My students need a CD player and headphones so they can listen to music independently, and learn to appropriately stay engaged in a single activity during leisure time.
Our students with severe autism need to be taught simple skills that others take for granted, such as how to occupy oneself for extended periods of time by engaging in age-appropriate leisure skills.
My students are between 18 and 21 years old, and have severe autism.
Their communication skills, self-care skills, and social skills are very limited. They need to be explicitly taught coping strategies and alternate skills in order to function as independently as possible in the community and with family. They attend a public school in Delaware that is exclusively for students diagnosed with autism. The school is ungraded. Students have been accepted as young as 18 months, and they graduate the year they turn 21. Some of the students will be able to obtain paying jobs upon graduating, and some will go on to adult agencies that will allow the graduates to work in more controlled settings. We spend our days at school working on a variety of skills, including communication, social skills, self-care skills, rec. leisure skills, and vocational skills.
My Project
I am requesting a new CD player with headphones. Listening to music is an age-appropriate pastime that helps teach the students to sit quietly while our full attention is elsewhere. This skill is extremely useful in multiple locations with the various people in their lives. Listening to music helps students sit patiently while waiting for something or someone. It is also a pleasant break for them between work tasks.
Learning to engage in recreational leisure activities appropriately is a skill that will serve our students throughout their lives.
It is our goal that the students become independent and active members of society to the best of their abilities, and this includes being able to fill their "down time" with age-appropriate activities. This will serve them in whichever settings they encounter in life, be they work locations or home.
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