Functional
curriculum
Christine A. Macfarlane, Ph.D.
Sped 535 Integrated Curriculum
and Methods for Students with
Disabilities: Functional
Skills must be chronologically
age-appropriate
Can interview peers
Survey peers
Observe peers
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Functional skills
Immediately useful
Demanded in everyday activities and
environments, both in and out of school
Result in greater independence & less
dependence
Allow access to less restrictive
environments
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Criterion of ultimate
functioning
Skills that adolescents and adults with
severe disabilities would need in order to
function as effectively and independently
as possible in vocational, residential, and
social environments
Should reflect need for transitions from
one environment to the subsequent or next
environment
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Criterion of the next
environment
Skills a student
needs in the next
educational
environment
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Criterion of the immediate
environment
Consider needs for
student to function
in the immediate or
current
environment(s)
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Criterion of the least
dangerous assumption
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"A functional curriculum could be defined as
the life skills needed by a student in the
current environment in which he or she was
functioning, the life skills needed in the
student's immediate next education
environment, and the skills the student would
need after leaving school to function in
vocational, residential, and recreational
environments."
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Personalized Curriculum
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Domains of Adult Life Skills
Community
Domestic
Leisure/Recreation
Vocational
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Ecological inventories
A systematic, flexible process for
determining a scope and sequence of
functional living skills
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Relationship of domains
Not all skills fit tidily into one
domain.
Many have application across more
than one domain.
"More bang for the buck".
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Related skills
Functional
academics
Communication
skills
Motor skills
Social skills

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Community-Referenced
Instruction
Aligning assessment and instruction
to the natural cues in the
environment
Referencing instruction to your
community!
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Life in a Greek Hotel
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Oregon Statewide Assessment
Extended CIM
 Math
 Reading
 Writing
Extended Career & Life Role
Assessment System (CLRAS)
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Principal of partial participation
Can't deny child access because of
physical or cognitive deficits
Individuals with (severe) disabilities
can acquire many skills that will allow
them to function, at least in part, in a
wide variety of least restrictive
environments and activities.
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The child should be allowed to
participate in the activity even when:
the child does not exhibit all the necessary
prerequisite skills,
the child will not be able to acquire all
components of the skill,
the child may not complete the entire
activity or skill independently, and
the child's developmental age is lower than
his or her corresponding chronological age.
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Frequently thought of as providing
physical assistance, but that is too
narrow a definition
Can be physical assistance
Can be a prosthesis
Can be communicative in nature to
determine quality or make choices.
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Types of adaptations
Provide personal assistance
Modify skills or activities
Use an assistive device
Modify the physical and social
environments
Orelove & Sobsey, 1996
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Can't always come up with a
modification that will allow the
person to function independently,
but can increase level of
participation and thus independence.
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Patterns of error in using
partial participation
Ferguson & Baumgart, 1991
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Passive participation
Sitting in a classroom, i.e., just being
present, doesn’t necessarily make it active
participation
Example: going to music class, but not
being able to sing or play the instruments
Nonexample: Listening to a book being
read
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Myopic participation
Focus is too narrow, doesn’t meet full
needs of student, family, or
community
Example: parent requests help with
shopping; teacher implements in
nongeneralizable environment
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Piecemeal participation
Not connecting in-class instruction
with out-of-class instruction
throughout the day
Example: Instructional lesson aimed
at object permanence, public library
outing in afternoon, play story tape in
evening at home
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Missed participation
 The length of time required to learn to do
something independently may be too time
consuming, might be better to simply rely on
personal assistance, so valuable time can be spent
learning other skills as well
 Example: Can’t grasp items in cafeteria to place
on tray, can’t carry tray. Since there are always
people present in the cafeteria, might be better
to just leave it at that.
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Remediation strategies
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Active participation
Rather than worry about expanding a
behavioral repertoire, concentrate on
strengthening a small set of
behaviors
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Attend to multiple perspectives
Use family and community-referenced
assessment
Use ongoing instructional information
systems
Use ongoing outcome information
systems
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Use information from multiple
sources
Merge “competing” perspectives
Ongoing planning and program
improvement
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Enhance image and achieve
interdependence
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