1. Ansell-Casey Life Skills

2. Self-Assessment: How developed are YOUR life skills?
Opening Activity
Self-Assessment: How developed are YOUR life skills?
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

3. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Opening Exercise
How Many of You…..?
Have debt of $20,000 or more? 
Paid cash for your last purchase of $1,000 or more? 
Have bought more than 3 items with 0% financing? 
How many have a savings account?  
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

4. Opening Exercise (cont’d)
How Many of You…..? 
How many have a 401(k) account?  
How many have life insurance?  
Car payments less than $250 per month?  
Car payments more than $400 per month?
How many got money back on your last tax return?
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

5. The Cosby Show’s Version of Life Skills
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

6. Why is an assessment needed?
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

7. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
What is Common Sense?
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

8. The Myth of Common Sense
How many people know how to empty their internet browser’s cache?
Describe how to make spaghetti…
“Common sense is that which tells us the world is flat.” – S. I. Hayakawa
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

9. Common Sense and Children in Transition
How does the myth of “common sense” affect foster children?
How do we know
What a foster child knows and doesn’t know
Skills he possesses and doesn’t possess
Has been taught properly or taught improperly
What lessons were traumatic for him
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

10. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Define Life Skills
Group Activity
8-9 years old years old years old years old 18+ years old
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

11. Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessment Tool

12. Ansell-Casey “Domains”
Housing & Money Management
Home Life
Work & Study Skills
Social Relationships
Daily Living
Self-Care
Work Life
Career Planning
Communication
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

13. Domains of Ansell-Casey Life Skills:
Career Planning focuses on the skills necessary to plan for a career. It includes the skill areas of work goals, employment, and work place communication.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

14. Domains of Ansell-Casey Life Skills:
Daily Living includes skill areas used on a daily basis like: nutrition, menu planning, grocery shopping, meal preparation, dining decorum, kitchen cleanup and food storage, home management, home safety
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

15. Domains of Ansell-Casey Life Skills:
Housing and Money Management addresses skill areas needed for a positive transition into the community. This domain includes housing, transportation, community resources, beliefs about money, savings, income tax, banking and credit, budgeting/spending plan, consumer skills, and work goals.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

16. Domains of Ansell-Casey Life Skills:
Communication focuses on skill areas necessary to get along with others. It includes the skill areas of personal development, interpersonal communication, and relationships.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

17. Domains of Ansell-Casey Life Skills:
Social Relationships focuses on skill areas necessary to relate to others both now and in the future. This domain includes personal development, cultural awareness, and relationships.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

18. Domains of Ansell-Casey Life Skills:
Work Life concerns those areas pertaining to acquiring, maintaining, growing in and changing jobs or careers.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

19. Domains of Ansell-Casey Life Skills:
Home Life concerns basic issues of being successful where a person lives.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

20. Domains of Ansell-Casey Life Skills:
Self Care includes skill areas that promote healthy physical and emotional development. This domain includes personal hygiene, health, alcohol, drugs and tobacco, sexuality, and relationships.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

21. Domains of Ansell-Casey Life Skills:
Work and Study Skills addresses skill areas needed for completion of educational programs and to pursue careers of interest. This domain includes work goals, employment, decision-making, and study skills.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

22. Life Skills Learning Cycle
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

23. Life Skills Learning Cycle
Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessment
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

24. Life Skills Learning Cycle
ACLSA Score Report
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

25. Life Skills Learning Cycle
The Conversation
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

26. Life Skills Learning Cycle
Life Skills Guidebook
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

27. Life Skills Learning Cycle
Instruction
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

28. Life Skills Learning Cycle
Application
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

29. The difference between “Test” and “Assessment”
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

30. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Learning Styles
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

31. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Learning Styles
"Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." — Albert Einstein
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

32. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Learning Styles
Visual
Recognize words by sight
Take detailed notes
Learn from diagrams, maps and videos
Use lists to organize thoughts
Are imaginative
Easily distracted by movement
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

33. Visual Learning Activity
Mathmagic Land 8:25 – 10:00
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

34. Visual Learning Activity
All the rectangles in this image have exactly the same ________?
proportions
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

35. Visual Learning Activity
The “golden rectangle” can reproduce itself how many times?
indefinitely
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

36. Visual Learning Activity
The golden rectangle can be found in the architecture of which ancient culture?
The Greeks
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

37. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Learning Styles
Auditory
Learn by listening and talking aloud
Like verbal instructions and lectures
Enjoy discussion
Notice and remember sounds
Are good with language
Need to work in a quiet space
Not afraid to speak in public
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

38. Auditory Learning Activity
Ken Robinson 03:42 – 06:30
Sir Ken Robinson: Do Schools Kill Creativity?
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

39. Auditory Learning Activity
If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you’ll never come up with anything _________.
Kids are not frightened of being _________.
National education systems are educating people out of their __________ capacities.
Original / Wrong / Creative
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

40. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Learning Styles
Kinesthetic
Do best when they are actively involved
Have high energy levels
Prefer to DO rather than listen
Lose much of what is said in a lecture
Do well with role plays
Naturally good at sports and dance
Have difficulty with sitting still
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

41. Ansell-Casey Participation Levels
UNINVOLVED
INVOLVED
LESS
MORE
UNINTERESTED
INTERESTED
PARTICIPATION
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

42. Ansell-Casey Life Skills Participation Levels
Level 1: Learners do not make any substantive decisions about their service.
(Michael Kendrick, Ph.D., 2004)
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

43. Ansell-Casey Life Skills Participation Levels
Level 2: Learners do not make any substantive decisions about their service, but are routinely informed about the decisions others will be making on their behalf.
(Michael Kendrick, Ph.D., 2004)
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

44. Ansell-Casey Life Skills Participation Levels
Level 3: Learners are routinely asked to give opinions to the actual decision-makers regarding service decisions.
(Michael Kendrick, Ph.D., 2004)
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

45. Ansell-Casey Life Skills Participation Levels
Level 4: Learners routinely make 25% to 45% of the key decisions that constitute their personal service.
(Michael Kendrick, Ph.D., 2004)
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

46. Ansell-Casey Life Skills Participation Levels
Level 5: Learners make 55% to 90% of the key decisions that affect their service.
(Michael Kendrick, Ph.D., 2004)
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

47. Ansell-Casey Life Skills Participation Levels
Level 6: Learners routinely make the vast majority of key decisions that they simply do not believe that they have a meaningful empowerment issue.
(Michael Kendrick, Ph.D., 2004)
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

48. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
We encourage evaluating your work with people in transition and moving your learners to a position where they routinely make the majority of key decisions that affect their learning. Greater learner involvement leads to learner ownership of their skill development.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

49. Learning Levels

50. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Learning Levels
Level 1: Awareness Level 2: Knowledge and Understanding At levels one and two, the learner is acquiring information, is able to identify, describe or explain information about the subject matter being taught.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

51. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Learning Levels
“Knows and understands” Learning Goals: The instructor presents information in a way that increases the learner’s knowledge base.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

52. Learning Levels
Level 3: Knows how At level three, the learner is beginning to apply the knowledge learned through instruction and should be able to demonstrate some ability with the skill through simulation or real life experiences.

53. Learning Levels
Level 4: Can or is able to At level four, the learner is using the knowledge learned outside of the learning environment. At this level, the learner is able to demonstrate the skill on a regular basis and reports on his/her progress.

54. Plain Terminology of the Life Skills Guidebook
The Life Skills Guidebook is designed to help develop life skills teaching curriculum and individual learning plans. The Guidebook addresses the nine domains of the ACLSA. Each domain contains several skill areas. The Guidebook identifies Learning Goals, Expectations, and Activities for 30 life skill areas.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

55. When Does the Assessment Occur?
The ACLSA should be done at placement, and then every 6 months thereafter
Use the assessment that matches the child’s cognitive age
Contact your worker if you need access to the internet or other resources

56. Experience the ACLSA Process
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

57. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Take the Assessment
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

58. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Review the Evaluation
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

59. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Go to the Guidebook
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

60. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Money and You
How we feel about money influences how we will spend, save, or share it with others. Help your foster youth gain a better understanding of:
their attitudes toward money
how these attitudes can affect their lives
why developing good money skills can help them reach their goals for the future
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

61. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Money and You
One of these skills is knowing how to spend smart. The first steps in spending smart are to learn the difference between spending money on what we need and spending money on what we want, and to make smart choices based on this difference.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

62. Tips for Completing the Youth Guides:
Both guides ask the youth to decide if they tend to be “savers” or “spenders.” There are no right or wrong answers here. The exercise is a way for youth to start thinking about their money habits, which habits are good ones, and which ones they might want to change. You may find it interesting to complete these exercises to learn about your own money attitudes.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

63. “common sense” is a myth!
Discuss with your child ways to GET money… (gifts, allowance, jobs) Help the youth think about extra jobs that he or she can do to earn money.
Remember:
“common sense” is a myth!

64. Discuss the effect advertising has on making us think we “need” something, and why kids often feel that they will be more popular with their friends if they wear the “right” brands.

65. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
When foster youth talk about needs, they may talk about needs that money can’t buy, such as the love of a parent or a permanent home. Allow children time to talk about these issues as fully as possible before you move back into a discussion of needs that can be met with money.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

66. Modeling Activity
Make a list with your younger youth of all the ways YOU get money and the things YOU spend it on.
Compare your list with the one in the youth guide
Talk about the differences

67. Give Them a Clear Visual Target
Put up a bulletin board in the kitchen or the youth’s bedroom. Label one side “needs” and the other side “wants.”
Let the youngster make a list of needs and wants and put them on the bulletin board.
Suggest that they cut out pictures from magazines to show their needs and wants and tack the pictures on the bulletin board.
Talk about ways to make a plan for saving for needs first, and then for wants.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

68. Give Them a Clear Visual Target (cont’d)
Give the youth three coffee mugs. Label one with a “need” the youth has, the second with a “want,” and the third with “sharing.”
Together, add money to each mug as often as possible.
For younger children especially, try to keep the needs and wants you choose fairly inexpensive, so that child can reach his or her goals in a SHORT amount of time.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

69. Games Reveal Our Values
As a family, play Monopoly, Life, or other games involving money, buying, or selling. While having fun, your youth will make choices that reflect their values and beliefs about money, which can spark a good family discussion.

70. Savings
Get children used to saving by starting young children with a “piggy bank” which they can fill with their weekly allowance.
When the piggy bank gets full, take the child to the bank and open a savings account. Try to get the account in the child’s name, show them the savings account record book, and have them keep track of the interest their money earns.

71. Family Savings Jar
Your family can have fun creating a “savings jar” to pay for special events, treats, or giving to charity. Have a discussion about what the savings goal will be and how much each member can contribute on a weekly basis.

72. Developing a Savings Plan
As youth earn money from chores or other means, encourage them to have a savings plan. For example, they could divide any earnings into portions: 30% for long-term savings (they don’t touch it until they leave home); 30% for short term savings (for things they want that don’t cost too much); 30% for pocket money (for spending immediately); and 10% for giving away.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

73. Getting Started with Investments
Youth need to learn the value of long-term investments. Help your youth learn about investment options by taking them to talk with a financial advisor or finding investment information on the Internet. Work with your youth to select an investment the youth can put his/her money in for the next 3-5 years.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

74. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Taxes
Sales Tax
Each time you buy something, have the youth examine receipts to see how much money was added to the cost because of sales tax.
If your youth wants to make a larger purchase, have them figure out the total cost, including sales tax.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

75. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Payroll Taxes
To teach about payroll taxes, have the youth look at their pay stub and see how much was taken out from their wages. This is an opportunity to describe gross wages, net wages, FICA, etc.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

76. Ansell-Casey Life Skills
Income Taxes
Once we begin to work, we all need to file income tax forms. To help a youth see the benefit of paying taxes, talk about where tax monies go (roads, schools, police and fire departments, social services, parks, stadiums, etc.).
You can also help them prepare to pay income taxes by looking at the 1040EZ form. Have the youth identify what information will be needed to fill out the tax form correctly. Help the youth complete the tax form or ask a friend, relative, or accountant to assist them.
Ansell-Casey Life Skills

77. Get Started! http://www.caseylifeskills.org
Use the assessment as soon as you can to get into the habit of working on life skills with your child!
Ansell-Casey Life Skills