Home

Functional Curriculum

Cody shopping at the grocery store Functional curriculum are those skills which significantly affect quality of life in the community. They are all grouped together as Life Skills. Students with autism have significant difficulty learning life skills. Life skills require the student to take into consideration another's perspective, to be self-reflective, to incorporate past experiences into current situations, and to make judgements based not only on past experiences, but also on the particular events occurring in the moment.

Learning functional curriculum is critical to helping students with autism spectrum disorder reach their potential as active participants in home, school and community environments. Direct instruction is needed in one or more of the following areas:

  • PERSONAL CARE SKILLS (bathing, grooming, toileting, sexuality, medical needs)
  • DOMESTIC SKILLS (shopping, cooking, laundry, housekeeping)
  • RECREATIONAL SKILLS (swimming, skating, bowling, exercise)
  • COMMUNITY SAFETY SKILLS (street crossing, use of crosswalk, use of walk button, store recognition, public transit use)
  • EMPLOYMENT SKILLS (pre-vocational/vocational skills, work experience)
  • BEHAVIOUR MANAGEMENT AND SOCIAL SKILLS (self-regulation, recognition of emotions, social awareness)
  • MODIFIED/FUNCTIONAL ACADEMICS (partial integration, small group instruction in areas supporting community life, food recognition, safety signs, time, money)

eLearning Lessons
Disclaimer

How to Create a Self-Modeling Video
length: 
13 minutes

Lynda Struthers, POPARD Education and Behaviour Consultant, provides an overview of the steps to follow in creating self-modeling videos. Two types of video self-models are described. This lesson includes a step-by-step breakdown of how to edit clips to produce a self-modeling video.

Work Experience
length: 
5 minutes

This short documentary, narrated by Jacquie Bezo (POPARD Education & Behaviour Consultant), shows a high school student with an autism spectrum disorder participating in work experience as part of his functional program. Samples of visual supports and task analysis are included throughout the documentary.

Using Video Modeling to Teach Children with Autism
length: 
9 minutes

Kelly MacGregor (POPARD Education and Behaviour Consultant) discusses what video modeling is and how it can help teach children with autism a variety of skills. She explains the steps required to create a video modeling tool and shows a finished example.

Goal Setting and Program Monitoring for Functional Skills Part 4
length: 
6 minutes

In this final part of a four-part presentation on considerations in programming for functional skills for students with autism spectrum disorder, Lynda Struthers (POPARD Education and Behaviour Consultant)highlights task analysis as a helpful tool in functional skills programming.

Goal Setting and Program Monitoring for Functional Skills Part 3
length: 
11 minutes

This is the third part of a four-part presentation on considerations in programming for functional skills for students with autism spectrum disorder. In this presentation, Lynda Struthers (POPARD Education and Behaviour Consultant) addresses data collection that may be used to track student progress.

Goal Setting and Program Monitoring for Functional Skills Part 2
length: 
9 minutes

This is the second of a four-part presentation on considerations in programming for functional skills for students with autism spectrum disorder. In this presentation, Lynda Struthers (POPARD Education and Behaviour Consultant) covers goal setting for functional skills with a focus on defining outcomes in measurable ways.

Goal Setting and Program Monitoring for Functional Skills Part 1
length: 
7 minutes

In this first of four presentations on considerations in programming for functional skills for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), Lynda Struthers (POPARD Education and Behaviour Consultant) explores some key considerations in functional programming for students with ASD.