Room 2 - Curriculum Room (Section 5 of 8)
Section 5 - Independent living skills (ILS)
Description of Independent living skills (ILS)
Relatively few policy documents analysed made reference to curriculum beyond travel, and fewer still to independent living skills. Interviews also suggest that many services do not provide support for the development of these skills. However, some did provide support for this and all thought it important (though differences regarding appropriate provider exist).
A list of key skills
In our research we spoke to many professionals involved in working with children who are visually impaired. Here we present a list of some of the key independent living skills (ILS) which they felt were important. This list is a useful start, though it does not necessarily cover everything.
List: Advanced mobility and independence – ILS
Kitchen skills:
- Using equipment including adapted equipment
- Chopping and weighing food, pouring
- Recognising different foodstuffs
- Cooking
- Preparing meals
- Preparing snacks, tea, coffee, toast, buttering
- Household management
- Laundry
- Making the bed, setting the table
- Provisions management
- Money management
- Personal presentation skills
- Eating skills, public eating
- Knowing colours
- Make-up lessons
- Shaving
- Dressing
- Laying clothes out
- Shoe laces
- Personal hygiene, teeth
- Medication
- Shopping
- Self-service café and various other contexts
- ‘Transferability of skills’ and ‘problem solving’
As with all parts of the M&I curriculum, this overlaps with other curriculum areas, and work carried out by other professionals. In the case of independent living skills the following may be useful:
- Design and technology (food)
- Science (regarding practical work)
- Physical Education (dressing)
- Personal, social and health education
- Low Vision Team
Good practice: Some examples of ‘ILS’ activities
The following are examples of good practice carried out by services that were identified in the research project:
The Mobility Officer uses games to assess a child, e.g. throw/catch, and visual tasks and basic ILS tasks, e.g. identifying products in shops, getting children to tie their shoe laces as an indicator of ability to carry out other dressing skills. NEWHAM
Many respondents expressed the importance of designing a mobility and independence programme which should provide children with a visual impairment with rich ‘everyday’ activities which they may not have experienced, thus compensating for the lack of incidental learning experiences which are often associated with severe visual impairment. One respondent eloquently referred to this as the ‘experiential curriculum’. Examples of everyday experiences might include going to the shops, posting a letter in a post box, using an escalator in a shopping complex, experiencing different types of public transport, and so on. This experiential curriculum was seen as particularly important for children who, for a variety of reasons (including socio-economic), may have fewer opportunities for such experiences. VARIOUS SOURCES
Although travel skills are the main focus, ILS are covered as and when required, e.g. a parent might ask how to teach their child to do various things like pouring tea, buttering toast. The MO also recommends a lot of RNIB equipment like talking microwaves, level indicators. ROCHDALE
Independent living skills are covered mainly in holidays as there is little time available in term time. The MIE has a more advisory role - for example may advise on equipment in a mainstream school together with the QTVI in a Home Economics lesson, or advise parents on ways of supporting their children on life skills in the home environment. DERBY
The rehabilitation officer (RO) covers ILS because children are not encouraged to carry out ILS like dressing at school or at home. Therefore on wet days the RO would get younger children to practice putting on / taking off their coat and clothes for PE lessons. Tying shoe laces, toggles and buttons were all part of a programme for dressing skills. When children get older, skills include appropriate use of machinery like microwaves, pouring skills, and going to cupboard for juice and coke. NEWCASTLE
The rehab officer always took children to a cafe at some point in their mobility and independence education to buy something to eat so she could assess their table manners as she believed some parents are not aware of having to teach their children public conduct. NEWCASTLE
In one authority the QTVIs cover things like preparing for school dinners, packed lunches and dressing for PE lessons, but this is classified as part of the normal role of the QTVI working with the child in school or with parents in the home, rather than being classified as M&I. This is an advantage of a QTVI delivering mobility and independence since some aspects of M&I overlap with the work of the QTVI. NORTHANTS
ILS that are directly linked to travel are covered including telephoning for bus times and to order taxis. To cover non-travel related ILS, the mobility officer has organised ILS residential weekends, where they’ve taken children away to do things like cooking, cleaning and ironing. Also cover ILS in the children’s homes as with some blind children it is more beneficial to teach them at home as they need to be able to use the equipment in their home, know where things are, etc. Involving parents is useful to let them see what their children are capable of doing, else they tend to think they can’t/shouldn’t make a hot drink, for example. STAFFORDSHIRE
Children are taken to self-service cafes as they’re excellent for practising independence skills like buttering a scone, making a cup of tea, filling the tea pot with hot water, etc. Also cover dressing skills with younger children, how to find the peg to hang their coat on, and when they have swimming in the special schools, sticking to a set routine of taking shoes and socks off first, and knowing how to lay their clothes out in order. ROTHERHAM
Activity 6
Think about a variety of children you know. Try to think about all the tasks they engage in over a given day. Choose one or two of these tasks and write down how you might go about teaching a visually impaired child to do it. Also think about other people who might be involved in this teaching process and why.
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