Practical life skills

Practical life skills (LPF) are everyday motor skills that do not require an elaborate learning process in healthy people. People who are blind or visually impaired receive specific training in this. LPF are among the cultural techniques of everyday life, although the term arose from the ability to form people who are visually impaired.

aims

For most people, an independent lifestyle is a basic need. The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UN-CRPD), includes independent living.
In contrast to orientation and mobility training (O&M), which is mostly carried out outdoors, LPF training takes place in rooms. LPF training courses are not subject to any statutory regulation; the training content is determined individually by the respective rehabilitation teacher. In principle, the course includes the teaching of the following skills:

• personal hygiene

The main goal of body care is to cleanse dirt, avoid diseases and, depending on the culture, body odors that are perceived as inappropriate.

• • Foot bath
  • have a shower
  • Bathing in the tub
  • Intimate hygiene
  • Application of cosmetics
  • Skin care
  • Hair care
  • Dental and oral care
  • manicure
  • pedicure
  • Influence of body odor through deodorants and perfumes
  • Make up
  • Shaving , beard care and hair removal ( depilation )

• Clothes care
  • Operate the washing machine
  • Handling laundry (from washing to putting it in the closet)
• Food preparation and follow-up, self-sufficiency
  • Cooking and heating food
  • Handling kitchen appliances (including washing dishes, storing leftovers, etc.)
• Eating skills (e.g. eating training without visual control)
  • Orientation on the plate
  • Finding the food on the plate with a knife and fork
  • Fine dining with a knife and fork
• Housing procurement, furnishing and maintenance
  • Housekeeping
  • Keep order
  • Keeping the kitchen sorted, tactile marking of spices and food, stowing away and keeping them safe , loading ice boxes
  • other daily activities in the house, e.g. B. minor household repairs
• House maintenance and cleaning
• communication
  • Dealing with technical devices and entertainment electronics, including DAISY players
  • Dealing with money (recognizing coins and bills)
  • Dealing with communication aids
  • Writing and reading Braille (full and shorthand for the blind), as well as writing your own signature
  • Dealing with electronic, computer-related tools and keyboard typing

Training

Since the practical life skills are part of the cultural techniques , they are taught in schools for children who are visually impaired or blind as well as in “inclusive education” . The training courses are only carried out by specially trained rehabilitation teachers, for children and adolescents as inpatients at a school for the blind, for adults on an outpatient basis in the home of the interested party. The placement of LPF takes place in one-to-one lessons.

In Germany, the social welfare agency is responsible for assuming the costs of the training. As part of the integration assistance for the disabled, he pays the costs, depending on income and assets. If the measure takes place in the context of medical rehabilitation, the service provider according to Section 26, Paragraph 3 SGB IX and Sections 5 and 6 SGB IX is the statutory health insurance, statutory accident insurance, statutory pension insurance or war victims' insurance, depending on their responsibilities. If none of these cost carriers come into question, those affected are forced to pay for the services themselves.

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ In the Austrian education system , one hour per week (1 WS) of blind-specific exercises is provided in elementary school from the 1st grade onwards, including LPF, from the 4th grade two hours onwards (2 WSs), in the 5th – 8th grade. Grade 2–6 WS. LPF 2–8 WS can be taken as an optional subject. The lessons in LPF or O&M can also be blocked. In: Curriculum of the special school for blind children (BGBL II, No. 137), ed. from the Federal Ministry for Education, Art and Culture , Vienna 2008, pp. 23–27. See: [1] , accessed on February 2, 2015.
2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 19, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. IRIS e. V. - Further training to become a rehabilitation teacher 
3. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. BLISTA - German Study Institute for the Blind V.