Healthy Relationships Curriculum

Header Right

Menu

healthy relationships

How to Teach Personal Space Without Creating Fear

By

Have you ever wondered how to teach personal space without making students feel embarrassed, anxious, or afraid of making mistakes?

It’s a question special educators, therapists, school counselors, and families ask every day. Personal space is one of the most important relationship skills we teach, yet it can also be one of the most difficult. The goal isn’t simply helping someone “stay farther away.” The goal is helping individuals understand how personal space helps everyone feel comfortable, respected, and safe.

Teaching personal space isn’t about creating distance between people. It’s about giving learners the confidence to build healthy relationships in school, at work, and throughout their communities.

Why Is Personal Space So Difficult to Teach?

Many social skills rely on subtle communication.

Most people naturally notice when someone takes a step backward, crosses their arms, or looks uncomfortable. They read facial expressions, body language, and other social cues without thinking much about them.

Many individuals with developmental disabilities benefit from direct instruction because those cues may not be immediately obvious. That doesn’t mean they don’t care about other people. It simply means they often need clear, concrete instruction instead of expecting them to “read between the lines.”

That’s one of the biggest reasons personal space deserves intentional teaching rather than assuming it will naturally develop over time.

The Biggest Mistake Educators Make

One of the biggest mistakes educators make is teaching personal space only after something has already gone wrong.

A student stands too close.

Someone becomes uncomfortable.

An adult responds by saying, “Back up,” or “You’re too close.”

Those corrections may solve the immediate problem, but they don’t always teach the lifelong skill.

Personal space should be taught proactively through instruction, practice, repetition, and encouragement—not only through correction.

Teaching the Skill Instead of the Situation

Many classrooms use creative ways to introduce personal space. Teachers might demonstrate arm’s length, place markers on the floor, or use other visual reminders to help learners understand physical distance.

Those strategies can be very effective during instruction.

The challenge is helping learners understand personal space when those teaching tools are no longer available. The goal isn’t remembering where to stand during one classroom activity. The goal is recognizing appropriate personal space while talking with classmates, coworkers, family members, neighbors, and members of the community.

Teaching the lifelong skill is always more valuable than simply solving today’s problem.

If you’re looking for an example of how to introduce this concept, explore our free Personal Space lesson and see how Healthy Relationships teaches this important skill through structured, concrete instruction.

A Healthy Relationships Perspective

Teaching personal space isn’t about helping learners avoid mistakes. It’s about giving them the confidence to interact safely and comfortably with the people around them.

Concrete Language Builds Better Understanding

One lesson we’ve learned over many years is that the words we choose matter.

Adults often use phrases such as:

  • Respect someone’s personal space.
  • Be appropriate.
  • Don’t invade someone’s space.

Those phrases make sense to many adults because we already understand what they mean.

For many learners, those ideas are simply too abstract.

Instead of relying on broad instructions, educators often find greater success by explaining exactly what they want the learner to do. Clear, concrete language reduces confusion and gives individuals something they can understand, practice, and remember.

Healthy Relationships helps educators turn abstract safety and relationship concepts into clear, concrete instruction that individuals with developmental disabilities can understand, practice, and apply in everyday life.

If you’d like to see how these lessons fit into the broader curriculum, learn more about the Healthy Relationships program and explore how relationship skills, safety, independence, and daily living skills are taught from beginning to end.

Don’t Wait to Reinforce Success

Here’s something we’ve learned after years of teaching personal space.

Most people only receive feedback when they’re standing too close.

Very few people ever hear:

“Thank you for giving me enough personal space.”

That means learners often receive attention only when something goes wrong.

Educators have an opportunity to change that.

When a learner is standing an appropriate distance away, tell them.

Say things like:

  • “You’re standing a comfortable distance away from me.”
  • “Thank you for giving me enough space.”
  • “That felt comfortable.”

Positive feedback helps learners understand what success looks like—not just what mistakes to avoid.

Supporting Educators Every Step of the Way

Teaching personal space can feel overwhelming because there isn’t one strategy that works for every learner. Every student brings different strengths, communication styles, and learning needs.

Healthy Relationships provides educators with structured lessons, age appropriate videos, visual supports, assessments, professional development, and consultation designed specifically for teaching relationship skills to individuals with developmental disabilities.

If you’d like to see examples of the curriculum before making a decision, request a free Healthy Relationships Sample Packet and explore the instructional approach for yourself.

If you have questions about implementation, training, licensing, or the curriculum itself, visit our Frequently Asked Questions page where we’ve answered many of the questions educators ask most often.

Continue Learning

If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy reading “How to Teach Friendship Skills: Why ‘Just Be Nice’ Isn’t Enough.“ That article explores why many learners benefit from concrete language instead of abstract directions when teaching relationship skills.

You can also watch our short Healthy Relationships overview video to see how educators across 43 states are using the curriculum to teach safety, healthy relationships, independence, and daily living skills.

Ready to Get Started?

If you’re ready to explore Healthy Relationships with your own students, start your free trial today and experience the lessons, videos, visual supports, assessments, and educator resources that have helped schools, therapists, residential providers, and service organizations build safer, healthier, and more confident learners.

Key Takeaways

  • Personal space is about helping people feel comfortable, respected, and safe.
  • Many learners benefit from clear, concrete instruction rather than relying on subtle social cues.
  • Teaching personal space proactively is more effective than only correcting mistakes.
  • Positive reinforcement helps learners recognize what successful personal space looks like.
  • Building confidence is just as important as preventing mistakes.

Author: Rob Anderson, MSW — School Counselor

How to Teach Friendship Skills: Why “Just Be Nice” Isn’t Enough

By

If you’ve worked in special education for any length of time, you’ve probably caught yourself saying things like:

“Be nice.”

“Be respectful.”

“Make good choices.”

“That wasn’t appropriate.”

Those phrases come from a good place. As educators, therapists, and families, we want individuals with developmental disabilities to build healthy relationships, develop friendship skills, and make safe decisions.

The challenge is that many relationship concepts are abstract.

For many individuals with developmental disabilities, phrases like “be nice” or “be respectful” rely on years of life experience and the ability to read between the lines. Many of our learners simply aren’t reading between those lines.

That doesn’t mean they can’t learn relationship skills.

It means they often benefit from clear, concrete instruction that explains exactly what those words look like in everyday life.

Why Abstract Language Can Be Challenging

Most adults communicate using broad ideas.

We naturally say things like:

  • Be nice.
  • Be respectful.
  • Make good choices.
  • That’s inappropriate.

Most people immediately understand what those phrases mean because they’ve spent years connecting those words to real life experiences.

Many individuals with developmental disabilities process language differently.

Instead of automatically understanding those expectations, they may wonder:

“What does that actually mean?”

When we tell someone to “be nice,” we often assume they already know the behaviors we expect.

Many learners don’t.

They simply need one more step.

What Does “Be Nice” Actually Look Like?

Imagine asking several students the same question.

“What does it mean to be nice?”

One student might say:

“Share.”

Another might answer:

“Smile.”

Someone else may simply say:

“Say hello.”

Those are all wonderful answers.

But healthy friendships are built on much more than one behavior.

Being kind to someone may also include:

  • Waiting your turn.
  • Asking before touching another person.
  • Respecting personal space.
  • Taking care of someone else’s belongings.
  • Listening while another person is speaking.
  • Using words that help instead of hurt.

Those behaviors are much easier to understand than simply hearing the words “be nice.”

A Healthy Relationships Perspective

Many learners don’t need different expectations. They need clearer explanations.

Concrete Language Builds Safer Relationships

One of the most important lessons we’ve learned over the years is that concrete language helps build safer relationships.

Being concrete doesn’t mean being harsh.

Being direct doesn’t mean being rude.

It means explaining expectations in ways that learners can understand and apply.

Consider these two statements.

“That was inappropriate.”

Now compare it to:

“That made your friend feel sad.”

Or…

“That wasn’t safe.”

Many learners immediately understand words like:

  • happy
  • sad
  • mad
  • good
  • bad
  • yes
  • no
  • safe
  • not safe

Those words carry meaning.

They connect actions with feelings and outcomes.

Words like appropriate and inappropriate certainly have an important place, but they often require another level of understanding before they become meaningful for many learners.

Helping someone understand why something matters is often much more effective than simply labeling the behavior.

Being Direct Can Still Be Kind

One concern educators sometimes share is that being more direct might sound rude.

In reality, the opposite is often true.

Clear communication reduces confusion.

Reduced confusion helps individuals make safer decisions.

Clear expectations build confidence.

Being direct and being respectful can happen at the same time.

In fact, for many learners, being clear is one of the kindest things we can do.

Healthy Relationships helps educators turn abstract relationship concepts into clear, concrete instruction that individuals with developmental disabilities can understand, practice, and apply in everyday life.

If you’d like to see how these concepts fit into the broader curriculum, explore the complete Healthy Relationships Scope and Sequence and discover lessons that teach friendship skills, personal safety, independence, daily living skills, relationships, and much more.

➡️ Scope & Sequence

Teaching Friendship Skills with Confidence

Teaching friendship skills can feel overwhelming because every relationship is different.

Every friendship is unique.

Every learner is unique.

Every situation is different.

That’s exactly why Healthy Relationships was created.

Healthy Relationships provides educators with practical lessons, age appropriate instructional videos, visual supports, assessments, professional development, consultation, and family resources designed specifically for individuals with developmental disabilities.

Rather than asking learners to figure out abstract relationship concepts on their own, Healthy Relationships provides concrete instruction that educators can confidently use in classrooms, transition programs, therapy settings, residential programs, and community environments.

If you’d like a closer look at how Healthy Relationships teaches these skills, request a free Healthy Relationships Sample Packet and explore examples of the curriculum for yourself.

➡️ Sample Packet

Continue Building Friendship Skills

This article builds on one of the foundational ideas we recently explored in “What Makes a Healthy Friendship? Looking Beyond Time Spent Together.”

That article explains why healthy friendships are built on the quality of the relationship—not simply the amount of time people spend together.

➡️ “What Makes a Healthy Friendship?” Blog

Key Takeaways

  • Relationship skills are often abstract and benefit from concrete instruction.
  • Clear language helps reduce confusion and supports safer decision making.
  • Being direct and being kind can happen at the same time.
  • Teaching specific behaviors is often more meaningful than using broad phrases like “be nice.”
  • Healthy friendships are built through understanding, practice, and meaningful instruction.

Start Teaching Healthy Relationship Skills Today

If you’re looking for practical ways to teach friendship skills, healthy relationships, personal safety, independence, and daily living skills, we’d love to show you how Healthy Relationships can help.

Start your free trial today and explore the lessons, videos, visual supports, assessments, and educator resources that have helped schools, therapists, residential providers, and organizations across 43 states teach these important life skills with confidence.

➡️ Free Trial

Author: Jen Falkowski, M. Ed. — Special Education Supervisor

What Makes a Healthy Friendship? Looking Beyond Time Spent Together

By

Summer often changes the way many learners interact with others. During the school year, students see classmates, teachers, and support staff almost every day. Those regular interactions create opportunities for conversations, shared experiences, and relationship building.

During the summer months, however, many of those daily connections look very different. Some learners have fewer opportunities to spend time with peers outside of school because of transportation, scheduling, limited community opportunities, or simply because school is no longer in session. Others continue thinking about classmates they saw every day and naturally refer to them as friends.

That seasonal change raises an important question:

What actually makes someone a healthy friend?

For many individuals with developmental disabilities, the answer is not always obvious. One of the most common misconceptions educators, therapists, and families encounter is believing that the amount of time spent with someone automatically determines the quality of that relationship.

In reality, healthy friendships are built on much more than familiarity or frequent interaction.

Why Healthy Friendship Skills Matter

Every day, special education teachers, school psychologists, school counselors, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, transition coordinators, and families help individuals develop the skills needed to become as independent as possible.

Friendship skills deserve that same level of attention.

Many people assume friendships naturally develop through experience. While that may be true for some, many individuals with developmental disabilities benefit from direct, concrete instruction that helps them better understand different types of relationships and what makes those relationships healthy.

Teaching friendship is not about limiting relationships or deciding who someone should spend time with.

It is about helping individuals build relationships that are safe, meaningful, respectful, and supportive throughout their lives.

Quantity of Time Doesn’t Define Friendship

One of the biggest misconceptions we encounter is the belief that friendships are based primarily on the amount of time someone spends with another person.

Students may see the same classmates every day.

They may ride the same school bus.

They may participate in the same classroom, transition program, work experience, or community activity.

Because of those repeated interactions, it can be easy to assume that everyone they see regularly is automatically a friend.

Healthy friendships, however, are not built simply on time.

They are built on the quality of the relationship.

That distinction is incredibly important because it helps learners begin thinking beyond familiarity and toward understanding trust, respect, kindness, appropriate boundaries, and shared experiences.

Those concepts are not always intuitive. Many learners benefit from opportunities to explore them in concrete, developmentally appropriate ways.

A Healthy Relationships Perspective

Healthy friendships are built on the quality of the relationship, not simply the amount of time spent together.

Why Friendship Can Be Difficult to Teach

Friendship is one of the most rewarding life skills to develop, but it can also be one of the most challenging to teach.

Unlike many daily living skills that follow the same routine each day, every friendship is unique.

Different personalities.

Different interests.

Different communication styles.

Different expectations.

For individuals who benefit from concrete instruction and may find generalization challenging, understanding these differences can feel overwhelming.

Over the years, members of the Healthy Relationships team have heard learners ask a simple but powerful question:

“Why hasn’t anybody just told me this?”

That question reminds us that many relationship concepts adults assume people naturally understand may actually benefit from thoughtful, direct instruction.

Sometimes learners are not struggling because they do not want friendships.

They are struggling because no one has ever clearly explained what healthy friendships look like.

Why This Matters Beyond School

Understanding healthy friendships extends far beyond the classroom.

As individuals become more independent, they begin interacting with coworkers, neighbors, community members, volunteers, teammates, dating partners, and people they meet online.

Knowing how to recognize healthy friendships can help individuals:

  • Build meaningful social connections.
  • Develop greater confidence.
  • Recognize trusted relationships.
  • Better understand personal boundaries.
  • Make safer decisions.
  • Reduce vulnerability to unhealthy relationships.
  • Successfully navigate work and community settings.

Helping someone understand what makes a healthy friendship is not simply a social skill.

It is an important part of teaching personal safety, healthy relationships, and lifelong independence.

If you haven’t already read it, this article builds on one of the foundational concepts we recently explored in “Friend vs. Acquaintance: Why Teaching the Difference Matters for Safety, Independence, and Healthy Relationships.”

Friend vs. Acquaintance Blog

Teaching Friendship in a Concrete Way

One of the greatest challenges for educators, therapists, and families is that friendship can feel abstract.

Words such as trust, respect, kindness, loyalty, and boundaries often seem obvious to adults because we’ve developed those understandings over many years.

Many learners benefit from a different approach.

Rather than assuming these concepts will naturally develop over time, educators often find greater success when relationship skills are presented in clear, concrete, developmentally appropriate ways that learners can discuss, practice, and revisit throughout their educational journey.

Healthy Relationships was created around that philosophy.

Rather than expecting educators to piece together resources from multiple places, Healthy Relationships provides practical lessons, engaging instructional videos, visual supports, professional development, consultation, family resources, and educator tools designed to make relationship instruction more meaningful and more effective.

What’s Included Page

If you’d like to see the overall philosophy behind the curriculum, take a few minutes to watch our short Healthy Relationships overview video and learn how educators across the country are teaching relationship skills, personal safety, independence, and daily living skills.

Program Overview Video

Measuring Growth Along the Way

One of the biggest challenges when teaching friendship skills is understanding whether a learner is making meaningful progress.

Relationship skills often develop gradually across different environments and experiences.

Educators, therapists, and families may notice small changes in how someone interacts with others, recognizes healthy relationships, or makes safer social decisions, but documenting those changes consistently can be difficult.

Healthy Relationships was designed with that challenge in mind.

The curriculum includes progress monitoring tools that help educators observe growth, document skill development, and communicate meaningful progress with families and educational teams over time.

Key Takeaways

  • Healthy friendships are built on the quality of the relationship, not simply the amount of time spent together.
  • Many learners benefit from direct, concrete instruction about friendship skills.
  • Understanding healthy friendships supports personal safety, independence, and lifelong success.
  • Relationship skills can be taught, practiced, monitored, and strengthened over time.

Explore Healthy Relationships for Yourself

If you’re looking for practical ways to teach friendship skills, healthy relationships, personal safety, and independence, we invite you to experience Healthy Relationships firsthand.

Start your free trial and explore the lessons, videos, assessments, visual supports, professional development, and educator resources that have helped schools, therapists, and organizations across 43 states teach these important life skills with confidence.

Try for yourself — Free Trial

Author: Rob Anderson, MSW — School Counselor

Friend vs. Acquaintance: Why Teaching the Difference Matters for Safety, Independence, and Healthy Relationships

By

If you asked one of your students, “Who are your friends?” what kind of answers would you hear?

Some learners may list everyone in their classroom. Others might include the school bus driver, cafeteria staff, neighbors, coworkers, therapists, or someone they see each week in the community.

Those answers are not necessarily wrong. They simply remind us that many learners need support understanding that familiarity and friendship are not always the same thing.

Helping students understand the difference between a friend and an acquaintance is about much more than building social skills. It is a foundation for healthy relationships, greater independence, and perhaps most importantly, personal safety.

Why Teaching Friendship Skills Matters in Special Education

Every day, special education teachers, school psychologists, school counselors, speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, transition coordinators, and families help learners develop the skills needed to become as independent as possible.

Relationship skills deserve that same level of attention.

While many people assume friendship naturally develops through experience, learners with developmental disabilities often benefit from direct, concrete instruction that helps them better understand different types of relationships and how those relationships influence everyday life.

Understanding friendship is not simply about making more friends.

It is about recognizing different relationships, making informed decisions, understanding appropriate boundaries, and safely navigating school, work, community settings, and eventually adulthood.

One of the Biggest Misconceptions About Friendship

One of the most common misconceptions educators and families encounter is the belief that spending time with someone automatically makes that person a friend.

Students may see the same classmates every day.

They may participate in the same classroom, ride the same bus, attend the same community activities, or work alongside the same coworkers.

Adults may even casually use phrases like, “Come on, friends,” as a way of encouraging a group.

While those expressions are well intentioned, some learners interpret them very literally.

Over time, they may begin believing that everyone they know or spend time with is automatically a friend.

In reality, relationships exist in many different forms.

Helping learners recognize those differences is one of the first steps toward developing healthy relationships and making safer decisions throughout their lives.

Friendship Is More Than a Social Skill

Friendship is often discussed as a social skill, but its impact reaches much further.

Understanding different types of relationships can help learners:

  • Make safer decisions in their community.
  • Better understand personal boundaries.
  • Recognize trusted adults.
  • Build healthy peer relationships.
  • Develop workplace relationship skills.
  • Navigate community settings more independently.
  • Reduce vulnerability to unhealthy or unsafe relationships.

Helping learners understand who they know is very different from helping them understand who they trust.

That distinction becomes increasingly important as students grow older, gain independence, enter employment, participate in community activities, and develop relationships outside of school.

Teaching Relationship Skills in a Concrete Way

Many relationship concepts are abstract.

Words like friend, acquaintance, trust, respect, and boundaries often seem obvious to adults because we’ve spent years developing those understandings through life experience.

Many learners benefit from a different approach.

Rather than assuming these concepts will naturally develop over time, educators often find greater success when relationship skills are presented in clear, concrete, developmentally appropriate ways that learners can understand, discuss, practice, and revisit over time.

That doesn’t mean relationships become less meaningful.

It means learners have the opportunity to build a stronger foundation before applying those skills in everyday situations.

Why This Matters Beyond School

Understanding friendship is not simply about making recess or lunchtime easier.

These skills extend into nearly every part of adult life.

Whether someone is interacting with coworkers, neighbors, community members, employers, online contacts, or dating partners, understanding different types of relationships supports safer decision making and greater independence.

Helping learners understand that not everyone they know is automatically a friend is not about limiting relationships.

It is about helping them build healthier, safer relationships throughout their lives.

Supporting Educators With Practical Tools

Over the past fifteen years, Healthy Relationships has been developed alongside special education professionals, therapists, school districts, residential providers, and families across the country.

One lesson has remained remarkably consistent.

Relationship skills are often most successful when abstract concepts become concrete, teachable skills.

Healthy Relationships was designed to help educators confidently teach topics that are often difficult to explain while respecting each learner’s developmental readiness and individual learning style.

Rather than piecing together resources from multiple locations, educators have access to structured lessons, age-appropriate instructional materials, visual supports, family connection resources, professional development, and practical tools that support meaningful learning.

Explore everything that’s included in Healthy Relationships.

If you’d like to see the overall philosophy and approach behind Healthy Relationships, we invite you to learn more about the curriculum.

Watch our Healthy Relationships overview video.

Measuring Growth Along the Way

One of the biggest challenges when teaching friendship and relationship skills is understanding whether a learner is making meaningful progress.

Relationship skills often develop gradually and across many different environments.

Educators, therapists, and families may notice small changes in how a learner interacts with others, recognizes different relationships, or makes safer social decisions, but those changes can be difficult to document consistently over time.

Healthy Relationships was designed with that challenge in mind.

In addition to providing concrete instruction, the curriculum includes progress monitoring tools that help educators observe growth, document skill development, and communicate meaningful progress with families and educational teams.

Learn how Healthy Relationships helps educators monitor student progress.

Explore Healthy Relationships for Yourself

If you’re looking for practical ways to teach friendship skills, relationship boundaries, personal safety, and independence, we invite you to explore Healthy Relationships for yourself.

Start a free trial and discover how educators across the country are using Healthy Relationships to help learners build the skills they need for safer relationships, greater confidence, and increased independence.

Start your free trial today.

Author: Annie Smith, M. Ed. — Behavioral Health Specialist

New Features and Enhancements Coming Soon to Our Curriculum

By

We are excited to share new features that being added to the Healthy Relationships Curriculum for Fall 2018 that will be provided to current and pending licensees at no additional charge!

Keep Reading

Progressing from Awareness to Acceptance – Incorporating Social Goals into the IEP

By

This month, our blog is focusing on how to include strategies into a student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that relate to healthy relationships with oneself and others.

April is recognized worldwide as Autism Awareness Month. There is a current movement within the autism community to not only continue to heighten autism awareness but to more importantly foster understanding and acceptance of individuals who identify as having an autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Within this post, our team would like to stress the importance of including social problem-solving goals within a student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP), regardless of their diagnosis.

We will reiterate language from our previous post for emphasis, as we believe so strongly in this description. The IEP is truly the cornerstone of a student’s special education program and should reflect the strengths, needs and progress of an individual as they move through their school experience. An IEP should address academics, vocational planning, community engagement, domestic function, and recreation. Within the domestic domain, the IEP should examine skills needed for daily living.

Social skills connect an individual to their environment and the greater community. An important step in a student’s development is their ability to interact with both educators and peers, and to maintain appropriate relationships with family, friends, and the members of the community outside of school hours.

Parents, teachers, other team members such as speech therapists, and the student themselves as a self-advocate as much as possible, should work together to evaluate what social problem-solving skills a student currently possesses.

The IEP team should consider their ability to:

  • recognize and greet others
  • initiate a request or demonstrate need
  • respond to others’ questions and inference perspectives
  • differentiate between strangers and friends or acquaintances
  • engage in a back and forth conversation with others
  • take turns or share group efforts in a school, work or community setting
  • recognize personal space, voice modulation, and non-verbal communication techniques such as pointing and gesturing
  • understand the difference between platonic friendships and romantic relationships

Once a student’s social strengths and areas of need are thoroughly assessed, their IEP goals can be created with a goal of increasing consistent practice of these skills that will ultimately promote success.

A helpful resource for teachers to use to instruct social skills is the Healthy Relationships Curriculum. The Healthy Relationships Curriculum uses learning modules and video modeling with role-plays to teach and remediate these skills and also offer examples of both appropriate and inappropriate interactions.

This method of instruction was recently endorsed by Dr. Tammy Hughes, Chair of the Department of Education at Duquesne University as “the best method available nationwide to teach adolescents and young adults about themselves, their sexuality, and their social relationships.” A student’s social development helps them to progress towards post-secondary education, independent living, meaningful employment and possibly long-term partnerships. It is critically important for the IEP team to include social skills as part of the IEP goals and to have a comprehensive plan for how to instruct them.

As shared previously, our blog posts are written by members of our team who have first-hand experience – often family members – with autism and/or comorbidity comprised with experience working within school systems and healthcare agencies that support individuals with ID, ASD, developmental disabilities and emotional disturbance. It is our belief that individuals who are encouraged to understand the importance of developing their social problem-solving skills and given appropriate instruction will likely be more successful in being accepted by their peers and the community in which they live.

Are you thinking of bringing the Healthy Relationships Curriculum to your classroom, group or practice? Click on the Contact Us page to request a sample packet, ask a question, or to schedule a presentation for your team.

HRC and IEPs – How to Incorporate Self-Care Goals and Strategies

By

This month, our blog will focus on how to include strategies into a student’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) that relate to healthy relationships with oneself and others.

Our posts are written by members of the HRC team who have first-hand experience (often family members) with the different disabilities, as well as professional experiences working within school systems and providers that support individuals with Intellectual Disabilities (ID), ASD, developmental disabilities and behavioral health challenges.

As the new school year is upon us, you are probably thinking about writing efficient IEP goals for your students. How you will teach them the skills needed to progress towards mastery of these goals? The IEP is the cornerstone of a student’s special education program and should reflect their strengths, needs, and progress as they move through school. An IEP should address academics, vocational planning, community engagement, domestic function, recreation, and transition goals to help prepare them for life into adulthood. The IEP should examine skills and have goals for daily living so the students can be productive in all areas of their lives. In this post, we would like to touch on self-care.

Hygiene, including proper self-care, is critically important in preparing an individual to achieve independence within the community. Without consistently bathing or showering, dressing appropriately for an environment, maintaining good grooming, and using the bathroom independently, it is unlikely that an individual will be successful at school, at work, or within their interpersonal relationships. Establishing proper hygiene skills as early as possible prepares a student for participation in the community and may help to prevent being bullied by others.

Teachers, parents, and students (depending on their abilities) should work together as a team to proactively assess the hygiene skills that are currently in place. Once the team has determined what skills are currently in place, the team can focus on what hygiene and self-care skills need to be addressed to help the student achieve optimal success. Hygiene and self-care goals in an IEP can include, but not limited to, such tasks as:

• Hand-washing
• Using tissues after sneezing
• Teeth brushing and flossing
• Selecting appropriate clothing for school or work
• Communicating the need to use the bathroom
• Using the bathroom safely (for example, ensuring that boys using the urinal are not dropping their pants to the floor making them vulnerable to sexual harassment and bullying)

Teachers can utilize a combination of demonstration, visual aids, repetition, direct instruction, and social stories to educate students about hygiene. Involving caregivers at home to reinforce appropriate hygiene is also key to helping a student progress on their IEP goals and promote generalization across environments.

The Healthy Relationships Curriculum is a valuable, comprehensive tool to help school districts and organizations educate individuals about good hygiene. The program utilizes evidence-based practices while continually assessing the mastery of skills in this critical area of self-care. If you have questions about including hygiene and self-care goals into an IEP, or to learn more about our curriculum, contact a member of our team today!

Upcoming posts will address the importance of sex education during critical periods of adolescence, as well as social skill needs, to enhance relationships.

Preventing Crime and Victimization By Teaching Healthy Relationships

By

This blog entry was submitted by a member of the Healthy Relationships Curriculum team who has raised a child with autism and serves as a community advocate for change:

The Parkland High School shooting has brought increasing attention to the subject of crime as it relates to individuals with ASD. As a parent of a teen with autism, I have tried to learn as much as possible about legal issues and criminal behavior as it relates to autism as well as other developmental delays and co-morbidity. I have also spent a great deal of my time as an advocate researching, developing and conducting autism training sessions in the juvenile justice system for law enforcement, probation officers, and judges.

We need to consider the following:

* Current research suggests that there is limited and conflicting evidence regarding the volume and frequency of crimes committed by individuals with autism. There are over 3.5 million people living in the U.S. with an ASD diagnosis. It is estimated that less than one percent of these individuals have ever been arrested or charged with a crime.

* Individuals with ASD charged with a crime often have other mental health issues such as ADHD, bi-polar disorder or schizophrenia that experts suggest play a greater significance in criminal behavior than autism (known as “co-morbidity”).

* Individuals with autism are much more likely to be victims of a crime than to be the offenders. In fact, the U.S. Justice Department reports that individuals with developmental delays are seven times more likely to be sexually assaulted.

* The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders reports that psychologists say a lack of appropriate sex education leaves people with autism more vulnerable to sexual victimization.

* Researchers at York University go on to suggest that explicit instruction on appropriate sexual behavior is more crucial for people with autism “due to difficulties recognizing red flags, and interpreting the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors of others.”

Our curriculum provides detailed and direct instruction in the areas of self-care, sexuality, and relationship development. The curriculum was specifically designed by Dr. Larry Sutton and the staff of Wesley High School to help educate and inform adolescents and young adults about the importance of healthy relationships in their homes, at school, and in the community. Subjects such as privacy, personal space, appropriate use of social media, and how to develop safe friendships and romantic relationships are covered in the Healthy Relationships Curriculum. Covering these and other related topics will undoubtedly decrease problematic behavior, strengthen an individual’s understanding of their rights and responsibilities, and ultimately lead young adults to safer participation in the community.  We invite you to continue this dialogue with us, and learn how the Healthy Relationships Curriculum can contribute to prevention within the population you serve through proactive strategies.

Explore More & Try It For Yourself!
Start A Free Trial