Facilitating Self-Care, Adaptive, and

Independence SkillsChapter 14 in The Exceptional Child: Inclusion in Early Childhood

Education. Allen, K. Eileen and Cowdery, Glynnis E. 2015

Adaptive Skills

• Includes self-help or skills that help a child be more independent• Requires a balance of allowing a child with exceptionalities to• Do what his is capable of doing independently• Not be left out because of skills he cannot do

• Adaptive behaviors help a child with exceptionalities to better meet social expectations.• These are dictated by the culture in which a child lives.• Self-determination- allowing individuals with disabilities to actively

participate in decisions and choices about their lives

Self-Care and the Curriculum

• Skills are learned and can be taught• Need to be taught with consistency across environments; another

great reason for partnering with families in their child’s learning• Best taught with • Clear instructions• With appropriate support• Through multiple opportunities for practice and success• Systematic planning

What to Teach?

• Remember the 3 main components of Developmentally Appropriate Practice?• Knowledge of child development and learning in general

• Through checklists or other assessment of expected behaviors. . .• Knowledge of children as individuals

• What skills does the child have or not have in familiar settings?• Knowledge of what is culturally important

• What age appropriate skills are socially important to the family? Community?

• Now, how can these skills be broken down and integrated into the daily routine? Some good examples are on pp. 364 and 365 in your text.

Tricks of the Trade• Know that competencies and skill development will vary within a

child.• Wanting to complete tasks independently is innate. Remember the 2

year old who says “I do it myself!”? Allow the time and space for those efforts. • Encourage successes and praise specific efforts. (Ex. – “You were able

to turn the water on all by yourself!” rather than “Good job!”)• Realize that what many children learn with minimal effort may require

more specific task analysis and direct teaching of individual steps of the skill for children with exceptionalities.• Avoid creating “learned helplessness”

Remember Vygotsky?

• Do you remember Lev Vygotsky and ZPD? Know when and how to help (suggestions on pp. 369 – 373 in your text)

Independence Level- Can accomplish task without help

Zone of Proximal Development – Can learn with help from adult or more skilled peer

Frustration Level- Does not have skills necessary to learn at this level

Being Systematic

Specify goal for learning

Break skill into small

steps

Teach skill systematically

Evaluate progress

using data

Modify teaching as

needed

Systematic Teaching (cont.)• Specify goal• Who, what, where, and when• Goals and objective must be specific and measurable

• Breaking skill into small steps• Complete a task analysis of the task• Know what will be taught based on child’s current abilities

• Teach systematically• Shaping, prompting, fading, cueing, forward chaining, backward chaining –

determine techniques to use

• Evaluate progress using data• Modify teaching as needed

References

• Allen, K., & Cowdery, G. (2015). Facilitating Self-Care, Adaptive, and Independence Skills. In The Exceptional Child: Inclusion in Early Childhood Education (Eighth ed., pp. 361-381). Stamford: Cengage Learning.• Developmentally Appropriate Practice (DAP) | National Association

for the Education of Young Children | NAEYC. (n.d.). Retrieved October 19, 2014.