Traditional models education focus on students learning a development sequence of skills (e.g., students learn to add, then subtract, then multiply). Most students with cognitive disabilities can learn this developmental sequence of skills but at a much slower rate. Also, a developmental approach to programming assumes that students will incidentally learn to apply the skills they acquire to everyday life situations. This bottom-up approach (developmental) to teaching students with cognitive impairments typically leads to teaching age inappropriate skills that are not functional in nature.
A top-down approach has been verified as a more effective means of developing curricula for students with cognitive impairments. In this approach, educators view the student within his/her current and future natural environments and then identify the skill sequences that will help them perform as independently as possible. This "top-down" approach leads to developing a functional, age-appropriate curriculum.
An appropriate approach to assessing functional academics as well as other life skill needs is to use the ecological inventory process (previously discussed in Chapter One). In considering the functional nature of skills one must focus on how the skill will be used by the student; when will they use the skill; in what environment the skill will be used.
Turn to page 117 and review Figure 5.1 to observe how an ecological assessment approach leads to curriculum considerations.
Functional curriculum can be related to most academic areas. Table 5.1 presents tradition academic content areas with examples of functional activities in each content area.
Complete the following tasks and drop them into the Chapter Five Assignment drop box.
Review Table 5.1 on page 118. Consider other activities that represent functional skills within the identified academic content areas. Identify one new idea for each of the content areas (i.e., reading, math, science, social studies, & health) using the ideas represented in Table 5.1 as examples.
Review the elementary school matrix showing the relationships of scholastic and social skills to adult life domains (Table 5.2, p. 119).
Choose one of the academic, social skill areas (far right column). Brainstorm a new idea for each of the adult life domains (across the top of the table). Example: I choose "Speaking" as my content area. I will brainstorm a new idea for each of the domain areas (e.g., employment, home, leisure, etc.).
Now do the same activity with secondary idea presented in Table 5.3 on page 120.
Information regarding student's academic performance can be obtained from each of the following assessments. Review your notes about the following assessments and consider how they assess functional academic skills.
Curriculum-Based Assessment
CBA is a performance assessment that is tied to how the student performs within the school curriculum. Features of CBA:
Ecological Inventories
If you are still unsure of how to conduct an ecological inventory, review the description on pages 125 and 128.
Review the ecological inventory on page 127, Figure 5.4. Toward the bottom of the inventory on pages 127 and 128 find the section indicated as "Nonhandicapped person Inventory". In this section, the first column identifies the activities and skills from the ecological inventory. The next column marked as "Student Inventory" is the assessment component. a 'plus' is noted if the learner is able to perform the skill and a 'minus' if they are unable to perform the skill. The third column, "Discrepancy Analysis" indicates what the learner is unable to do, or why they received a minus. The fourth column describes the adaptations that will be put in place as well as instruction that will occur.
This process of "Discrepancy Analysis" identified skills from the ecological assessment that need to be either adapted for the student or the skills that need instruction that should then be addressed with objectives if the learner is to perform the identified activities within their personal environments.