January 2018

This month’s unit, "Looking Good Every Day," addresses the topic of taking care of grooming and hygiene needs. The unit provides lessons and activities about the importance of personal grooming including activities in the Transition Passport: Personal Life/ Personal Care. As we assist our young adults in the transition from school to work, it is necessary that they receive training in daily living and personal care skills. Taking care of personal grooming needs means that your young adult may need to learn new skills. Knowing how to take care of themselves and their clothes are skills needed for independent living. Some people may need support people to come in to help with some of these skills. This unit will provide our young adults with the tools needed to learn about daily grooming tasks that are part of keeping clean and well.

The unit stories help young adults learn the importance of feeling and looking good every day. The first story shares the daily hygiene routine of a young man who uses a wheelchair. The need to have a daily grooming routine to be sure you are clean and healthy is stressed. Even cleaning the young man’s wheelchair is part of a regimen of personal care. Team members will learn that having someone to assist in personal care may be an important part of keeping clean and well. The second story shows what can happen when personal hygiene is neglected. Sasha is confused about the negative reaction of co-workers on a day when she has not taken the time to shower, brush her teeth and put on clean clothes before going to work. She learns the consequences of making a poor choice related to personal hygiene. The three articles offer practical information on specific grooming tasks; how often to do each and how to perform these properly. Team members will learn skills needed to be clean and neat.

Regular monthly lessons are provided which offer the opportunity to practice the skills needed to care of themselves. Personal care needs are addressed in banking and budgeting where the importance of budgeting for needs before spending money on wants is stressed. The monthly cooking lesson offers five healthy recipes for our young adults to practice using their Daily living skills. Social and communication skills are the focus of lessons presenting daily social trivia scenarios offering more opportunity for our young adults to practice skills needed to care for personal hygiene.

Our regular focus on employment continues in several lessons each month. Lessons include exploring different jobs, reading job ads, completing job applications and practicing interview skills. Simple, realistic scenarios address job skills and interactions at work. The final lesson highlights volunteering as a way to practice job skills and gain practical work experience. This month's volunteer activity is volunteering at a nursing home arts and crafts fair. The activity can be role played if it is not practical to participate in a real-life situation. Job skills are emphasized as team members take on various tasks.