High School for students with intellectual disabilities

[Shelydon]

Is there a good place for curriculum ideas for students with lower IQ?  Rather than working many years below grade level, the parent would rather find curricula that is meant for high school to help train students for the work force upon graduation.  IQ is  low 80s and working memory is poor in for this particular student, but I would be interested in learning about resources to share with all kinds of parents who homeschool kiddos with disabilities.

[cbollin]

Some Resources I used with my youngest

Weiser Education. https://www.wiesereducational.com/  although I'll admit I tended to buy workbooks new from them and then textbooks on used market to meet budget

Susan Traugh's daily life skills materials on teachers pay teachers https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Susan-Traugh

had plans to connect with our state vocational rehab and/or private sources for workplace training, but covid happened. and ..... plans did not happen that way.  (ps: during my dd's high school time, she was able to begin to volunteer at our church's professional kitchen and still does that. right now not a pay position. she's not fully ready for that)

edit to add:  want some life drama lessons? without knowing tons of information that I don't need to know, I'd like to encourage this family to also include social media and visiting skills as part of life training. don't let your child be the young adult with a paid caregiver who thinks telling the caregiver to go to someone's house with gifts after being told multiple times Do Not Come Here and Do Not Get Us gifts.....   and if we don't answer you on social media right after, do not continue to pester us....    that happens too frequently in our disability community. and sadly the PA (paid caregivers) aren't helpful either.   what true story this week? yeah.   But hopefully in our case the young man (age 25) will be receiving some social skills training from some volunteers in the church based program community so he does not have to be banned  from all activities within the church groups with this behavior.   But when a young lady has told you NO multiple times and multiple parents in the group told you not to do this and you still told your driver to do it...  well..  be thankful I didn't call the police.

 

 

 

Edited March 12, 2022 by cbollin

[Clemsondana]

I don't have any specific suggestions.  I was talking with the person who teachers high school science at our zoned school and she said that she had to do double periods to get the kids through the scope and sequence for high school bio, which is mostly a ton of molecular biology and not particularly applicable for those students.  We talked about possible content that would actually be useful.  We thought maybe more ecology-based and hands-on - gardening (life cycle of plants, types of plants, maybe pests), plant and/or animal identification and their life cycles, cooking science, etc.  There's a lot to know that would be useful and applicable that isnt taught.  

Edited March 12, 2022 by Clemsondana

[Lori D.]

Blue Collar Homeschool - website
Blue Collar Homeschool FB -- Facebook group
Blazing New Homeschool Trails: Educating and Launching Teens with Developmental Disabilities -- book

The website and Facebook page were created by former WTMer Cindy LaJoy and her husband. The book was co-authored by Cindy and another homeschool mom with teens with learning challenges.

The website has resource ideas for students who are not college-bound. (She and her husband adopted 5 international children, all with a "...variety of variety of learning challenges including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Autism, Reactive Attachment Disorder, ADHD, Auditory Processing Disorder, short and long term memory issues, Sensory Integration Disorder, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia, slow processing speed, and unspecified developmental delay."

Cindy LaJoy, interviewed by Janice Campbell -- transcript of the interview, plus links to blue collar training and support resources

[cbollin]

tagging on with clemsondana's great ideas for real goals in biology.  One thing to check is if your area has an alternative academic diploma sequence in public schools that modifies standards to the needed stuff, and then add in practical or applied side of things.  With homeschooling I didn't have to do what state schools did but it was a nice resource to learn from to see what was the minimal essential topics.  personally, for yougnerst, in Chemistry, we did much of Friendly Chemistry (together and it didn't need lots of advanced math but I thought learning converting units was life skill so we did it) and then labs tended to be kitchen based food labs that explained beginnings of chemistry and cooking (used this book for applied side of labs https://my.nsta.org/resource/?id=10.2505/9781936137084

if i recall correctly from 4 years ago, we didn't do all of the labs in that book and one of them didn't work out. but that's ok.  and then I remember my dh wanted to work with her with labs from some MOOC that harvard edX did with science of cooking.  that was hiliarious because it was way more than I understood but our dd liked doing "big science with daddy".  LOL

so we did something for bio.  don't remember.  chemistry, and then a "third lab science" (although cover school said it didn't have to be lab) we did a combo of the christian dvd 101 series chemistry and physics and called it something like physical sciences. no one cared about sequence. LOL

 

math: focus was on applied, consumer, some algebra stuff and geometry, kitchen math, buying things at grocery stuff.  again, I did the blend of "academic" with "lighter resources" (in homeschooling point of view and/or stuff on Weiser product list) mixed with real life stuff.

history: notgrass, and Power Basics

English: ugh. she listened to stories, we tried to work toward basics of reading workplace documents and living life,  Bible reading. individual speech and language therapy.  Then covid happened and everything went to Zoom and she would type stuff in chat to her friends and began to give prepared talks online with public health director at special olympics (my kid was a webinar presentator!  what???????   So yeah, that was English.  sure. LOL she was a featured speaker. LOL.

electives were fun things and curriculum from weiser suggestions.

I'm babbling and rambling about my youngest. thanks

ps:  my youngest is almost 20 these days. IQ 70 ish so they say. autism, struggles to hold conversations, is not really at capacity for fully independent living.

 

Edited March 13, 2022 by cbollin

[Lori D.]

- "Favorite Curricula for Teens with Special Needs"
Article with links on the 7 Sisters homeschool curriculum website, with suggestions on how to adapt a course, and what to look for in a course. 

And a few more ideas:
- Walch Power Basics -- English, Math, Science, Consumer Science
 - Keys to...: Algebra, Geometry -- Math
- Guest Hollow - Kitchen Chemistry, Geography, 
- Science 101 DVD series -- I personally see these as middle school level, but they do list themselves as high school level and credit-worthy

[cbollin]

1 hour ago, Lori D. said:

-
- Science 101 DVD series -- I personally see these as middle school level, but they do list themselves as high school level and credit-worthy

just chatting.  Not challenging.  quoting you as jumping off point. 

Like Lori, I also think that for regular needs students they are middle school content level, or supplemental extra in high school.  I never considered the accreditation guides to be up to my personal standards for credit.  With that said, it was a commonly said thing to me (by consultants at cover school, hslda special ed consultants, etc) that if the student with IDD (intellectual and developmental disabilities) was at the age of high school, then one counts whatever is used without grossly overthinking and over worrying about is this 8th grade stuff or not, and then an appropriate name to the course.  My youngest enjoyed the video series a lot.  on a personal note, the new General Science video that company just published is hard to call a "science" class.  It introduces a lot of "what is this subject about" with hard sciences, soft sciences, social sciences, and discusses some stuff. I have no idea what I'd call it if I had used it with youngest in high school. Introduction to something, or Concepts in something... 

but then again, she was not 4 year college bound so little mattered in that regard of having perfect course title. Just enough to show it wasn't standard college bound.

yep to walch power basics. those were good fit..  Key to in Math - used those.  Guest hollow was too much to do for us  might be right for others.

oh, wait a second... in the 7 sisters article was mention of EdCon.  I ordered some of those literature from either Wieser Education site or possibly Rainbow Resource Center.  What I did was have dd go through the workbook and learn basic plot of the novel. Then we'd listen to an audio version of whole book. Here's an example of that.  oh, Rainbow Resource calls this "grade 4", but it should be noted that it was also in mind for special ed high school to grow with books in that make sense. https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/002859/Time-Machine-Classic-Worktext.html?

anyway, can't find them on Wieser right now. There were about 10 novels per "level" so we'd do several a year.  My dd struggles so much with language and abstract understanding that a "real literature course" just never happened.

Also  as pointed out in the 7 sisters article Lori linked, some of picking curriculum and some resources forget that "learning disabilities" are not the same as "intellectual disabilities".  So that means sometimes stuff used for those with average IQ but have learning blocks does not always work well with others with IDD.  Sometimes it does.  Personal story. One time one of cover school SPED consultants tried to tell us to look into something with name along the lines of Movies as Literature.  But I looked at the movie list and my dd would not have understood anything in those big grown up movies.   and as weird as this may sound out loud, for some of her literature, I grabbed her older sister's college text (Literature for Children) and used ideas in there even though the text was geared toward learning about teaching early elementary.  I didn't use the EdCon books each year. tried lots of stuff. Even one of the textbook anthology approaches with HI/LO (high school content but lower reading level)

anyway, my point is that sometimes just normal ole "light" or "average" homeschooling products work fine with minor accommodations. And sometimes you have to get whole other product lines. And from non homeschooling sources too.

[pitterpatter]

I really don't know whether this will help you, but I remember coming across this company a couple of years ago.

https://www.rempub.com/index.php?route=common/home

[Dmmetler]

4 hours ago, cbollin said:

just chatting.  Not challenging.  quoting you as jumping off point. 

Like Lori, I also think that for regular needs students they are middle school content level, or supplemental extra in high school.  I never considered the accreditation guides to be up to my personal standards for credit.  With that said, it was a commonly said thing to me (by consultants at cover school, hslda special ed consultants, etc) that if the student with IDD (intellectual and developmental disabilities) was at the age of high school, then one counts whatever is used without grossly overthinking and over worrying about is this 8th grade stuff or not, and then an appropriate name to the course.  My youngest enjoyed the video series a lot.  on a personal note, the new General Science video that company just published is hard to call a "science" class.  It introduces a lot of "what is this subject about" with hard sciences, soft sciences, social sciences, and discusses some stuff. I have no idea what I'd call it if I had used it with youngest in high school. Introduction to something, or Concepts in something... 

but then again, she was not 4 year college bound so little mattered in that regard of having perfect course title. Just enough to show it wasn't standard college bound.

yep to walch power basics. those were good fit..  Key to in Math - used those.  Guest hollow was too much to do for us  might be right for others.

oh, wait a second... in the 7 sisters article was mention of EdCon.  I ordered some of those literature from either Wieser Education site or possibly Rainbow Resource Center.  What I did was have dd go through the workbook and learn basic plot of the novel. Then we'd listen to an audio version of whole book. Here's an example of that.  oh, Rainbow Resource calls this "grade 4", but it should be noted that it was also in mind for special ed high school to grow with books in that make sense. https://www.rainbowresource.com/product/002859/Time-Machine-Classic-Worktext.html?

anyway, can't find them on Wieser right now. There were about 10 novels per "level" so we'd do several a year.  My dd struggles so much with language and abstract understanding that a "real literature course" just never happened.

Also  as pointed out in the 7 sisters article Lori linked, some of picking curriculum and some resources forget that "learning disabilities" are not the same as "intellectual disabilities".  So that means sometimes stuff used for those with average IQ but have learning blocks does not always work well with others with IDD.  Sometimes it does.  Personal story. One time one of cover school SPED consultants tried to tell us to look into something with name along the lines of Movies as Literature.  But I looked at the movie list and my dd would not have understood anything in those big grown up movies.   and as weird as this may sound out loud, for some of her literature, I grabbed her older sister's college text (Literature for Children) and used ideas in there even though the text was geared toward learning about teaching early elementary.  I didn't use the EdCon books each year. tried lots of stuff. Even one of the textbook anthology approaches with HI/LO (high school content but lower reading level)

anyway, my point is that sometimes just normal ole "light" or "average" homeschooling products work fine with minor accommodations. And sometimes you have to get whole other product lines. And from non homeschooling sources too.

Math for elementary school teacher textbooks are often a great resource too. They're focused on teaching elementary kids, so they break down math really fine, but none of the math taught is all that hard. And since it's a college resource, I had no trouble listing it as a high school class for S (who has learning disabilities). I don't know if it would work for IDD, but it's worth considering as a parent resource. And, honestly, it gives kind of an "up" for a struggling student to be able to use something from a college tecfbook, even if said textbook comes with punch out base 10 blocks and pattern blocks in the back!

[kbutton]

https://classroomcompletepress.com/  These are well-scaffolded literature guides, and I think they might have other subjects as well. 

https://www.enasco.com/c/Education-Supplies/Special-Education

Nasco has some really interesting supplements for all kinds of things that aren't necessarily in the SE section of their site. For instance, they have an entire catalog just for math if you want to sign up for it. It's about half an inch thick!

This is one really cool resource for algebra (if you get that far): https://www.enasco.com/p/Nasco-Algebraic-Bossé-Tiles-Activity-Book-I%2BTB24565  Be sure to see the second book and to look at the tile sets that go with it.

Scaffolded Math and Science has both a blog and a TpT store. https://www.scaffoldedmath.com/ 

I think what works for you will depend a bit on whether you prefer to start lower and add something or modify something harder than what you need. I would not discount really solid middle school materials, but then go sideways or add things in. It really depends on what the original resource is like. 

 

[Shelydon]

On 3/12/2022 at 8:51 AM, cbollin said:

Some Resources I used with my youngest

Weiser Education. https://www.wiesereducational.com/  although I'll admit I tended to buy workbooks new from them and then textbooks on used market to meet budget

Susan Traugh's daily life skills materials on teachers pay teachers https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/Susan-Traugh

had plans to connect with our state vocational rehab and/or private sources for workplace training, but covid happened. and ..... plans did not happen that way.  (ps: during my dd's high school time, she was able to begin to volunteer at our church's professional kitchen and still does that. right now not a pay position. she's not fully ready for that)

edit to add:  want some life drama lessons? without knowing tons of information that I don't need to know, I'd like to encourage this family to also include social media and visiting skills as part of life training. don't let your child be the young adult with a paid caregiver who thinks telling the caregiver to go to someone's house with gifts after being told multiple times Do Not Come Here and Do Not Get Us gifts.....   and if we don't answer you on social media right after, do not continue to pester us....    that happens too frequently in our disability community. and sadly the PA (paid caregivers) aren't helpful either.   what true story this week? yeah.   But hopefully in our case the young man (age 25) will be receiving some social skills training from some volunteers in the church based program community so he does not have to be banned  from all activities within the church groups with this behavior.   But when a young lady has told you NO multiple times and multiple parents in the group told you not to do this and you still told your driver to do it...  well..  be thankful I didn't call the police.

 

 

 

Thanks! I am taking a look at these.  I agree that direct teach of social skills and social media is super important!

[Shelydon]

On 3/12/2022 at 7:49 PM, kbutton said:

https://classroomcompletepress.com/  These are well-scaffolded literature guides, and I think they might have other subjects as well. 

https://www.enasco.com/c/Education-Supplies/Special-Education

Nasco has some really interesting supplements for all kinds of things that aren't necessarily in the SE section of their site. For instance, they have an entire catalog just for math if you want to sign up for it. It's about half an inch thick!

This is one really cool resource for algebra (if you get that far): https://www.enasco.com/p/Nasco-Algebraic-Bossé-Tiles-Activity-Book-I%2BTB24565  Be sure to see the second book and to look at the tile sets that go with it.

Scaffolded Math and Science has both a blog and a TpT store. https://www.scaffoldedmath.com/ 

I think what works for you will depend a bit on whether you prefer to start lower and add something or modify something harder than what you need. I would not discount really solid middle school materials, but then go sideways or add things in. It really depends on what the original resource is like. 

 

Thank you!  This looks like something I could dig through and help a family structure a good high school program

[Shelydon]

On 3/12/2022 at 9:49 AM, Lori D. said:

Blue Collar Homeschool - website
Blue Collar Homeschool FB -- Facebook group
Blazing New Homeschool Trails: Educating and Launching Teens with Developmental Disabilities -- book

The website and Facebook page were created by former WTMer Cindy LaJoy and her husband. The book was co-authored by Cindy and another homeschool mom with teens with learning challenges.

The website has resource ideas for students who are not college-bound. (She and her husband adopted 5 international children, all with a "...variety of variety of learning challenges including Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder, Autism, Reactive Attachment Disorder, ADHD, Auditory Processing Disorder, short and long term memory issues, Sensory Integration Disorder, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia, slow processing speed, and unspecified developmental delay."

Cindy LaJoy, interviewed by Janice Campbell -- transcript of the interview, plus links to blue collar training and support resources

Nice!  I didn't know about these resources.  Thank you!

[Shelydon]

On 3/12/2022 at 12:36 PM, cbollin said:

anyway, my point is that sometimes just normal ole "light" or "average" homeschooling products work fine with minor accommodations. And sometimes you have to get whole other product lines. And from non homeschooling sources too.

I agree with this!!  I am good at helping augment materials for learning disabilities like dyslexia, specific language disorder, dysgraphia.  For ID though, I feel like the average parent needs more help and a lower level curriculum could work.