A Class in Coping for Special Students

“Forks, right?” Randy House, 15, asked hopefully as he looked into the utensil drawer of the kitchen.

But Susan Schmidt, who was teaching the class in daily living skills at Savanna High School in Anaheim, wasn’t going to tell him how to set the table for the meal he and his classmates had prepared. “Look and see what you want to use,” she said.

Schmidt wasn’t being unhelpful; she was just trying to do her job. And teaching independence to students who have physical disabilities and emotional and learning problems is what a new program at Savanna High School is all about.

The classroom may be the only one in the nation that has a kitchen, living room and dining room furnished in early-American country style with a big overstuffed couch and a pewter tea set lining one wall. The Independent Living Skills Center, which operates on federal funds, is a pilot high school program that teaches children with special needs how to live on their own once they graduate from high school.

Last year, each of the 60 students in Savanna High School’s special education program was asked to take a need-assessment test. The living skills curriculum being used for the first time this fall was designed around those needs, according to Vickie Pennington, project coordinator.

The students will learn such skills as how to find an apartment, get a job, meet a monthly budget, get a driver’s license and prepare nutritious meals, said Pennington, who has a master’s degree in occupational therapy from USC. “We want to give them some competence in learning for themselves. The system and the parents have often done (these things) for them, because it’s easier.”

The 60 students participating in the program spend the majority of their school day in a self-contained classroom with a special education teacher, Pennington said. Each student may spend one hour at the Independent Living Skills Center--either in group classes or individual counseling--two to four times a week. Pennington and two USC graduate students, who are working towards master’s degrees in occupational therapy, teach the classes and provide the counseling.

The students in the program are trying to overcome such physical disabilities as cerebral palsy, epilepsy and paralysis, Pennington said. Four of the 60 students are in wheelchairs, and some have multiple disabilities.

Students with emotional problems may have spent time in psychiatric hospitals or juvenile hall, Pennington said, while those with learning disabilities may have dyslexia or problems communicating.

“The biggest concern of parents (of teen-agers) with special needs is what their kids will do when they leave high school,” said Florence Clark, the project director and an associate professor of occupational therapy at USC. “Special education teachers are funded to teach academic skills. No one was teaching these kids how to cope.”

Three-Year Program

Clark wrote the grant for the three-year program, which receives $95,000 a year from the Department of Education. The money pays for supplies for the center and Pennington’s salary. The USC graduate students receive the tuition for the second year of their graduate program and a small stipend from the grant.

“We’re the only high school-based independent living center in the nation,” Clark said. A few high schools in the country have occupational services for physically handicapped teen-agers, she said, but the center is the only one “concerned with transition” into independent living.

The Anaheim Union High School District may continue funding for the program after the 1986-87 school year, pending an evaluation of the program, according to Bob Everhart, district director of special youth services.

Savanna High School Principal David Steinle said teachers and parents of special-needs children have long expressed “a tremendous need to help students outside the classroom.” Since this program began, parents of disabled teen-agers attending the other seven high schools in district have expressed interest, and there is a possibility the program will be expanded to include other schools. Or students may be bused in by next year, Steinle said.

Julie Bissell, coordinator of occupational and physical therapy for the greater Anaheim Special Education Local Planning Area (SELPA), said the elementary school districts that feed into the high school district have had SELPA-funded occupational therapy services for special education students for years.

When Bissell, who earned a master’s degree in occupational therapy from USC, heard about Clark’s idea for a grant, she recommended the high school district for the program, she said. Savanna High School was chosen because it has the highest number of special education students of the district’s seven high schools, Bissell said.

How to Make Friends

The living skills program is divided into three parts: pre-vocational skills, daily living skills and social communication. Students might learn how to prepare a resume in the pre-vocational group, how to find an apartment in the living skills group and how to make friends in the social communication group, Pennington said.

The social communication group covers such topics as conversation skills and social confidence, which can lead to success in the job arena, Clark noted. Friendship is also a common focus of discussions that take place on a cozy living room couch.

In pre-vocational classes, students learn about job advertisements at a dining room table, just like they might look at the classifieds at their kitchen or dining room table at home, Clark said.

The home-like setting “is the exact opposite of the barren wards of the state institution” where teen-agers with handicaps were often sent in the ‘40s and ‘50s--”before we had mainstreaming,” Clark said. “It simulates the feeling of home, and hopefully it will carry over into students’ homes.”

An interior designer suggested a color scheme of blue and brown to provide a “soothing” environment, Clark said. Knickknacks such as the pewter tea set were donated. “The details give it a personal touch. It shows we care about every detail, and we care about (the students).”

Many of the students in the program “are 16 and want to drop out of school,” Pennington said. She is counseling a 15-year-old boy who wants to drop out right away, but has a learning disability and reads on the first-grade level, she said.

Prepared for Interviews

“He’s a bright, bright kid, but you wouldn’t know it because he can’t read,” she said. “Without assistance, he wouldn’t be able to get a job.”

Pennington said she will help prepare him for job interviews by teaching him how to fill out a job application and giving him a checklist he can carry in his wallet and use to jog his memory during interviews. “We’re not here for academics. We’re here for independent living skills,” she explained.

In a recent daily living skills class that Schmidt taught, there were various kinds of fruit and a cookbook opened to a recipe for muffins on the kitchen counter when the students arrived. Schmidt simply told them their assignment was to make breakfast.

“I wanted them to read and follow directions, to solve problems as they came up,” Schmidt said. “If they chose a bowl that wasn’t big enough, then they would have to solve that problem.

“Most of the students we see don’t have the opportunity of being in the kitchen as much as other kids. The adults in their world don’t view them as having ability, or maybe they view them as having so many deficits that they don’t see them making (their breakfast).” “As much as we can, we want to foster independent problem solving,” said Clark. “We will give them as much assistance as they need. As the student gets better and better (at problem solving), the challenges will get harder.”

In the pre-vocational class, teacher Laurie Steel shows students ads for jobs and discusses such topics as where and how to apply, job requirements and training.

Give Realistic Idea

Eventually, “we want to connect with job agencies and get them jobs,” Steel said. She starts them looking through the want ads, she said, “to give them a realistic idea of their skills and abilities.”

The program also encourages the students to look realistically at their values. In a recent class exercise, Pennington asked two students to define their values by giving them an imaginary $1,000 to spend at a “value auction.” The students bid against each other for such values as love and admiration of friends, lifetime financial security and a happy family life.

Karen Curtis, 15, bid $800 on international fame and popularity, but was incredulous when Pennington told her: “You could be internationally famous and popular and poor.”

“Is Madonna poor?” she asked. Then she asked if she could still bid on lifetime financial security, but it had already been sold for $50.

Curtis plays guitar and hopes to be a rock star. But Pennington is helping her find a part-time job in a clothing store, and Curtis said she is looking forward to that. Clark explained that instead of deflating the dreams of students like Curtis, the independent living program attempts to give them “a lot of experiences so they can see they have options.” There are plans to take the students on field trips to offices and plants, and to bring in speakers who are successful despite handicaps, Clark said.

The ultimate goal of the program is “to enable the students to live satisfying and productive lives and to overcome the obstacles that could prevent them,” said Clark. The program is intended to teach students “to strive positively, not to back down at the first disappointment. We’re going to make them copers,” she added.