A Strategy for Developing Chronological-Age-Appropriate and Functional Curricular Content for Severely Handicapped Adolescents and Young Adults

The paper points out the inappropriateness of the typical bottom-up or norm-referenced curricula offered to severely handicapped adolescents and young adults. As an alternative, it is proposed that curricula for this population teach chronological-age-appropriate functional skills in natural environments. Functional skills, natural environments, and chronological-age-appropriate skills are defined in this context. A six-phase curriculum-development strategy is constructed based on these concepts. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of this strategy for traditional curricular content and service delivery for severely handicapped adolescent and young adult students.