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No matter what you teach, having the right materials is key to student engagement. In a special education classroom, having the best resources to engage each student is doubly important. Find inspiration in this list of special education resources that covers social skills, vocational life skills, academic foundations, and occupational therapy activities to meet students where they are and help them move to the next level of their development.
Special Education Resources for Social Skills
Social skills are an important focus for students of any age and ability level, but especially important for students in a special education classroom. Focusing on social skills improves inclusion in the classroom and helps students make friendships and navigate social situations more deftly now and in the future.
Use low-prep resources to help students learn more about the way they interact with others, and to improve relationships by adjusting their behaviors.
Focus on kindness and positive behavior in the classroom
Many students don’t have an answer to the question “Why did you do that?” Help them reflect on problem behavior before it begins with resources that examine common behavior choices and the way they affect others.
Kindness Activities: Social Skills
By The Way I Teach
Grades: K-3rd
Subject: Character Education
Help students understand that their behavior can affect others positively and negatively with a resource focused on building social skills. Lessons on kindness and friendship guide young learners through the causes and effects of teasing, yelling, ignoring, pushing, and other everyday behaviors that can hurt their peers.
Teacher Tip: Use morning meetings to reinforce social skills
Morning meetings (or circle time) are an excellent tool for repetition of skills each day and supporting students by modeling social interaction. You can make classic elementary morning meeting activities more engaging for older students by making sure that some of the functional material that’s traditionally included recognizes the chronological age of middle and high school students.
“Weather is an activity that is highly functional but can be very abstract. As we get older, we start to use weather information to decide what to wear, what to pack for a trip, and so forth. This is the same type of information that we can teach our students, but we need to make the connection more concrete for them. Have them look up the weather online and make predictions based on the weather forecast. Then have them track whether the predictions were accurate.” -Christine from Autism Classroom Resources
Occupational Therapy Resources for Special Education
Every special education classroom should align with the IDEA to make the curriculum accessible for all students. That includes addressing developmental skills like fine motor, gross motor, and self-care skills. Meeting these milestones allows students to access curriculum in a new way, equipping them — and your classroom — for success. Use special education resources that assess and address OT skills and milestones for students of all abilities and grade levels.
Note OT skills and goals for important milestones
The best way to know how to meet students’ needs is to assess them at the beginning of the school year or learning unit. Track student skills and progress toward developmental milestones with checklists, assessments, and other resources designed to determine students’ baselines before instruction begins.
“Teachers can use different checklists to see where their students may fall developmentally,” she says. “These checklists should include what age students generally acquire certain skills by, so you can compare to the chronological age. If the student falls within a certain age, then I would not expect them to perform higher level skills. For example, when looking at self care, if a student is only removing their socks and shoes (age 1.5), I would not expect students to be snapping clothing or putting socks on (age 3). This may help to understand the expectations for the age level of the student.” -Elizabeth from Empowering OT with Dr R
OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY evaluation DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES fine motor
By Empower OT by Dr R
Grade: PreK-K
Keep track of students’ fine motor, visual motor, visual perceptual, and self-care milestones with an OT checklist. Each section covers student skills with classroom materials and tasks, letting you note whether they’re hitting each milestone with a simple “Yes” or “No.”
Teacher Tip: Refer to students’ developmental age when choosing OT activities
An early-year assessment of your special education students can reveal their developmental age, which may be different from their chronological age.
“I will adapt the curriculum and my strategies based upon the developmental age of my students,” she says. “For example, a student who is chronologically 5 years old, but presents with a developmental age of a 3-year-old, would not be working on writing the letters in their name (which some 5-year-olds are). Instead, he may be working on foundational skills such as finger differentiation, pre-writing strokes, or snipping with scissors.” -Elizabeth from Empowering OT by Dr. R
Resources That Combine Academics and Life Skills
Academic foundational skills are important for both resource classes that support students in mainstream courses and designated special education classrooms. If you can combine math and reading skills into activities that also address life skills, even better! Find ways to implement these resources in class to strengthen math and reading skills and to introduce life skills to students of any age.
Master math skills needed for everyday activities
Whether students need help with number recognition, adding and subtracting, or applying math concepts to everyday life, you’ll find that including special education resources with math components is an especially helpful way to reinforce these concepts. Students work through guided activities to master math facts and apply them to the times they may use them throughout a typical day.
Monster Math Digital Drag and Drop Activity for 1:1 Correspondence
By NoodleNook
Subjects: Math, Numbers
Standards: CCSS K.CC.A.1, B.4
A helpful CCSS-aligned math resource takes students through the concepts of 1:1 correspondence, number recognition, and counting. Designed for autistic students but applicable and adaptable for students of all ages and skills, this set of Google Drive slides includes digital task cards for numbers 1-20, as well as digital manipulatives for students to respond to questions.
Life Skills Special Education Activities – Grocery Life Skills Math Worksheets
By Adapting for Autism
Grades: 6th-12th
How much do your special education students know about finding grocery store information, using a credit card, or adding up the total cost of a grocery order? Take them through these topics and more with 50 worksheets that cover basic and life skills in two levels of difficulty.
Work on functional reading skills and application
From reading and understanding signage or instructions to following written directions, functional reading skills are an integral life skill. Guided activities on a variety of real-life reading tasks can help prepare students of all ages.
Safety Signs Worksheets – Functional Reading for Community Signs Sight Words
By Autism Classroom Resources-Christine Reeve
Grades: 9th-12th
Subject: Reading
Guide high schoolers in your special education classroom through functional reading exercises involving safety and road signs. A series of worksheets features signs with and without words for students to identify, along with the option to cut and paste answers or to write them in.
Teacher Tip: Find mainstream support from special education teachers
Many school leaders don’t come from a special education background. If you fall into this category, TpT Teacher-Author Heather from Special Treat Friday recommends looking for guidance from your special education teachers about what they need to engage their students. “Allow your teachers to choose what they feel is best for their students. They know their needs best and they know their style of teaching.”
If you’re a mainstream teacher looking for inclusive special education resources, enlisting the special education department is a great place to start. See if they have core subject materials you can use in the classroom to differentiate among skill levels, or if they can point you in the right direction to find more resources to adapt and use throughout the school year.
Functional Skills for Career Readiness
Older students in special education programs need resources that emphasize functional and career readiness skills. No matter what their post-school plans may be, these skills can begin to equip them for employment and self-sufficiency while they’re still students in your classroom. From application and interviewing skills to executive functioning and time management techniques, these activities teach students skills they’ll use long after graduation.
Take students through job comprehension activities
If you made a list of possible jobs with your students, how many could they come up with? Add to their understanding of entry-level jobs with activities that go over what people in various jobs do.
Entry Level Jobs Comprehension Worksheets
By Adulting Made Easy aka SpedAdulting
Grades: 6th-12th
How much do the students in your special education program know about their future jobs? Take them through over 55 worksheets on the responsibilities and skills for many entry-level positions, including cashiers, bellhops, mail carriers, cart pushers, and more.
Practice vocational life skills in the classroom
Prepare students for job interviews and responsibilities long before they leave high school! Use resources focused on vocational life skills to equip students for a variety of jobs and responsibilities.
Vocational Life Skills Bundle
By Check in with Mrs G
Grades: 5th-12th
Vocational life skills are important for any student to learn, but they are especially important in the context of a special education classroom. Use a series of lessons that take students through finding a job, planning a job interview, and problem-solving through different job-related tasks.
COFFEE CART Student Business | FREE Flyer & Directions | SPED Job Skills
By Transition Abilities
Grades: 6th-12th
Get students excited to work with a coffee business project! Designed for special education classes working on vocational life skills, this innovative project encourages students to apply for a barista position, plan out their business budget and menu, take orders, and deliver coffee to their happy customers.
Teacher Tip: Use vocational skills to make your lessons interesting and accessible
It can be difficult to find instructional materials that match both the skill level and the chronological age of each student. Additionally, using materials and curriculum that don’t recognize chronological age could potentially become a barrier for student engagement, learning, and growth — especially for middle and high school students.
As TpT Teacher-Author Corey from Smarter Intervention explains, “It’s critical that our students get what they need without feeling as though they are doing ‘baby’ work. As soon as they start feeling like the work they are doing was designed for students much younger, they check out. If you want to create true, lasting, and meaningful progress, you need to keep students’ age and interests in the forefront as you create resources and lessons.”
Make your special education resources enriching and inspiring
When students of any age or ability are able to hone and improve their skills, they’re one step closer to success. That’s even more the case with students in special education, as their success depends on building foundational skills to meet developmental milestones and close academic gaps.
Find more special education lessons, activities, and games to add to elementary and secondary learning environments. You can also follow our guide to creating a sensory-friendly classroom, which will likely benefit everyone in the class!
