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Page 6: Student Development
Student development, another component of the Taxonomy for Transition Programming, is closely related to student-focused planning. Information collected from the transition assessments conducted as part of student-focused planning helps teachers to identify the skills, behaviors, and knowledge a student needs to be successful in the areas of education, independent living, and employment. To help students to develop these skills, behaviors, and knowledge, the teacher can use a number of evidence-based practices, five of which are highlighted below.
Description: A learning strategy in which words or letters are used to help promote the memorization of information or implementation steps. For example, the mnemonic SELECT is sometimes used to help students remember the steps of completing a job application:
- Survey the application
- Emphasize the words that indicate the type of information requested
- Locate cues that indicate where the information is to be entered
- Enter the requested information
- Check to see whether the information is accurate
- Turn the application in to the appropriate individual
Nelson, Smith, & Dodd (1994)
Validated for:
- Academic skills
- Employment/occupational skills
- Completing a job application
Description: A method that makes use of visual, auditory, textual, or symbolic prompts to remind a student how to complete a task. For example, auditory cues (the steps required for cleaning) are provided on a tape recorder to help a student complete the task.
Validated for:
- Life skills
- Food preparation and cooking skills
- Leisure skills
- Home-maintenance skills
- Social skills
- Grocery shopping skills
- Laundry tasks
- Purchasing skills
- Employment/occupational skills
Description: In this instructional practice, students learn skills in the environments where they will be used. For example, a student might learn how to cash a check at an actual local bank.
Validated for:
- Life skills
- Banking skills
- Grocery shopping skills
- Community integration skills
- Safety skills
- Communication skills
- Employment/occupational skills
Description: A method used by students to manage, monitor, record, or assess their behavior or academic achievement. Self-management, also known as self-regulation, includes self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-instruction, and goal-setting. For example, students are taught to self-monitor academic accuracy (number of items completed correctly) and productivity (number of problems completed daily) in mathematics.
Validated for:
- Academic skills
- Life skills
- Social skills
- Functional life skills (e.g., using washer and dryer, using phone, making grocery list)
- Employment/occupational skills
- Job-specific skills
Description: Computer software is used to provide instruction and practice opportunities to improve a student’s specific knowledge, skills, or academic performance. Generally, these software programs offer a drill and practice format or a tutorial instruction format. For example, a student can practice addition using a computer software program.
Validated for:
- Academic skills
- Life skills
- Food preparation and cooking skills
- Grocery shopping skills
- Employment/occupational skills
- Job-specific skills
When teachers use practices like the ones above, they can increase the likelihood of student success by providing accommodations and supports. Teachers should understand that accommodations that work for one student might not work for all. Once the IEP team has identified the appropriate accommodations for a student, the teacher or another professional need to:
- Provide the identified accommodations
- Evaluate the effectiveness of each accommodation
Paula Kohler elaborates on accommodations for students with disabilities (time: 1:19).
Paula Kohler, PhD
Director, Career Connections Research Center
Western Michigan University
Transcript: Paula Kohler, PhD
We can’t forget about the individual piece. So often I’ve seen kind of rubber-stamped IEPs. I see it when we’ve had a student with learning disabilities. Surely the student must need the exact same accommodations as the next student. We can’t assume that, and we’re doing a disservice to our children and to our young adults when we make those sorts of assumptions. We have to keep the individual in IEPs. I can teach the student how to use those accommodations either in other educational settings or in post-school settings. So if you’re teaching a student to rely on peer support or to rely on a reading strategy or a communication strategy and you develop those by working with the student in that gen. ed. classroom, the student needs to learn how to apply those to their post-school settings when they’re in college or for employment or for living in the community. So assessment of both knowledge, skills, and certainly effectiveness of specific accommodations connect student-focused planning with student development and for the real important role for general educators and for special educators in providing those pieces.
Research Shows
The following list of skills and supports has been associated with positive post-school outcomes for students with disabilities in the areas of education, employment, and independent living.
Education | Employment | Independent Living | |
Student supports | ![]() |
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Self-care/Independent living | ![]() |
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Career awareness | ![]() |
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Vocational education courses | ![]() |
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Social skills | ![]() |
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(Test, 2012a)