush, and putting all the equipment away properly.
2. Creating a Visual Representation: These help children remember and get comfortable with the steps involved in a task. It can include photos or images of each step in the process.
3. Verbal Cues: Prompting may involve physical, hand-over-hand help. As they learn, parents will start to ‘fade’ the prompts which means the child has learned the task.
4. Sequencing: Every task involves a series of steps that work in a sequence. For example, you can’t brush your teeth until you put toothpaste on the brush. Some parent prompts their child for each step in the chain and then stop slowly as the child learns. Finally, the child may be able to complete the task with just a simple reminder.
5. Apps: Older children, or children with milder issues, may benefit from mobile apps designed to guide them through specific activities or experiences. They may also be of benefit to help them to organise their time.

Shahan Naik
Special Educator And Creche Teacher

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