Preparing special needs children for life after secondary school

 

Preparing for life after secondary school begins before secondary school starts. One of the most important parts of planning for this transition is ensuring your children learn life skills. So, what are life skills? They are essential skills people use to get through their daily activities. They are skills people need to deal with unexpected situations and handle routine activities.

 

It is easier to understand if you think of the activities you do on a daily basis. For example, you get up at a certain time of day, shower, prepare meals, run errands, do laundry, etc. Many children pick up these tasks intuitively. However, they are not automatic for children with special needs.

Learning life skills should be part of your child’s IEP in primary school. Goals about learning life skills should also be included in your child’s IEP throughout secondary school.

 

Teaching life skills is an enormous task. Therefore, parents must share the responsibility and work on life skills with their children at home. The list below outlines categories of life skills and gives examples of specific skills for each category. Categories of life skills include:

 

A full list of life skills is beyond the scope of this article, but the free resources listed below provide extensive information on life skills and the transition to adulthood: