Unit III: Functional Academics: Math, Language, Science and Social Science

1. Functional literacy - Reading of survival signs, Reading sign boards use of telephone numbers and public utility services

2. Functional literacy - Math in daily life: time, money, measurement

3. Functional community orientation – Banking, bills, shopping, use of community resources

4. Self information – own name, parents name, address, phone numbers, etc

5. General Knowledge & Awareness – current affairs, weather, national festivals, leaders, sports, etc

1. Functional literacy - Reading of survival signs, Reading sign boards use of telephone numbers and public utility services

Media Literacy is the ability to access, evaluate, and create messages through different types of media.  Its purpose is to turn people from mass consumers into thoughtful citizens who aren’t susceptible to propaganda or advertising.

Religious Literacy is the ability to interpret religious scriptures and communicate with different faiths.  Religious literacy is important for combating fundamentalism (e.g., religious fanaticism) and prejudice (e.g., Islamophobia).

Financial Literacy is the ability to manage finances and make decisions about money.  Whether you’re a consumer, a business owner, or a voter, understanding financial budgets, interest rates, and savings is an essential life skill.

Computer Literacy is the ability to use computers.  This skill set can range from basic competency (i.e., using applications like email and Microsoft Office) to advanced knowledge (e.g., programming and computer science).

Legal Literacy is the ability to comprehend laws so you are able to follow policies and legal procedures.

Scientific Literacy does not necessarily mean memorizing facts; rather, it’s knowing how to conduct experiments and identify evidence that supports or contradicts preconceived beliefs or hypotheses.

Health Literacy is the ability to understand healthcare information, particularly for making medical decisions or lifestyle choices about nutrition, exercise, sleep, and other factors that affect physical and mental well-being.

Civic Literacy (a.k.a. Civics) is awareness of how government works as well as your rights and responsibilities as a citizen and voter.

Functional Literacy and Technology

Now, because our society is so high-tech, I want to emphasize two key points about functional literacy by connecting it to technology.

First, functional literacy is primarily about skills or applied knowledge.

It’s only secondarily about facts or subject-matter knowledge.  For example, scientific literacy doesn’t mean you’ve memorized the intricacies of how quantum computers work.  Instead, it means you know how to ask questions and apply methods of verification or falsification that make such technologies possible.

Second, functional literacy keeps our high-tech society functioning.

The kinds of functional literacy mentioned are relative to today’s highly complex, technological society, but that doesn’t make them any less valid.  For instance, the ancient Greeks got by fine without media literacy or computer literacy, but that’s because they didn’t have digital networks.  If these examples of functional literacy are unique to our high-tech society, we evidently need them.

Road Safety 

Potential Challenges

• Maintaining safety as a pedestrian involves a complex combination of skills, including judgement, predicting the actions of others, planning and making quick decisions. These are difficult skills to acquire if the child/young person has executive functioning difficulties.
• Road safety involves processing multiple sources of information simultaneously which can be difficult for many individuals with autism. He/she needs to be aware of others on the footpath, traffic on the road and rules when crossing the road.
• A child with auditory processing difficulties may not respond to the adult’s instruction to “Stop” or “Wait” at the side of a road because he/she does not register or understand the verbal instruction.
• Individuals who are sensitive to sensory input may feel overwhelmed by the large amounts of sensory input (e.g. noises from traffic, others talking, planes overhead, bright sunlight, movement of traffic and people, wind blowing the trees, different colours, various smells, and other people walking close to them). This may cause anxiety and sensory overload and so the child/young person may not be able to think clearly to make safe decisions about crossing the road etc.
• The child/young person may be very distracted by the surrounding stimuli, affecting concentration. In particular, he/she may be distracted by a favourite interest e.g. makes of car, road signs. Losing concentration when walking on a footpath or crossing a road can then risk personal safety. For example, the child may see a favourite make of car and suddenly run across the road to examine it more closely.
• Some children and young people with autism are impulsive, and so may act before thinking actions through. For example, he/she may see a shop of interest on the other side of the road and suddenly cross the road without checking oncoming traffic.
• Road safety involves anticipating the unpredictable actions of others e.g. a car not stopping at a zebra crossing, a car turning on to a side street without indicating. This unpredictability and understanding the actions of others can be difficult for someone with autism.
• Road safety will often demand flexible thinking and problem solving e.g. what to do if the footpath is blocked, what to do if the pedestrian crossing is not working.

Recommendations/ Resources

• Teach road safety from a young age but start on quiet roads.
  Scenarios could be set up in empty car parks or the school playground to teach and practise road safety rules.
• Present road safety rules in a visual form which is meaningful for the child/young person e.g. use photos, symbols or words. Go over these rules frequently, and especially just before going out on a road.
• Parents and caregivers can carry a visual symbol for “Stop” and present this to the child when approaching a road to cross.
• Wearing ear defenders or headphones will reduce anxiety caused by noisy traffic and unpredictable road noises so it may be useful for some children and young people. Remember, however, that this may mean they won’t hear a car coming behind them or a warning car horn and so they will need to be taught to be extra vigilant and look around them at all times.
• Carrying a backpack with a little weight in it may help to reduce anxiety and sensory overload, thus allowing the individual to stay calm on the road and reduce impulsive reactions.
• Present problem scenarios to the child/young person and devise solutions to these e.g. what to do if a car is blocking the footpath, what to do if there is no pedestrian crossing.

Safety at home

Potential Challenges

• Safety at home issues are the same for individuals with autism as they are for any child. However, the risks may persist longer into development for a child with autism, and so strategies in the home may have to be kept for a more prolonged period e.g. use of stair gates, socket covers, locks.
• Impulsive behaviours increase the risk of harm and injury. Some children and young people with autism do not link consequences to actions, or do not think through each step of an activity to consider the potential risks. When they see something that is of interest to them, they may act impulsively to get it e.g. a child may see a toy placed on a high shelf and climb to get it without pausing to think of safety or alternative solutions, such as asking an adult to reach it.
• Some children and young people may place themselves at risk when trying to ‘escape’ something they dislike e.g. climbing out of a window to escape from a noisy/busy party in the house; crawling into a cupboard or behind a unit to escape the noise of the vacuum cleaner.
• The child/young person may not easily generalise risks e.g. he/she may have had an injury on a ‘hot’ kettle but not generalised this to understand that other ‘hot’ appliances (oven, iron etc) will also cause injury.
• Individuals who crave sensory input often enjoy activities such as climbing and running, and the instinct to engage in these sensory activities often outweighs the risk to personal safety for them.
• Individuals with receptive language difficulties may not process and retain verbal safety information, and others may not be able to read and understand the safety information on labels.

Recommendations/ Resources

• Preventative measures may be required for younger children and those with an intellectual disability. These measures may include locks on doors and windows and cupboards, alarms, socket covers, furniture fixed to walls etc.
• It is also important to educate children and young people so they can start recognising risks and hazards for themselves and know what action to take. This can start with simple recognition of items which may be hot, sharp etc and can then move on to more advanced skills such as what to do in the case of a fire.
• Label items to warn child/young person of potential hazards e.g. “stop”, “hot”, “sharp”, “poisonous” and “Don’t touch”. Use photo, symbol or word, depending on the child’s level of understanding.

o Label items which could be hot (e.g. kettle, iron, oven)

o Label cupboards and drawers which contain sharp items (e.g. knives, tools, scissors)

o Label items which could be poisonous (e.g. household cleaners, medicines).

• A colour coding system could also be applied e.g.
  Red = Do not touch
  Amber = be cautions before touching
  Green = safe item
• Use social narratives or visual mapping systems to show consequences for actions e.g. what happens if you touch something hot, what happens if you swallow non-edible items.
• Use social narratives or visual instructions to show what to do in different scenarios e.g. what to do if there is a fire in the house, what to do if you burn yourself.
• Display emergency numbers beside the telephone in the house or on the child’s mobile phone i.e. numbers of family members and emergency services.

2. Functional literacy - Math in daily life: time, money, measurement

Strategies to teach time, money and measurement
Time, money and measurement are simply applications of mathematical concepts in daily living and hence very essential for students with ASD.

Money
Instruction about money should follow a sequence throughout students education. Practical and real life experiences should be provided for the application of skills. Moreover, the instruction has to be planned in such a way that each student’s needs in terms of utility are met.

The sequence for teaching money is as follows:

• Discuss the use of money to develop the concept of value and the understanding that it is used in exchange for goods and services.
• Teach students to name the rupee notes and coins.
• Develop an understanding of the values of rupee notes and coins. It can be often confusing to the students when he relates size of coin and its value. For instance, Rs.5.00 coin is worth more than the Re.1 coin but the size is small in size when compared to Re.1 or Rs.2 coins.
• Learning the equivalent value of rupee notes and coins.
• Counting groups or mixed coins totaling upto Rs.5, 10, 15, 20, etc.
• Students should learn to write amounts.
• The next step is to add amounts of money. This is also a foundation for decimals.
• Making change for amounts over one rupee.
• Older and high functioning retarded children should learn to write cheques. Bank accounts (both cheque and savings) should be introduced to secondary/prevocational students. This topic should be an important unit for prevocational in their curriculum.

Real money should be used to teach rupee notes and coin recognition and change making and to make use in simulated purchases of various items. For example, a student has Rs.5 and purchases an item for Rs.3, he determines how much change he has to receive. The teacher does not have to worry about transference of learning from play money to real money, if he uses real money in the first stage of learning. Teacher should also take them to nearby shops/supermarkets for purchasing items as a part of instruction. This would help in minimizing the problem of generalization of learned skills.

A workbook using pictures of real money provides interesting work for many students. The workbook should include activities on recognition of rupee notes and coins, relative value of rupee notes and coins, deriving correct change from purchases of various items and such other exercises.

For older children, the use of pay cheques, saving accounts and home budgets may be taught. Home budgeting may be taught using ditto sheets of bills and statements for utilities, rent, food and clothes. Basic book keeping skill also may be taught, to help them in keeping a home budget. During the process, the students to maintain home records, filing receipts and so on.

Banking skills also should be taught directly. The student should learn how to deposit and withdraw money, write and maintain a saving account.

Currency based token economy
Alternative to workbooks or a simulated unit on money is a currency-based token economy in the classroom. Token economies are usually developed to motivate students to do their work or to control disruptive behaviour. A currency based economy may be used effectively to teach counting, tending exact change and the relative value of the money. It provides an environment that promotes decision making regarding the safe keeping of money, what can and cannot be purchased with money on hand, how to save money and other concepts. At the vocational level, students can be paid for coming to class on time, punching in and out, getting to work quickly without delay and doing accurate work.

Time
The first instruction in time should be to develop an understanding on the concept of time as a unit and as a sequence of events. A pre-requisite to telling time is an understanding of time itself. Concepts of today, tomorrow, yesterday, next week and so on are basics to understanding time. Next, students need to understand that certain things happen at certain times, like lunch break and end of class. The schedule of events greatly aids in teaching time.

The sequence for teaching time

• Student must understand the ordering and the sequencing of the day. Discuss with students what they do from the time they get out of bed in the morning until the time they go to bed at night. This type of conversation will help them develop association of time and activities. Use pictures to represent these activities.
• Discussion of time may be extended to longer periods such as the week, month and year or other combinations of time periods, using the activities with which the child is familiar. Holiday can often be used to help the student develop this sequence.
• Children also need to develop an understanding of the passage of time. The concept of “How Long” can be developed through familiar activities such as the length of television shows and classroom activities. Short intervals of time may be understood by as activities tapping a foot for one minute and then two minutes or standing on one foot.
• Children should then estimate the duration of one minute in a variety of activities, such as closing their eyes and listening to music. They often suppose that the speed of the activity determines the speed of the passage of time. A wide variety of activities are needed to help students develop the concept of duration.
• Once students understand time and the vocabulary of time (minute, hour, day, week, month and year), they are ready to learn to tell time and to use a calendar.

One way of teaching, how to tell time is to have the child count from 1 to 60 on a number line. The child then superimposes 1 to 12 on the 1 to 60 lines (the 1 to 12 number line should be the same actual length as the 1 to 60). Counts off every five minutes, and marks them in different colours. This number line is then placed on a large clock with the hands removed or on a teacher made clock face of the appropriate size without hands.

The 1 to 60 number line will correspond with the minute markings on a clock and the 1 to 12 number line will correspond to the hour making on a clock. This will help the child understand the function of the clock face. This will help the child understand the functions of the passage of time in minutes. When this concept is understood, the hour hand may be attached and used to indicate how may times the minute hand has gone around. Knowing multiplication table 5 is helpful here. Teacher may also use digital watches for teaching time.

Volume
The use of quarter, half and one litre and gallon containers will help in developing an understanding of volume. Initially students may be allowed to measure the water, sand, etc. with the measuring cups. The students may be given practical experience of measuring water for making hot drinks measuring milk etc.

Weight
The concept may be introduced first by finding out the weight of each student and maintaining a weekly record. Activities of various types, which involve measuring the weight of flour, sugar, dhal and other commodities will provide a first hand experience of using weights. These activities may be incorporated in teaching home skills (cooking) to students.

Distance
In the beginning students may be asked to measure the area of books, tables, doors, windows etc. with a stick. Also draw lines on the floor and ask students to measure with a scale or with feet. Most youngsters with ASD will find it difficult to learn the measurement vocabulary and its use in metres, centimeters, millimeters of yards, feet, inches. However, the potential students may be taught if there is any practical use of the skill in the working situation.

3. Functional community orientation – Banking, bills, shopping, use of community resources

Providing children with a thorough understanding of financial literacy at an early age, is vital to ensure proper money management skills later in life. Setting a realistic budget, responsibly managing credit and debt, saving for unexpected expenses, and learning how to invest will all be important life skills for every young adult to master. Unfortunately, there are many students who enter into adulthood without entirely understanding how to manage their finances properly. Financial literacy is defined as a “meaning-making process”, in which individuals use acquired skills, external resources, and contextual knowledge to accurately process information and make competent decisions in regards to potential consequences of their financial decisions. Although there are lessons to be learned from trial and error, financial literacy is about managing finances proactively and with intention. For adults or college-age students, improvements of financial literacy can be made by educating yourself through reading books about saving money and setting financial goals, asking for guidance from a financial counselor, taking classes within your local community, or finding online resources which provide tools and assistance to help make good financial decisions. Unfortunately for children and young students, financial literacy is often left out of the typical education system’s curriculum. Parents and guardians become the primary educators when it comes to teaching children the money management skills which will allow for a strong foundation of lasting financial competence.

4. Self information – own name, parents name, address, phone numbers, etc

Knowing and being able to share personal information is one of the most important life skills for our students to have. This might be achieved verbally for some of our students, whereas other students might work on handing over a personal identification or ID card. Some of our students might be working on filling out more detailed forms, and others working on writing their names.

No matter where your students are at, they can (and should be) working on their personal information!

Personal Information as IEP Goals
I love using personal information as an IEP goal, or an objective. It is an essential life skill and ties into language arts/speaking/writing standards as well.

(You will notice a lot of my objectives are separated by letters. I like to separate sections of the objectives by letters so that I can be even more specific on how a student is performing on a skill without making it two objectives, so for example, I can say "Student is currently at 70% accuracy for tracing his first and last name. A) Student traces his first name with 90% accuracy, about one in every ten times he will forget or skip a letter. B) Student traces his last name with 50% accuracy, usually getting the first couple letters correct.")

Here are some of the phrases I have used in my objectives (of course with the "By ____, Student will.... with __% accuracy, __ out of __ trials.")

· Student will trace his a) first name and b) last name

· Student will match his personal information (a. name, b. address - street name. c. city, d. state, e. zip code, f. birthdate, g. age) with the appropriate section of a form.

· Student will be able to produce an ID card with his personal information in response to a personal information question such as “Can I see your ID” or “What is your address?” 

· Given the following personal information: name, birthday, and age, student will a) trace personal information b) copy personal information c) write personal information without a model.

· Student will complete a form using her personal information (a. name, b. birth date, c. address, d. phone number)

Practicing Personal Information Daily
One of the times we practice personal information is during our morning work or binder time. Each of my students have a form in their binders that they use to practice the personal information that relates to their IEP goal or what they need to work on. 

Ways to Fade Prompts and Teach Independence

When a student is working on memorizing their personal information, I usually start with them writing the information they know without a model (such as their name), and then the information they are learning with a light tracing font. I will then physically fade the tracing font to a lighter shade of gray as the student gets more practice.

5. General Knowledge & Awareness – current affairs, weather, national festivals, leaders, sports, etc

Exploring weather with children and building on their prior experiences helps them understand the different kinds of weather phenomena they experience every day.

Weather is an important part of our lives on Earth. People often look outside to see what the weather is before they begin their day. Observing weather can give us clues that help us dress for the day, plan activities, or prepare for a storm. In this media-rich lesson plan, children will observe, identify, and describe different types of local weather. They will investigate the four factors that describe weather—state of sky, temperature, wind, and precipitation—as they engage with interactive media and hands-on activities.

Learning objectives

• Children can identify and describe the factors of various types of weather (sunny, cloudy, rainy, snowy, warm, cold, windy) using key vocabulary.
• Children can compare the factors of different types of weather and identify similarities and differences.
• Children can collect and organize data on various types of weather.

Having grown up with this festive spirit over the years, we adults enjoy and appreciate the meaning of each of these cultural traditions in our lives, or we even consider these days to be auspicious to begin something new, or make a purchase, but do you think children these days really know and understand the significance of festivals and traditions? In fact, one can even put it to test – ask your child what is the significance of the nine-day Navratri celebration and which deity is worshipped during this time, or why is Durga puja celebrated or even why do we celebrate Diwali with lights? Likely responses will range from it being a time to play dress up, to being a time for indulgences for the entire family!

Why should we make an effort to teach our child about the several festivals that India celebrates? The reasons can vary from person to person, but here are a few reasons on why one could start.

· Fostering life-long bonds: Festivals are one time when families visit each other, go for holidays together, or even simply drop in to greet each other. It is a great time for the child to meet his cousins, grandparents and other family relatives, who otherwise may live far away. Meeting like this, will help your child bond better with the family over the long run as they grow up.

· Better understanding of the Indian culture: Celebrating festivals is a great way to teach your child about the Indian culture. Knowing more about why a festival is celebrated, what its significance is, and why we started celebrating it in the first place, can help a child understand the importance and significance of each festival, and it can be a great way to impart values to the child as well.

· Tolerance for tradition: Explaining the importance of each ritual and how it welcomes good fortune for the entire family, may not register with him/her just yet, but over the long run, once the child becomes an adult, these are the very same rituals he/she will follow, thanks to you taking the time out to explain their significance (and it won’t be because you said it should be done).

So, how can you teach your child about the importance of these festivals and not make it seem like an extra class that he has to attend besides his school? Here are some fun tips to get you started during the festive season:

· Make a game out of it: Make the festivities hard to get! Create a mock contest that your child has to win, in order to get his/her precious crackers, or the dandiya sticks for example. Pose questions and urge him/her to read up and be prepared on the eve of Diwali/Navratri night. This not only infuses fun in the learning process, but also helps him/her value the celebration that much more!

· Play dress up: Get fun costumes for your child to wear for different occasions, traditional outfits for Navratri, a Ravan mask for Dusshera, etc. This way he/she gets the opportunity to play around with the props and it becomes easier for him/her to understand the reason behind Ravan’s ten heads or why people play Dandiya during navratri.

· Festive Project: Involve your child in the home decoration process. Involve him/her right from the diya selection, to the rangoli decoration, to making the special festive food. Even if you don’t indulge in decorating the house yourself, make it a project for your children, they will not only enjoy decorating the house, but will also proudly show it off to family that comes to visit you.

· Dinner table conversations: Make festival or occasions a dinner table conversation as the date approaches, this shows your child, that you think it’s important, and he/she will automatically start showing interest in learning more about the festival/occasion.

While you may already be celebrating the festival in your own special way, the whole idea is to make a concerted effort with your child, to teach him/her the traditions and values that you as a family hold dear, and hope that these values will be passed on to the next generation, just as they were passed on to you from your parents and grandparents. In the end, make it fun, and make it festive! After all isn’t that what these festivals are for? Let’s together with our family spend Holidays as Holy-Days!