In this webcast, Dr. McLetchie and Dr. Zatta discuss the critical importance of blending “Quality of Life” into the curriculum. Students with significant disabilities must be specifically taught the skills that help them to make and choose friends, to make real choices about who and what they like, to gain pride and self-esteem through meaningful work, and to choose what they like to do for “play” through exploring different experiences.
Teachers can learn to integrate Quality of Life skills into the subjects they are already teaching, in order to help students gain skills that will help them have a good quality of life now and into the future. “To live, to love, to work, to play” is the joyous theme of the Quality of Life curriculum.