Holistic and Life skills Training

Life Skills Training program must be implemented carefully and completely. Just as important as what is taught is how the program is taught. The teaching techniques of facilitation and feedback, coaching of cognitive and behavioural skills, and behavioural rehearsal ensure that students fully understand and can demonstrate the key skills taught in the curriculum.

TRAINING OBJECTIVES

Life Skills Provider Training workshops are designed to:

Review the background theory, research and rationale behind the LST program.
Familiarize participants with the Life Skills curriculum.
Teach participants the skills needed to successfully conduct the LST program.
Discuss practical implementation issues.
Provide an opportunity to practice teaching selected portions of the Life Skills curriculum.

Teaching Life Skills

Personal Accountability: The focus for personal responsibility or accountability is ensure a plan is in place for students to: complete learning tasks on time, to hand in assigned work and to use the home/school agenda or tracking system in place.

Routines: In the classroom, a plan is needed to ensure the student: follows directions, raises his/her hand before speaking, remains on task without wandering, work independently and cooperate by following the rules.

Interactions: Skills to be addressed through a plan include: listening to others in large and small groups, knowing how to take turns, contributing appropriately, sharing, being polite and respectful during all group and classroom activities.

In The Yard: Skills in the yard include, sharing equipment and sports items (balls, skipping ropes etc.), understanding the importance of teaming, avoiding arguing, accept team and sports rules, participating responsibly.

Property: These students need to learn how to care appropriately for both school and personal property. This includes, keeping desks tidy, putting items and materials back in their appropriate storage locations, putting coats, shoes, hats etc. away properly and keeping all personal items organized and easily accessible.

Objectives of life skills:

Life skills includes the skills the student needs to be successful in society. Students with life skills programs are often those with severe learning disabilities, autistic tendencies, developmental disorders etc. For the most part, you can't take day to day responsibility for granted with these students. They need strategies in place to help them learn the essential life skills. They need to learn to be responsible for care of property, understanding the basic social rules, how to behave under different circumstances. The details I've listed will help you set up tracking systems or work with the student to enhance those necessary skills. Once the student has some understanding, you'll want self-tracking or monitoring to occur. You may want to devise a tracking sheet for specific areas to keep the student focused and on target.