Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Curriculum for adults?
First, a moment of truth. This blog is a blatant plug for a curriculum published by the non-profit agency I work for. It's called the SNAP Curriculum - Specific Natural Activity Program Curriculum. It was written because we could not find much in the way of curriculum designed for talking to adults with developmental disabilities. There is material all over the place for working with children, but guess what, those children grow up to be adults and their developmental disability doesn't magically disappear as they get older.
This curriculum is not a lecture series. It is designed for staff (or parents, counselors, etc) to facilitate discussion with consumers about a wide variety of everyday issues.. things like self advocacy skills, identifying and dealing with emotions, interpreting what people say, body language, what is "appropriate" behavior?, coping with changes in routine - as well as a wide range of issues about daily living skills, voactional skills, and more. There are over 200 individual topics.
We can't be the only agency in the country that regularly hires inexperienced staff. How do you teach an inexperienced staff person to assist a consumer with these issues? With a curriculum like ours, used in functional settings.
In future postings (probably once a week), my experiences working as a line staff trying to deal with these issues. If you have ideas, I certainly welcome them. If you need help, ask away!
This curriculum is not a lecture series. It is designed for staff (or parents, counselors, etc) to facilitate discussion with consumers about a wide variety of everyday issues.. things like self advocacy skills, identifying and dealing with emotions, interpreting what people say, body language, what is "appropriate" behavior?, coping with changes in routine - as well as a wide range of issues about daily living skills, voactional skills, and more. There are over 200 individual topics.
We can't be the only agency in the country that regularly hires inexperienced staff. How do you teach an inexperienced staff person to assist a consumer with these issues? With a curriculum like ours, used in functional settings.
In future postings (probably once a week), my experiences working as a line staff trying to deal with these issues. If you have ideas, I certainly welcome them. If you need help, ask away!
