Life Skills Activities for Secondary Students with Special Needs

Editorial Review
For educators, parents, and others involved in teaching adolescents with special needs, here is a unique collection of 190 illustrated activity sheets with related exercises, discussion questions, and evaluation suggestions to help students acquire the basic skills necessary to achieve independence and success in everyday living.

Each activity sheet focuses on a specific skill within the context of real-life situations and includes complete teacher directions for its effective use, from objective and introduction through optional extension activities and ways to assess students’ learning.

For quick access, all of these ready-to-use materials are printed in a big spiral-bound format for easy photocopying and organized into seven sections. Here’s an overview of the major topics (and sample activity titles) covered in each section:

INTERPERSONAL SKILLS—30 activities focusing on Uniqueness of Myself and Others (Spotlight on Me)…Friendship Skills (qualities of a Good Friend)…Being Part of a Family (Members of a Family)

COMMUNICATION SKILLS—15 lessons that teach Understanding Others (Being a Careful Listener)…Expressing Yourself (Be Convincing)…Conflict Resolution (Compromising)

ACADEMIC & SCHOOL SKILLS—32 activities related to Reading (Reading on the Job)…Writing (Proofreading)…math (Improving Math Skills)…Study Skills (Taking Notes)

PRACTICAL LIVING SKILLS—39 activities focusing of Getting Information (What Do You Need to Know?)…Money Management (Making a Budget)…Travel (Using a Timetable)…Driving (Car Insurance)…Home Management (Home Repairs, Preparing a Meal)

VOCATIONAL SKILLS—22 lessons featuring Present Skills and Interests (What Are You Good At?)…School Record and Planning (Finishing High School)…Working (Interviewing)

LIFESTYLE CHOICES—27 activities covering Values (What Are Values?)…Personal Habits and Choices (Teens and Drinking)…Sexual Issues (Teenage Pregnancy, HIV and AIDS)…Reputation (How You Appear to Others)…Stress (Stressful Events and Situations)

PROBLEM-SOLVING SKILLS—25 lessons on Handling Problem Situations (Adjusting to Change)…Making Decisions (Needs vs. Wants)…Resource Management (Staying on Task)…Goal-Setting (Realistic Goals)…Risk-Taking (Learning from Mistakes)

Also included is a list of parent activities which can be reproduced and given to parents to use in conjunction with the activities being worked on in class. You may supplement thus list with your own activities and/or worksheets to provide extra reinforcement of new skills.

You’ll find these activities are completely flexible. You can use them in any order for a variety of purposes—to introduced, teach and/or reinforce specific life skills. Moreover, the activities can easily be modified to meet individual or group needs.

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Customer Reviews

A very nice life-skills based book with some good academics.

1998-07-06
I truly enjoyed using this book with my students who have severe learning disabilities. The students seemed to learn quite a bit from the activities in the book, however they were not quite the self-guided follow-ups that I had hoped for. I would also hesitate if buying this book for students with more severe reading difficulties as they will be unable to comprehend most of the instructions used in the book.

unrealistic

2007-04-11
The book does not provide activities for under privileged children. The book provides unrealistic scenarios that are rare for the students I serve.

Life Skills Activities for Secondary Students with Special Needs

2006-03-03
I just started using this book 1 month ago with a developmentally handicapped class in our secondary school. I have been looking for months for suitable resources. I really recommend this book. The students are enjoying the discussions and completing the activities.

Great Resource!

2005-01-31
I am a speech therapist working with special needs kids in high school and junior high. This is a wonderful resource full of information I can use with all my kids. The book is clearly sectioned into activities and concepts which can go beyond classroom objectives and into real life situations. I really enjoyed activities geared towards the older population covering more sensitive subjects such as alcohol, suicide and sex. The special needs population needs more hands on information covering these topics and this book presented the material in a easy to understand and practical manner. I was also really impressed with the extension activities provided and short exercises given with every subject. What a timesaver!!

Fabulous resource

1999-08-31
Excellent source of activities for use with LEP population. Good for counseling end educational activities.

Great Ideas!

1999-08-21
I have used this book to plan lessons for my secondary students who have severe cognitive disabilities. My main problem with the book is that it relies heavily on worksheets and activities that require the student to be able to read. Since my students do not read, these worksheets were not appropriate for me. I was able, however, to adapt and modify the ideas to meet my needs. As a reference tool for ideas, it is a great book.