A Practitioner’s Guide to Creating Multimedia Simulated Instruction for Students with Intellectual Disability

Special education teachers serving transition-level youth with intellectual disability must frequently teach community-referenced skills. Community-referenced skills include those skills needed for students to live independently and successfully complete postsecondary education. These skills may include purchasing skills, identification of community signs, grocery skills, public transportation use, social skills, and food ordering skills. As the need for independence increases with age, students with intellectual disability who are nearing the transition from school to independent living must be taught community-referenced skills through individualized instruction.

For some, the postsecondary transition marks a rite of passage with a promise of freedom and independence. Yet for students with intellectual disability, the transition to life after high school can be difficult if they are not properly prepared. A new beginning and lack of structure previously provided by formal education can elicit negative outcomes for students with intellectual disability. Indeed, students with disabilities face the poorest postsecondary outcomes compared to any other minority group (Hiersteiner et al., 2016). Students with intellectual disability are more likely to be victims of crime and taken advantage of in sexual and social situations than typically developing peers (Hiersteiner et al., 2016).