Functional curriculum

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Functional curriculum

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

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Skills must be chronologically age-appropriate

• Can interview peers
• Survey peers
• Observe peers

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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

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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

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Criterion of the next environment

• Skills a student needs in the next educational
  environment

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Criterion of the immediate environment

• Consider needs for student to function in the
  immediate or current environment(s)

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Criterion of the least dangerous assumption
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"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."
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Personalized Curriculum
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Domains of Adult Life Skills
Community
Domestic
Leisure/Recreation
Vocational
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Ecological inventories

• A systematic, flexible process for determining a
  scope and sequence of functional living skills

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Relationship of domains

• Not all skills fit tidily into one domain.
• Many have application across more than one
  domain.
• "More bang for the buck".

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Related skills
Functional academics
Communication skills
Motor skills
Social skills
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Community-Referenced Instruction

• Aligning assessment and instruction to the
  natural cues in the environment
• Referencing instruction to your community!

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Life in a Greek Hotel
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Oregon Statewide Assessment

• Extended CIM
• Math
• Reading
• Writing
• Extended Career Life Role Assessment System
  (CLRAS)

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Types of adaptations

• Provide personal assistance
• Modify skills or activities
• Use an assistive device
• Modify the physical and social environments

Orelove Sobsey, 1996
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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.
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Patterns of error in using partial participation
Ferguson Baumgart, 1991
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Passive participation

• Sitting in a classroom, i.e., just being present,
  doesnt 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

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Myopic participation

• Focus is too narrow, doesnt meet full needs of
  student, family, or community
• Example parent requests help with shopping
  teacher implements in nongeneralizable environment

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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

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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 Cant grasp items in cafeteria to place
  on tray, cant carry tray. Since there are
  always people present in the cafeteria, might be
  better to just leave it at that.

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Remediation strategies
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Active participation

• Rather than worry about expanding a behavioral
  repertoire, concentrate on strengthening a small
  set of behaviors

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Attend to multiple perspectives

• Use family and community-referenced assessment
• Use ongoing instructional information systems
• Use ongoing outcome information systems

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Use information from multiple sources

• Merge competing perspectives
• Ongoing planning and program improvement

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Enhance image and achieve interdependence