Beneficial life skills for college students with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Abstract

Friendship, conflict resolution, consent, and healthy communication are essential life skills for all individuals to learn because these are skills that will always be used. However, these skills are even more important to learn for individuals who plan to live on campus during their college career. This is because college tends to be the first experience individuals have with either living on their own or with other individuals outside of their family members. A good way to teach these life skills is through offering programs where individuals may learn what these skills are and how to implement them into their own lives.

The purpose of this project is to provide a curriculum of four programs specialized for Community Mentors, specifically those who wish to work with individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. These four programs will allow these Community Mentors to better assist their residents with learning some essential life skills such as friendship, conflict resolution, consent, and healthy communication. These four programs will not only be beneficial to those with intellectual and developmental disabilities, but for any resident, a Community Mentor may encounter.

Each program in this set of curriculum follows the same structure. The program starts with the Community Mentor passing out a guide to all residents in attendance so that they may follow along during the program. After this, there will be an activity that is meant to draw individuals into the room. After the activity is finished, the Community Mentor will present a PowerPoint of the focus points for the evening as well as facilitate discussion on the concept. The goal of creating and presenting these programs is to ensure college students, including students with intellectual and developmental disabilities have the resources they need to be successful in their relationships.