Special Education

5+ Essential Life Skills Activities for Special Needs Students

Life skills activities for special needs students are designed to teach them independent living skills. These life skills will help them to be more independent and self-sufficient.

>>> Check out my ultimate list of Social Skills Stories and Narratives for special needs kids right here. <<<

Life Skills Activities for Special Needs Kids

There are many life skills activities that have been developed for this purpose and they are tailored to the needs of each individual student. These can include: cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, dressing oneself, and grooming oneself.

Life Skills Activities for Special Needs

Looking for some easy ways to include life skills in the classroom? Here are some basic life skills every student let alone child needs to learn.

  • Learn to garden and appreciate plants.
  • Teach kids how to sew a button.
  • Count money and pretend play (shopping)
  • Learn about home safety.
  • Learn about kitchen safety.
  • Use common tools in the home.
  • Set the table for dinner.
  • Fold laundry.
  • Learn emergency numbers.
  • Bake a sweet treat.

Teach Calming Skills with these super fun resources.

calm down area in classroom

Want to teach kids how to manage their feelings and calm their senses? These are some of the BEST ideas to add into your calm down corner.

Another way to teach calming strategies for self care is explained wonderfully by Learning for a Purpose. Check out some ways on how you can teach self care in a calm manner.

Playing With Words has a list of 3 fun materials for special needs learners and kids.

Fun materials for special needs kids
Fun materials for special needs kids Via Playing With Words

Staying Safe

Staying safe encompasses everything from never playing with matches or talking to strangers to a wide variety of things in between.

Contact your local fire station or go online to see if that particular location gives tours or makes educational materials available.

The best way to teach the importance of safety is, by hands-on experience. Let’s face it, what child wouldn’t want to sit behind the wheel of a fire truck?

Managing Money

When kids grow up, they’re obviously responsible for their own finances. If they don’t learn how to handle their money at an early age, life will probably be quite difficult for them.

via GIPHY

Consider giving your children an allowance at an early age. It doesn’t have to be much, by any means.

Plan classroom activities around the topic. Setting up a “mini store” is just one example of this.

In addition, many websites offer free printables to make learning about money fun.

A quick query using your favorite search engine should result in plenty of great options to print and share with your students. There are so many ways to include money type activities into your classroom!

Showing Respect

Showing respect is another life skill that every individual needs to learn. Always demand respect from your children, in a calm and gentle manner.

Schedule a time to role-play with one another, acting out scenarios where respect is basically nonexistent.

This way, they get to experience what it feels like to be treated disrespectfully. And, hopefully it will help to prevent them from being disrespectful in the future.

I love to use these Feelings Flash cards or this fun Social Skills Activity unit to teach children how to interpret body language in different situations.

I also love using Visual Schedule to help kids in keeping their focus on the task at hand. If you haven’t tried them yet, they are a game changer!

Boost your child or students and learners’ concentration and focus skills by encourage these essential things:

Essential Life Skills Activities for Special Needs Students

These are just a few of many life skills that children need to learn when they’re relatively young.

Failure to do so will ultimately make adulthood all the more difficult.

If you’re not touching on these topics now, there really is no better time to get started.

I hope this list was helpful to you, there will be more to come on this topic.

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