Britney Spears's 2020 testimony about her 13-year conservatorship highlighted ethical concerns surrounding surrogate decision making. Social workers engage with families and clients in conservatorship/guardianship arrangements. However, social work educational programs spend little time preparing students for surrogate decision making and…

This document is one of eight in a series of guides designed to help teach and counsel troubled youth. This document presents 20 lessons on the social skills necessary to live independently. It includes four lessons designed to help students accurately evaluate their readiness for independent living. Other lessons teach the basic steps for…

This document provides descriptions of employment interventions as a resource for use in initiating or expanding employment services for individuals with disabilities. The document presents abstracts of 40 employability/employment interventions and practices currently in use by independent living programs throughout the United States. The…

This manual presents a method of teaching cooking to nonreaders. The language of the method consists of visual symbols, such as drawings of bowls, spoons, and ingredients, and color. The "Simply Great" method consists of three basic formats: the one-step booklet, the full-page format, and the simply written for the student with some…

This manual is one of four modules in the curriculum PUSH For Youths GOALS (Providing Understanding, Support and Help for Youths Going Out And Living Successfully), which was developed for use in training foster parents to be primary teachers of the youths in their homes. This manual is designed to be used in foster parent classes. The module…

This article describes a functional mathematics activity to help secondary students with mild disabilities develop critical thinking, calculation, and reasoning skills by evaluating the "rent-to-own" option for furnishing an apartment. Suggestions address needed materials, prerequisite skills, procedures, sample worksheets, and modifications. (DB)

Intended to help young people acquire independent daily living skills, this book is the group leader's guide to an advanced youth training curriculum for developing appropriate communication competence. The guide's first session introduces the basics of communication, while subsequent sessions focus on communication in all aspects of life: on the…

The purpose of Project COMPETE is to use previous research and exemplary practices to develop and validate a model and training sequence to assist retarded youth to make the transition from school to employment in the most competitive environment possible. The curriculum described in this project working paper focuses on personal maintenance and…

In recent years, attention has been given in the foster family care literature to adolescents' readiness for living on their own following aging out of their foster care placement. This book offers ideas on ways to help adolescents master the tasks required to successfully prepare for independent living following discharge from foster care. It is…

This document describes a project that developed a life skills and financial management curriculum for senior citizens and presented a 10-day workshop series using the curriculum to a group of 20 senior citizen adult basic education students. The project was evaluated as very successful and the curriculum developed was made available for…

This guide shares survival skills activities with Oklahoma educators of students in grades 9-12. Thirteen sections are included: (1) self-appraisal; (2) skills employers look for; (3) locating available jobs; (4) investigating job requirements; (5) applying for a job; (6) interviewing for a job; (7) deciding about a job; (8) responsibilities of…

The need to teach functional mathematics to students with learning disabilities to prepare them for independent living is explored. The article discusses questions teachers should ask themselves in reviewing their mathematics curricula, ways to implement a functional math curriculum, and the application of mathematics skills to life-centered…

This text addresses curriculum development for students with mental retardation based on the premise that it is the primary job of educators to teach these individuals independence skills and also based on criticism of the academic focus of most current instructional approaches. Individual chapters consider the following topics: (1) an overview of…

This curriculum guide, based on the position that career education is a major focus of the educational program, is designed to assist students with disabilities to become productive workers and independent adults. Chapter 1 provides an overview of the history and importance of career education for children with disabilities. The features of career…

Many kids with working parents must take care of themselves before and after school. This activity text offers such children practical instruction and reassuring guidance that can help them be prepared, safe, and confident when they stay alone. The text includes a pullout section for parents that helps them determine if their child is mature…