Susan Traugh

Prescription Education Week is a great time to teach teens with special needs how to renew a prescription. Renewing a prescription is a vital adult living skill and can be especially important to young adults with special needs. Free Lesson on Renewing Prescriptions “Renewing a Prescription” from Daily Living Skills’ workbook Using the Telephone offers important step-by-step information on how to use the telephone to renew maintenance prescriptions using today’s automated sys

Helping teens stay safe while driving is an important adult living skill. Road rage can be a deadly problem for young people and learning how to cool it can be a life-saving adult living skill for teens, and especially teens with special needs. Road Rage is Common According to MOTOsafety, 40% of teens experience anger while on the road.* The article link below offers good advice on steps teens can take to avoid the stress of road rage and help teens remain calm while driv

October’s National Financial Planning Month is a great time to help teens learn the fundamentals of budget planning. Creating, and living within, a budget is an essential adult living skill that will allow young adults, especially those with special needs, to be successful in life. Try a Free Lesson “Creating a Budget” from Daily Living Skills’ workbook Paying Bills is a good way to set out the fundamentals of creating a budget. This free lesson offers the basics in budge

We all know that mental health issues have become an epidemic in our country today. And, those issues become especially intensified as the darkness of winter brings on the “winter blues.” Maybe that’s why October contains National Depression Education Month, National Mental Health Awareness Week, and National Emotion Awareness Month. Do you think they’re trying to tell us something? Fighting the Winter Blues But, while there’s no question that “the blues” are more prevalent d

Use “Self-Improvement Month” to get your students on the right foot for school—and life. It can often be difficult for students with special needs to keep their lives organized and efficient. This free lesson from Daily Living Skills can help your students begin the school year with a new set of healthy lifestyle choices. Self-Improvement Starts with Small Steps This free lesson begins with the basics. But these are the foundation on which all other skills rest. A healthy

You hear about the “affordability crisis” everywhere today. But what is it, and how do we teach teens with special needs about affordability? Here is a free lesson breaking down the key components of affordability for students with both special needs and the general education population alike. How to Teach This Lesson Display the graphic. Discuss each of the four components of affordability displayed on the graphic. Have students provide examples of each component. Brainstorm

It seems there’s a natural disaster every day. This makes it vitally important to teach our teens with special needs how to prepare for and react to an emergency as part of their transition skills for adult living. Help on the Web The U.S. government provides a valuable website at Ready.gov for any emergency that happens across the country. Whether you’re preparing for a flood, earthquake, hurricane, tornado, or other disaster, they have an impressive array of resources t

Budgeting is an essential skill needed for independent living. By starting with small steps, we can help our students with special needs learn this vital skill and enhance their ability to manage money responsibly and make wise choices for their lives. Buying Lunch is a lesson from Transition in Ten which allows students to practice budgeting a fixed amount of money to buy a variety of lunches. This quick lesson makes good bell-work, or easy practice during rotations or stati

It’s difficult to be financially responsible if you don’t have finances to work with! And creating an eye-catching resume is a first step towards helping students with special needs find their first jobs. September’s National Revise Your Resume Day is the perfect time to help students create that important employment tool. Getting Started For students with special needs, creating a resume is not a 5-minute project, but that doesn’t mean that their final produce can’t be impre

Teaching teens self-care is a vital skill for adult living. September is Self-Care Awareness Month and a good time to teach teens with special needs how to take care of themselves. Self-Care involves a variety of skills young people need to live healthy lives and understanding the basics of those skills can be—literally—life-saving. Increasing Awareness of Self-Care Self-Care Awareness starts with that very awareness that self-care is necessary. Many teens, especially tho