VSP Intervention Resources

Welcome!

Key Tools & Strategies for Engagement (organized by UDL Guidelines)

For Families

• 5 Ways Video Games Can Help Kids with Disabilities - learning through play is a wonderful motivator for kids with disabilities.

• 9 great first time jobs for teens - learn about jobs for teens in context of different student disabilities

• Disability Benefits 101 - gives you tools and information on health coverage, benefits, and employment

• Help Kids Spot Fake News and Decode Media Messages - from Common Sense Media this quick read helps give parents ideas on how to help their young adults learn how to navigate all the information they find online.

• Preparing Youth for Employment Success 

• Refer and assist students in obtaining desired adult services - What Are They? Where Are They? Resources for families.

• The Wallet Card® Project – Helping People with Disabilities Communicate with First Responders - students can get a card with information about them on it to safely and quickly disclose their disability to the police/first responder.

• Tips When Considering Housing and Services - suggestions for families on how to plan early for housing for their young adult.

Instructional Content

• Be Internet Awesome – Help kids learn to be safe, confident explorers of the online world using these games

• Before age 18 - healthy living - Activities on healthy living in the areas of nutrition, physical activity, sleep, and stress

• Blind Abilities App (apple, android)- Blind Abilities produces podcasts and blogs dealing with accessibility, technologies, devices and enhancing the opportunities in the job market for the Blind, visually Impaired and DeafBlind

• Explore Work - explore work skills and map out a plan for the future

• Goalbook present level wizard with its new functional and life skills section

• Habits of Work curriculum

• Social Media Test Drive: 20-Minute Games - Healthy Social Media Habits

• Independent Living Checklist - This form is designed to help the IEP team decide if a student needs a postsecondary goal in the area of independent living.

• Money Instructor - “Teach and Learn Basic Money Skills, Personal Finance, Business, Careers, and Life Skills.”

• National Geographic Education Resource Library – Thousands of activities, articles, photographs, and more in the areas of science and social studies 

• National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorder – wonderful training resources to help develop skills to implement evidence-based strategies to help students 

• Preparing Students for Competitive Integrated Employment (NTACT:C) - many resources for educators and families aiming at competitive employment

• SnagaJob youtube video series - interview videos with questions and answers to help practice how to handle common questions during an interview

• Teen Voices: Oversharing and Your Digital Footprint

• Workforce Solutions Job Readiness Curriculum  - is a 13 module, 40-hour soft skills training to help prepare individuals for success in the workplace. 

Provide options for recruiting interest:

• Creating your own Google tour to support students to help with social stories and learning about different environments

• For Youth, By Youth - “If you’re a young person and want to know more about finding and keeping the right job, the information in this brief can help”

• Optimize relevance, value, & authenticity - Schedules from Goalbook

• Minimize threats & distractions - Sensory Supports from Goalbook

• SightlessKombat - "meet the blind gamer with a killer instinct"

• Optimize individual choice & autonomy - Visual Task Schedule from Goalbook

Provide options for sustaining effort & persistence: 

• Assistive Technology resources & FAQs – here you can access resources many great assistive tech resources and training

• Foster collaboration & communication

  • Check In/Check Out from Goalbook.

• Assistive Tech Talk - Executive Function Skills at Work (office setting)

• Goblin Tools - AI-powered set of tools helpful for automating or simplifying tasks. Use Magic ToDo for task analysis - breaking a task down into smaller subtasks automatically.

• Vary demands & resources to optimize challenges - Graduated Guidance from Goalbook

• I'm Determined Goal Plan - a tool to help students plan and set goals. An overview video is also available.

• I'm Determined Good Day Plan - a tool to help families plan a successful day with their child. 

• Job Accommodation Network (JAN) - answers and resources on job accommodations

• Snap and Read Universal – A tool to add to chrome that provides text to speech, a screenshot reader, a tool to simplify text, and more. Follow this guide to get access through the IRC. 

• Heighten salience of goals & objectives - Self-Monitoring from Goalbook

Provide options for self-regulation: 

• 5 Social-Emotional Learning Activities for High School - Fist to Five (Self-Management), Different Perspectives in Literature (Social Awareness), Social Contract (Relationship Skills), Meaningful Online Messages (Relationship Skills), and Responsible Citizens (Responsible Decision Making)

• 60-Second Strategy: Daily Intention - By making small goal setting part of the everyday routine, teachers help students build the skills they need to achieve larger and longer-term objectives. 

• Calm - Free mindfulness training tools for educators (scroll down all the way to the bottom to enroll for free!) 

• Circles Curriculum - Teach students the rules of social boundaries. This is a tool that must be purchased.

• Develop self-assessment & reflection - Goal Setting from Goalbook

• Facilitate personal coping skills & strategies

  • Kansas Technical Assistance System Network (TASN) - Autism and Tertiary Behavior Supports Project

  • Social Skills Toolbox from Do2Learn

  • Emotions Color Wheel from Do2Learn

  • Social Skills Lesson Plan

• How to keep a job - the young adults guide

• Promote expectations & beliefs that optimize motivation

  • 6 Reasons Why Students are Unmotivated (and What Teachers Can Do) from Intervention Central

  • Reinforcer Survey from Intervention Central

• Soft Skills to Pay the Bills - curriculum developed by ODEP focused on teaching "soft" or workforce readiness skills to youth, including youth with disabilities.

• The Imagine Project - Lesson plans and resources for helping students move past negative experiences 

Key Reference:

CAST (2011). Universal Design for Learning Guidelines version 2.0. Wakefield, MA: Author.