curriculum

Human Sexuality 101 Week 8: Wrap Up and Review

/ sarahlcurtiss / 1 Comment

For the final session of Human Sexuality 101 we reviewed what we learned during the class.  Overall, students seemed to enjoy the class and learn something.  The students also seemed to like each other.  Sexuality is a social topic, so I was excited that students were able to share and connect throughout the class.

Activities

Vote with Your Feet:  We printed ‘true’ and ‘false’ on sheets on the opposite sides of the room.  When presented with true/false statements, participants chose the correct response.  We specifically chose items that we knew were difficult for students.  Then we switched to agree/disagree.  This allowed us to touch upon the difference between facts and opinions.  We also had students make their own statements.  They did a great job.

Booklets:  We passed out booklets to the participants that reviewed all the information we covered and had additional activities for them to do at home. We did complete an evaluation, but I don’t think it was very successful.  I’d consider the evaluation to still be “under construction.”

Materials

Social Signals- Curriculum

/ sarahlcurtiss

Social Signals ($159.oo) is a series of  videos and curriculum are designed to teach adolescent students with autism and intellectual disability about safe relationship skills.  There is also a parent curriculum for $23.99.  They have a sample video and lesson available for free so you can preview before you purchase.  I liked the video.  I like to teach about expected and unexpected behaviors and I think these videos could be a good tool.  There are also sample lessons that accompany the videos.

“Intimate Relationships and Sexual Health” – A Curriculum

/ sarahlcurtiss

Courtesy of Indiana University

Thank you to the folks at TAP in Rockford for bringing this curriculum to my attention!

“Intimate Relationships and Sexual Health” is a curriculum written by Catherine Davies and Melissa Dubie who are affiliated with the Indian Resource Center for Autism.

“Intimate Relationships and Sexual Health” is geared toward folks who are pretty independent and have few intellectual impairments, so it’s not for everyone.  But they do do a nice job of showing how to think about lesson planning  that would apply to anybody.  You can see a fair amount of the curriculum on Amazon to see if it might work for you.

Free Curriculum and Parent Resources

/ sarahlcurtiss

A lot of the curriculum we used for the puberty unit of our Human Sexuality 101 group was adapted from “Teaching Sexual Health“.  They are a group out of Canada that provides support for teachers and parents.  I used their general curriculum but they also have a curriculum for students of differing ability levels.  They have great resources for parents including “webisodes” that give examples of parents talking to kids about sexuality topics.  The website is very well organized and easy to use!

Image

Sex Ed in the News

/ sarahlcurtiss

ABC just did an article about teaching human sexuality to students with intellectual disability.  They focus on a New York school that has incorporated teaching sexuality into their mission.  One of my favorite lines from the article is that “Sex ed is not a goal, but a process.”  They mention in the article that New York City schools mandate sexuality education and I just wanted to comment on this, based on my experience in Illinois.

Although there is not specific information that addresses the willingness of school administrations to offer comprehensive sexuality education to individuals with ASD, there is information available for offering this type of education in general.  As part of the Affordable Health Care Act federal funding was opened up for comprehensive sexuality education called PREP- Personal Responsibility Education Program as well as Title V- abstinence only education meaning that states get to choose the type of sexuality education offered and may offer both (SIECUS, n.d.).  For fiscal year 2010, 43 states applied for PREP funding which means their sexuality education must cover abstinence, contraception use, healthy relationships, adolescent development, finical responsibility, educational and career success, and healthy life.  Until PREP funding was aproved funding was only available for Title V abstinence only education.

Even if comprehensive sexuality education is being offered in the schools, that does not mean it is being offered to individuals with disabilities.  Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, students with Individual Education Plans have access to adapted general education curriculum.  At this point, my understanding is that, in Illinois this means a student can participate in a general education sexuality class room unsupported, with an aide, or opt out.  If the student (or more accurately, the student’s guardian), opts out, then the child’s special educator is required to adapt the curriculum with parental permission.  There are no standards for what that adaptation must cover.  Teachers may be working with professionally developed curriculum for individuals with disabilities, independently adapting a general education curriculum, or may be creating their own curriculum from scratch.  Due to the diverse needs and strengths among individuals with students with disabilities there may be great variability in how long it takes to cover various topics, to what depth topics can be covered, and what further adaptations may be needed.

Teaching About Joking

/ sarahlcurtiss

Here is an activity you may want to try out for teaching about joking in context.  Joking is really difficult because it’s very nuanced.  It can be a great way to connect with people but also hurtful.  I also think it is difficult because of the educational context- jokes that aren’t appropriate at school, work, etc. It might be okay in some places but it feels weird saying- “yeah, it’s okay to tell fart jokes with your friends.”  It really easy to cross over from actual social skills to formal social skills.  

Free Curriculum- Parent Version, Teacher Version, Spanish Version

/ sarahlcurtiss

ImageI’m really excited about this free curriculum, “Sexuality Across the Lifespan” by: DiAnn L. Baxley and Anna L. Zendell.  It has versions for educators, teachers, and Spanish speakers.  You can view the curriculum by clicking on the links below.

What makes this special?  They do a nice job at adjusting lessons for different age groups, giving ideas for supplemental activities, and giving ideas for incorporating the topics into routines.  The parent version really focuses on how to reinforce healthy sexual development through interactions and daily routines.

This curriculum in not comprehensive but does have sections on social skills, dating, sexual abuse, puberty, and anatomy.  I hope you find this useful!