Strategies to Support the Development of Life Skills

Teaching Life Skills

Life skill Teaching area	Information and Strategies for Home and School
Organising school bag	Supporting the young person with autism to independently be able to organise and take care of their personal belongings and self is vitally important. Below is an example of a Five Point Scale that could help support this teaching area.
Personal Care	To access a range of resources to support with developing personal care and personal safety: click here.
Personal Safety	To view more on Personal safety of the individual, keeping safe in adult, public places, use of public toilets: click here.
Making Friends	Creating Friendships within Social Communication
Asking for Help	To download a 5 Point Scale to assist with Asking for Help: click here. Asking for help. Use visual or verbal prompts for example: In the CLASSROOM encourage the student to: 1. THINK (I need help!) 2. HAND UP 3. ASK (use an asking phrase such as “I need help” or simply Help) At break times or at HOME encourage using visual or verbal prompts to: 1. THINK (I need help!) 2. GO (to an adult) 3. ASK (use an asking phrase) Supporting this skill at school Think about some of your student’s ‘difficult’ behaviours that may be inappropriate attempts to get help; e.g. biting, crying, hitting, poking, task refusal. Use visual supports in the classroom to help your student remember to use their new skills to ‘ask for help’ in these situations. Emotional Well being and Anxiety Management 5 point Scale Asking for Help. When a student appears to need help but does not ask for it (remember to give them sufficient time to try again, but not too much time that they become too frustrated) prompt them visually/verbally to ask for help – e.g. “That looks hard. Maybe you could practice asking for help”. Click here for more information. If required, set up a reward system to provide positive reinforcement for your student when they try to ask for help appropriately. For more information on Reward and Reinforcement: click here.
Coping with Change/ Transitioning Many children and young people with autism can find transitioning very difficult. Difficulties can include:  change in teacher, a change in school moving class etc.	Building independence skills to manage difficulties with transitions is important as transition to adulthood can often lead to a loss of services and supports for individuals with disabilities (Friedman, Warfield, & Parish, 2013). This can result in behavioural and other difficulties, such as a lack of independence in work (Billstedt, Gillberg, & Gillberg, 2005). For more information on why students with autism have difficulties with change Transitions: click here. Strategies to support the child and young person with autism: click here. Have a back up plan: click here. In supporting the educational development and independence skills of a child or young person with autism developing a Comprehensive Autism Planning System (CAPS) can prove beneficial particularly with transitions. For more information: click here. For additional information on Coping with Change and Transitions please click the links below; See Wellbeing section/transitions. See Life skills resource. To read more on how Middletown Centre for Autism have supported some young people to bounce back through the use of blending interventions to support them to transition into adulthood: click here.
Teaching Emotions	How to teach Emotional Regulation with autism using cognitive reappraisal/’Rethink your thinks’: Teaching Emotional language and using cognitive behaviour teaching. For further information on Emotional Regulation, click here. How can children and young people with autism be taught to share emotions and feels to improve emotional resilience? Click here. Teaching Feeling to those with complex needs: Patsy Daly interview. Emotional Thermometer Teenage Resource Emotional Regulation and Anxiety Management section Managing Anxiety 5 Point Scale     Teaching feelings to those with complex needs: Patsy Daly interview

Recommended Reading

Mataya, K. and Owen, P. (2012) Successful Problem-Solving for High-Functioning Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders. AAPC Publishing. 

Smith Myles, B., Aspy, R., Mataya, K. and Shaffer, H. (2018) Excelling with Autism: Obtaining Critical Mass Using Deliberate Practice. AAPC Publishing 

Vermeulen, P. and PhD, P., 2012. Autism as context blindness. Shawnee, KS: AAPC Publishing.  Vermeulen, P. (2014) “Context Blindness in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Not Using the Forest to See the Trees as Trees”