Life Skills students have my heart. I taught elementary life skills when I was in the classroom. Teaching life skills has its challenges. It can be hard to find materials for students to be able to work on IEP goals relating to hygiene and other practical skills. Most materials for teachers are academic based and don’t meet the needs of students practicing the activities of daily living. This article is meant to make practicing hygiene goals with life skills students easier.
Update for COVID-19 and distance learning: Get your FREE “I Stay Healthy” elearning pack with a social narrative in 3 formats, PDF, ebook, and video. It uses real pictures and features people of a variety of ages, so it is good for all ages. Get it now.
Hygiene is one of the critical activities of daily living. For our students to lead healthy lives, personal hygiene is important so they don’t get sick or spread diseases. Also, when students don’t learn personal hygiene, it ultimately impacts their independence as adults. Employers aren’t likely to hire someone who is not using the restroom properly or has bad breath due to teeth not being brushed correctly. The consequences of not practicing personal hygiene for life skills students are severe. Students who aren’t successful in these areas, especially toileting, can be at risk for more restrictive environments in school and later in life.
You can practice with your students with my resource that is on Teachers Pay Teachers.The resource includes how to wash hands, how to brush teeth, and how to use the toilet. Each section can be made into a file folder game for students to be able to practice putting the steps in order. The same pictures are used on the printable steps page that has both picture steps and written steps for your students to follow. The resource also includes word walls for each topic to build a hygiene word wall for your classroom to practice literacy skills.
Time for some real talk about teaching hygiene to life skills students. If you’ve been teaching life skills already you know that resources to use are just one part of the story to help this kids be successful in this critical area. Writing appropriate goals and implementing them properly will make all the difference.
IEP Goals
If you have a student who struggles with personal hygiene, you should absolutely write a measurable IEP goal to help your student for their upcoming ARD. I like using the SMART framework when writing IEP goals. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time Bound. If you keep all of these aspects included in your IEP goal, you’ll have a straightforward goal that any special education teacher will be able to implement even if your student moves districts.
Sometimes it can be hard to brainstorm IEP goals so here are some sample ones to help get your creativity flowing for personal hygiene goals. IEPs are always meant to work for the individual, it’s right there in the name. So your goals should be specific enough that they don’t work for everybody. It should fit that students specific needs about hygiene. It’s a goal that would work for everybody in your class, take another look. Your goal might not be individual or specific enough, though it is possible to have a few students with similar needs.
These goals are created for imaginary students. They are not based on any real student.
DRAFT GOAL: Student will use the toilet appropriately
This goal sounds alright on the surface. Of course we want our life skills students to be able to use the toilet appropriately. But this goal doesn’t go far enough. Let’s break it down and make it better.
Specific:
Is this goal specific?
It could be more specific. Ask yourself some questions. Where is this going to take place? What does appropriately mean for this student?
Example 1-Student is working on toilet training
Goal: Student will use the toilet in the life skills classroom and other toilets in the building instead of eliminating on themselves.
This goal is more specific because I address both where the goal will be worked on and I am more specific about what action I want the student to perform, in this case going to the bathroom instead of going on themselves.
Example 2-Student is afraid of the toilet and doesn’t like to flush
Goal: Student will flush the toilet in the life skills classroom and other toilets in the building after using the toilet.
The goal is more specific about the location. This student needed to learn to flush as part of the toilet process but this student didn’t need to learn to go in the toilet because they were already doing that part of the process.
Measurable:
We’re going to take our two examples from the specific section and make them measurable.
Example 1
Goal: Student will use the toilet in the life skills classroom and other toilets in the building instead of eliminating on themselves 80% of the time.
To measure this, a teacher would need to record the amount of times the student is eliminating at school both in the toilet or having an accident. In one week, let’s say the student used the toilet 10 times and had 2 accidents. To measure for the week and get a percentage, success rate would be 10/12 or 83%. The student is on track with this goal at that percentage for the week.
Example 2
Goal: Student will flush the toilet in the life skills classroom and other toilets in the building after using the toilet in 7 out of 10 trials.
To measure this the teacher would need to check the toilet after use (and reward the student for when they flush).
Attainable
Example 1
Student will use the toilet in the life skills classroom and other toilets in the building instead of eliminating on themselves 80% of the time.
The 80% figure is chosen because this is a new activity for this imaginary student. If this student was already having some success with toilet training, we might make the goal 95%, 98%, or 100%. 80% seems reasonable based on the imaginary student.
Example 2
Goal: Student will flush the toilet in the life skills classroom and other toilets in the building after using the toilet with visual or verbal prompting in 7 out of 10 trials.
For this imaginary student, I choose a lower threshold. It’s a new goal and their fear of the toilet sound is pretty extreme. This imaginary student is currently never flushing because of their fear. It is going to take a lot of reward to get this goal to flushing 7 out of 10 times. I’m also keeping in mind the imaginary student’s age, which is young elementary. Many general ed students of that age are going to not always remember to flush the toilet 100% of the time either. And, as we know from visiting public restrooms, even some adults haven’t mastered this skill at 100% accuracy. I added the visual or verbal prompting here to make this goal more attainable for this student. Without a visual or verbal prompt this student is likely to not perform the behavior at all because of the anxiety.
Relevant
For relevant, check if your goals are going to help improve the life of your student in the long run.
Example 1
Student will use the toilet in the life skills classroom and other toilets in the building instead of eliminating on themselves 80% of the time.
Question: How will this goal help my student? How is it relevant to their life?
Answer: By being able to be toilet trained, my student will be able to experience more independence. My student will not rely on pull ups and will not need someone to help change the pull up. My student will not experience issues with diaper rash or other problems from eliminating outside a toilet.
Example 2
Student will flush the toilet in the life skills classroom and other toilets in the building after using the toilet with visual or verbal prompting in 7 out of 10 trials.
Question: How will this goal help my student? How is it relevant to their life?
Both student and family will not have to experience odors from the toilet. The student or caretaker will have an easier time keeping the toilet clean and thus preventing spread of disease. Student will also will not be at risk for negative opinions of peers at school if others notice they are not flushing the toilet.
Time Bound
IEP goals are automatically time bound because they are renewed every year. However, some goals can benefit from additional time parameters being placed on them, especially if a student is taking too much or too little time to perform a task. Timers can be a beneficial resources to help with this.
Example 1
Student will flush the toilet in the life skills classroom and other toilets in the building after using the toilet with visual or verbal prompting in 7 out of 10 trials.
I am keeping this goal as is, because the imaginary student was not experiencing trouble with taking too long or too short of a time. When the student has used the restroom, it has been for an appropriate length of time already.
Example 2
Student will flush the toilet within 3 minutes of elimination in the life skills classroom and other toilets in the building after using the toilet with visual or verbal prompting in 7 out of 10 trials.
This student freezes when asked to flush the toilet. Teachers have been working with the student and spending so much time coaxing the student to flush is impacting instructional time for other activities. For this student, three minutes is a long enough time for prompting and waiting for a response. Waiting too long with this student has been known to cause aggressive behavior issues. Think flight, flight, or freeze. If the student has not completed the task in three minutes, staff members could flush and record the data as a non-successful trial and then move on with the day.
Practicing Hygiene
After you’ve written your hygiene goals and implemented them at the ARD meeting, now it is time to practice. Your students will need various supports to be successful at the goal.
- Schedule
- Prompts
- Rewards
You need to schedule time to practice the goals. If you’re doing toilet training, work to determine when your student is eliminating and then plan time to use the toilet about 30 minutes beforehand. Put this time in your students schedule. That way they can be prepared to transition and to do the activity. You may also want to schedule time to practice the steps of the activity with folder games or learn to read signs and words related to toileting (men, women, bathroom, restroom, wet floor, etc).
Your student may need prompting to be able to complete the activity. It can be helpful to have visuals available. You should also work with staff members who will be helping with this goal to come up with a consistent verbal prompt. If one teacher is saying, “Go potty,” while another teacher is saying, “Use the restroom,” the student could become more confused about the activity. Stay on the same page with staff members about communicating the activity.
When your student is successful, reward them! Hopefully you have done an interest inventory. A reward that would work for one student won’t have the same impact for another. Some children will move mountains for verbal praise while others will do anything for a train sticker. Know your kids and find the right motivator for them. If the reward starts to become ineffective, you might need to do a new interest inventory to stay on the pulse of what is working for that student.
Tell us what goals you struggle to write. We want to help our readers out. What resources do you want to see next?