Since the 1970s, a national effort through federal policies has been implemented to develop secondary transition practices and improve postsecondary outcomes for students with disabilities. Despite the increasing emphasis on enhancing transition programs, transition outcomes for high school students with disabilities continue to be poor, marked by limited access to paid work experience in their communities, limited participation in postsecondary education, and independent living compared to their peers. While multiple factors can impact the effectiveness of program instruction, based on the literature review and the author’s experience, one aspect of the transition program, the implementation of life skills instruction, will be the focus of this project. CoTeaching for Life Skills Instruction is a program that emphasizes a collaborative approach with the school-based occupational therapist and special education teacher that dually serves as an embedded professional development opportunity and instructional practice. The program aims to bridge teacher knowledge gaps and meet the instructional needs of students requiring high support, such as students with intellectual disability, autism, and orthopedic impairment. Through an improved understanding of developmental levels and how cognitive and physical disability can impact task performance, the classroom teacher will develop lesson plans and activities that align with the student’s functional level leading to active rather than passive participation and increased opportunities to meet transition goals. Incorporated in the author’s work is a program evaluation plan to study the effectiveness of the pilot co-teaching approach. Positive results from the program implementation and evaluation can influence the school district to enact a policy that includes occupational therapy services as embedded support within moderate to severe classrooms. Occupational therapy practitioners in a co-teaching capacity provide an opportunity to expand the school-based occupational therapy practitioner’s role as a valued member of the transition planning team while supporting the needs of special education teachers.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bu.edu/oai:open.bu.edu:2144/45428 |
| Date | 09 January 2023 |
| Creators | Cerdenio, Rejielyn Ebora |
| Contributors | Duddy, Karen |
| Source Sets | Boston University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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