Relating academic knowledge to real-life applications has and should be a priority for special education teachers. If our goal is to help our students be independent and successful on their own after high school, then engaging students actively in learning basic life skills for success in adulthood is essential.
Importance of Life Skills
According to Cronin et al., (2007), real-life content, or life skills, means "specific competencies to include knowledge, skills, and the application of life skills of local and cultural relevance needed to perform everyday activities across a variety of settings." However, knowledge and performance is not enough to demonstrate an individual's life skills competency in many situations. It is imperative that an individual must also demonstrate the appropriate application of the knowledge and skills (e.g., decide on whether a situation is an emergency-calling 911). Each student has unique and individual needs. For example, the skills needed for a student who plans to attend college after high school will differ from those skills needed for a student who plans to work immediately after high school. It is our job as educators to make sure each individual student is prepared to function independently in his or her next environment, whatever that might be. The chart below illustrates through a matrix the interrelationship of scholastic and social skills to rel-life skills area:
Options for Addressing Life Skills
Cronin and colleagues (2007) suggest five options for teaching life skills that fall into three types: coursework, augmentation, and infusion.
Coursework: There are three options available for teaching life skills via coursework. The first is to develop a comprehensive sequence of life-skills courses that can lead to a diploma. The second is to develop one course in a topical content area, such as "Math in the Real World," and the third is to develop a single-course format that covers introductory life-skills information in a number of areas (e.g., "Independent Living Skills").
Augmentation: Supplementing existing content courses with additional life-skills information. An example of augmentation techniques is the unit approach. The unit approach relates instruction to specific topic, problem, theme, or area of interest.
Infusion: The structure of the infusion approach is through existing course content. With infusions, teachers take advantage of as many opportunities as possible to touch on topics that have life-skills implications. (e.g., discussion question).