Life skills

LIFE SKILLS
PRESENTED BY:
Jagpreet Kaur

“A behavior change or behavior development
approach designed to address a balance of
three areas: knowledge, attitude, and skills.”
United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (2004)
What are ‘Life Skills’?

About what? Towards what? For what?
Balancing
Knowledge Skills (Life)Attitude

“The abilities for adaptive and positive
behavior that enable individuals to deal
effectively with the demands and challenges
of everyday life.”
World Health Organization (1993)

Plays an important role in independent living
Development needs & aspirations of the individuals
Development of psychosocial abilities
To enhance capabilities and enlarge choices
To build different dimensions of well-being, by building
self-image & self-worth, which in turn help individuals to
be less vulnerable to the variations within a given context.
Importance of life skills

Benefits for
• Build confidence
• Independent living
• Analyze alternatives
• Develop self awareness
Individual
• Working well within a team
• Adaptability and flexibility to different
working environment
Employment
• Recognizing cultural awareness
• Respecting diversity
• Developing negotiating skills
Society

teachers
young people (peer educators)
community agencies
religious groups
others...
Just about anybody!
Who can facilitate?

school
community
street
vocational
religious
existing groups or clubs
others...
Just about setting!
What settings can be used?

The Delors Report (1996):
‘Learning: The Treasure Within’
learning to know
learning to do
learning to be
learning to live together
Why learning life skills?

Developing Reasoning
It refers to both the acquisition of knowledge
as well as the use of knowledge.
It relates to cognitive life skills.
Learning to know

Functioning and Capabilities
It refers to central human functional capabilities
of life.
To acquire not only occupational skills but also
the competence to deal with many situations and
to work in teams.
Learning to do

Personal Development
It relates to self-management life skills related
to self awareness, self esteem & self
confidence, and coping skills.
It involves activities that foster personal
development.
Learning to be

Building Potential Through Social Network
By developing an understanding of other people
and an appreciation of interdependence.
Learning to live together

Removes Ignorance
Generates Awareness
Concern
Creates Knowledge
Motivation
Readiness to change
Willingness to change
Acceptance
Inculcates Good Habits
Lifestyle
Behaviour change through life skills

A disability is any condition that prevents, delays or
interferes with a child’s normal achievement and
development. A disability may be classified as one of
the following:
Developmental
Learning
Physical
Sensory
Children with special needs

For all children, and especially those with special
needs, achieving independence is an important part of
the journey into adulthood.
From the moment we wake in the morning, we go
through certain tasks, known as “life skills.”
Life skills for special needs children play an essential
role in improving sensory processing, communication,
safety, social relationships and ultimately, acquiring
independence.
Life Skills for CWSN

 Self-care - Personal needs
Pre-vocational skills - transition from being a student to being a
contributing member of society
Daily Living Skills
Community-Based Instruction
Recreational and leisure skills
Shopping skills
Cooking and laundry skills
Managing personal finances
Achieving self-awareness
Maintaining good interpersonal skills
Communicating with others
Achieving independence
Essential Life Skills for CWSN

Core Areas of life skills
LIFE SKILLS
S
SOCIAL
T
THINKING
E
EMOTIONAL
C - Communication
I – Interpersonal
E - Empathy
C – Critical Thinking
D – Decision Making
P – Problem Solving
T – Thinking Globally
S – Self Awareness
C – Coping With Stress
C - Coping With Emotions

It is the ability to analyze information and experiences
in an objective manner.
It can contribute to healthy living by helping us in
recognizing and assessing the factors that influence
attitudes and behavior, such as values, peer pressure
and the media.
It includes ability to engage in reflective and
independent thinking.
It helps in quicker decision making.
Critical Thinking

It helps us to deal constructively with the issues in our
lives and take appropriate action.
Weighing up pros and cons of each alternative.
It teaches us how to be proactive in making decisions
about our lives in relation to a healthy assessment of
the different options available and in determining what
effects these different decisions are likely to have.
No decision is also a decision.
Decision Making

It helps us to deal constructively with problems in
our lives.
Significant problems that are left unresolved can
cause mental stress and give rise to accompanying
physical strain.
Problem Solving
Unresolved problems ⇒ Mental &
Physical stress

It is based on the principle where you consider the
global impact of your actions.
It can also be described as “Think Globally, Act
Locally”.
Example:
- Robin Hood Army
- Roti Bank
Thinking Globally

It means that we are able to express ourselves
clearly and effectively both verbally and non-
verbally, in ways that are appropriate to our
cultures and situations.
This means being able to express our opinions
and desires, and also our needs and fear.
Effective Communication

Elements of Effective
Communication
7% spoken words/verbal
38% voice, tone
55% body language
-Dr. Albert Mehrabian

Interpersonal skills are the skills we use every day
when we communicate and interact with other
people, both individually and in groups.
Being able to maintain friendly relations with
family, friends and colleagues, which can be of great
important source of social support.
It also means being able to end relationships
constructively without bitterness and anger.
Interpersonal Relationship

It is the ability to understand what life is like for
another person, even in a situation with which we may
not be familiar.
Empathy can help to accept others who may be very
different from us.
This can improve social interactions, especially in
situations of ethnic and cultural diversity.
Empathy can also encourage the adoption of a
nurturing attitude towards people in need of care and
assistance or tolerance and understanding, as in the
case with AIDS sufferers, CWSN, people with mental
illness, etc.
Empathy

As the term indicates, refer to one’s ability to be aware of
or to recognize his emotions, behaviors, beliefs,
motivations and other characteristics such as strengths and
weaknesses, such that it enables him to identify and
understand himself as a separate entity.
Developing self-awareness skills is important for learning
about yourself and discovering your true capabilities.
Self-awareness skills not only enable you to understand
your own personality but also helps you understand other
people, their perceptions about you, and your response to
their actions.
Self Awareness

It means recognizing the source of stress in our lives,
recognizing how stress affects us and acting in ways
that help us control these levels of stress by changing
our environment or lifestyle and by learning how to
relax.
Coping With Stress

It means recognizing our emotions as well as those of
others, being aware of how emotions influence behavior,
and being able to respond to emotions appropriately. Intense
emotions like anger or sadness can have a negative effect on
our health if we do not respond appropriately.
Coping With Emotions

experiential learning
group work & discussion
role play
educational games
debates
practicing people skills
(Interpersonal)
task analysis
visual support
social stories
prompting and fading
Methods for life skills development

“Experiential Learning: Learn by
Doing"
 We remember:
 10% of what we read
 20% of what we hear
 30% of what we see
 50% of what we see and hear
 70% of what we see, hear and discuss
 90% of what we see, hear, discuss and practice
 Example: Going to the zoo and learning through observation and
interaction with the zoo environment, as opposed to reading about
animals from a book.
 The actual experience of doing it themselves is the best way to
reinforce learning.

Methods for developing life skills to
CWSN

Every task involves a series of steps that work like links
in a chain.
For example, you can't brush your teeth until you put
toothpaste on the brush. Some people prompt their child
for each step in the chain, and then start removing links
as the child learns. Finally, the child may be able to
complete the task with just a simple reminder.
Chaining

 Task analysis is a process of breaking down any skill into its smaller
parts.
 For example: Teaching a child to turn on the Xbox (home video
game).
 Find remote
 Press power button on remote for TV
 Press channel 3
 Walk to Xbox
 Press power button on Xbox
 Go to shelf
 Pick out game
 Take game out of case
 Press Xbox game into Xbox
 Put case on shelf
 Sit on couch
 Play!
Task Analysis
A task analysis often goes hand in hand with chaining.

Prompting may involve physical, gesture, verbal, modeling,
visual help to CWSN.
As they learn, the facilitator will start to "fade" the prompts.
First, they'll stop using hand-over-hand help, and instead
provide only verbal prompts ("don't forget to rinse the
toothbrush"). Then they'll start to fade even the verbal
prompts. When no prompts are required, the child has
learned the task independently.
Prompting and Fading

Rather than simply listing steps, parents use pictures and
words to describe "expected behavior.“
Most social stories are customized to the individual.
For example: "Every morning after breakfast, John
brushes his teeth. First, John knocks on the bathroom
door. If no one is inside, John can go in" and so forth.
Facilitator can read the social story with John as often as
needed until John knows it by heart and can complete all
the steps without prompting.
Social Stories

Education must prepare young children to face the challenges of
life. However, it generally does not happen as the behavioral
aspects are neglected.
There is a need to develop life skills among our children so that
they can apply the knowledge they acquire from school to real
world problems and situations.
If life skills are added into the mix with academic skills in the
education of differently-abled students, students are marginally
more successful in their academics as well as in personal growth.
Life skills foster independent living.
All the life skills are inter-related and reinforce each others. They
nurture the holistic development of the child.
Conclusion

“Life skills are the abilities that help us to
adapt and behave positively so that we can
deal effectively with the challenges of everyday
life.”

Critical Thinking
Decision Making
Problem Solving
Thinking Globally
Communication
Interpersonal
Relation
Empathy
Self Awareness
Coping with
emotion
Coping with
stress
CORE
LIFE SKILLS

Questions and suggestions are welcome
Thank you!

Life skills

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