Life Skills Literacy

Life skills in literacy refer to the skills that people require in order to function in everyday and personal life situations. They do not necessarily have to relate to a job but they do need to allow individuals to function with the basic literacy skills that will be needed. This checklist identifies the basic literacy skills that should be taught.

• Personal information including name, address, telephone numbers, age, parents.
• Community signs like, no bikes, out of order, ladies, men, and the symbols often used in public places.
• Key words on items - danger, warning, poison etc.
• Key signs, stop, pedestrians only, exit etc.
• Some abbreviations like Dr., Mr and Mrs.
• Filling in forms with the individuals' key information.
• Looking up information like phone numbers and addresses.
• Directionality meanings, up, down, right, left.
• Prescription labels.
• Recipes.
• Basic maps, calendars and directories.
• Common signs in grocery stores.
• Basic laws.
• Basic banking information, how to deposit and withdraw funds and how to write cheques.
• Time - both digital and analogue.

It takes a great deal of time and patience to teach life skills. An overall procedure will look something like:

1. Model the specific concept, what it is and how it's done.
2. Provide an opportunity for the student to try.
3. If the student struggles, provide assistance and reinforce.
4. Provide cues for the student to do the task and continue to reinforce.
5. Repeat the tasks daily until the student is successful, providing cues until the student can do it independently.