At School

• 1). Begin life skills instruction before the student reaches high school. Although formal instruction in job and community skills does not usually begin until high school, skills like independent travel, delivery of messages and management of personal belongings can be taught as early as elementary school.
  
  
• 2). Teach life skills including cooking, light cleaning and money handling in the special education classroom. Students with special needs will need more practice with these than their typical peers and may need some specialized instruction to master them. Students may also need to be taught leisure skills, like selecting a magazine, reading the sports section of the newspaper or choosing a movie to see in the theater, all of which will help them to socialize and function more independently.
  
  
• 3). Prepare students for trips into the community. This includes providing them with a schedule of events or activities. If a trip to a restaurant is on the schedule, contact the restaurant to get a menu in advance so that students can practice ordering and adding up their bill. If your community has public transit, practice using the maps and schedules, and teach children who to look for if they are lost or confused.
  
  
• 4). Provide lots of supervised practice using community resources. Take them on trips to the library, the movies, the bank and the grocery store. Once students have learned how to conduct basic purchases, you can give them more challenging assignments, such as finding out what aisle a certain product is found in.
  
  

With Family

• 1). Give a child with special needs a job to do while shopping or running other errands. For example, make a photographic shopping list with the child's favorite snack foods and have her pick them out in the grocery store. Once the child has learned how to count and use money, have her pay for the items herself, as well.
  
  
• 2). Assign chores to the child with special needs. At first, it may be much more work than doing it yourself, but help the child to become more independent with each task until he can do it alone. Make a list of tasks, using pictures if necessary. At first, assign just one or two items, but gradually increase responsibility.
  
  
• 3). Use social stories or pictures of familiar places to help the child predict what will happen on an outing. This is an excellent opportunity to remind her of appropriate behavior. To make these trips successful, start small. Begin with one short errand so the child has a good experience, and build up to longer or less fun trips.
  
  

In Community Organizations

• 1). Encourage students with special needs to join school and community organizations, such as Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts or sports teams. Be prepared to provide additional support during activities, and give information to leaders and coaches about what the student needs to succeed.
  
  
• 2). Seek out organizations such as Best Buddies, which provides individuals from middle school through adulthood in one-to-one friendships with typical peers. Joining a Best Buddies chapter allows a pupil with a disability to practice age-appropriate social skills and participate in community activities with friends.
  
  
• 3). Help students with special needs to find opportunities for volunteer work, preferably in an area they are interested in. With the support of an adult or a knowledgeable peer, a student with special needs can be an asset to a volunteer organization. This gives the student the opportunity to practice community skills and meet new people, and it gives the volunteers and staff at the organization the opportunity to get to know the student and his skills better.