For life skills education, it is important to include VISUALS and REPETITION while teaching important life skills tasks, such as laundry. With the right amount of support and practice, students can become more independent individuals in their homes and communities.
When I was teaching our special education students had the job of cleaning the rental PE uniforms. It was a great way to practice important laundry skills of washing and folding each day!
I'm sure many parents would also appreciate this skill to be transferred over to home as well ;)
Laundry Task Analysis Visuals
Visuals are everything! Using laundry task analysis sheets like these ones help set students up for success.
Do you use the same settings on the machine almost every time? I know I do! Mark them with a piece of bright paper and tape so that students can easily turn the knob to set the washer and dryer to the correct settings each time.
Another great visual is with the laundry scoop. The numbers can be hard to see, so draw a line to show students how much detergent they need. Or find a cup that they can fill to the top to get the correct amount of detergent needed.
Folding, everyone's favorite part of laundry, right? ;) Visuals for folding pants, shirts, tops, socks, washcloths, and towels are included in this laundry set as well.
Another great tool to help students fold is the laundry folding board! Grab it here. (amazon affiliate link)
Laundry Life Skill Books
Books are helpful because they allow students to learn the task before they are actually given the task of doing the laundry. By spending time reading books first, students will know what to do next!
This laundry book (with two versions, digital or printable) includes 12 steps of doing the laundry.
Printable Book: Includes 2 levels in one, students can match the picture on each page or match the word in bold to the end choice page.
Digital Book on Boom Learning: Works with free or paid Boom Learning accounts (learn more about Boom Cards here) and students can drag and drop to interact with each page and listen to the story read aloud. See what the laundry book looks like below:
Academics
I know sometimes it is difficult to find time to incorporate life skills while still working on academics such as language arts and math.
I've included a few worksheets in the laundry task analysis resource and you can find many more that work on the laundry vocabulary in this other laundry unit here.
Another idea is to have students cut apart the visual task analysis and then reorder to put all of the steps in the correct place.
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