CENTER FOR ADAPTIVE LEARNING

 

A Key to Individual Potential for Adults with Neurodevelopmental Disabilities

CAL's curriculum focuses on real life skills achievements, helping clients fill gaps in their ability to manage adult life. The Education Coordinator develops and coordinates a number of Learning Groups which focus on health skills (exercise, nutrition, and medication), money (budgeting, saving, shopping, impulse purchases), appearance (grooming and hygiene, hair, eye, and skin care, appropriate dress) leisure time management, holiday and travel planning, and much more.

Great Escapes

Our Educational Coordinator also oversees Great Escapes, a group that plans monthly events - on site parties, picnics, field trips, and shopping excursions.. The planning sessions are held three Fridays in a row and the events take place on the last Friday of the month. Activities are selected to provide clients with positive social experiences, an introduction to the larger community, and travel training. These fun activities also help build the feeling of belonging within the community. They are planned around a schedule of 2 small-budget months followed by a big-budget outing. Outings may be picnics, barbecues, or going to various places in the Bay Area on public transit, usually BART. Clients are encouraged to go again to these destinations, with one another, if they enjoyed themselves. In-house activities usually involve individual and team games and competitions, with prizes being awarded to the winners at the end. CAL also holds an annual egg hunt for all Great Escapes participants. Clients hunt in teams of two, and the eggs are hidden with varying levels of difficulty (a lot of bending and stretching needed!). Don't mistake this for a "little kid" activity. A post-hunt lunch is held at the Sweet Tomatoes salad bar restaurant.

The Education Coordinator is responsible for preparing clients to vote in elections, without pressure to adhere to any particular party or philosophy. Candidates and ballot propositions are reviewed, and clients are encouraged to think critically about the issues. The importance of voting, and how it impacts their lives is emphasized including registration and selection of political parties.

CAL Program Groups

 

Case Management:

· Living Skills

· Cooking Group

· Game Night

· Food Group (Nutrition topics)

· Exercise Group

 

Education:

· Women's Group

· Men's Group

· Relationship Group

· Stress Management

· Problem Solving Group

· Communication Group

· Learning Group (topics vary from social situations, hygiene and manners, to political issues and elections)

· Current Events

· Keyholders – a group for those clients who have achieved the status of keyholder

· Great Escapes

· Special Projects Group (optional)

 

Vocational Services:

· Vocational Group

· Workers Group

 

Counseling:

· Relationship Group

· Stress Management