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Core Curriculum
The College of Direct Support core courses are developed by the University of Minnesota’s Research and Training Center on Community Living. Each course is reviewed by a group of content experts from the National Board of Editors, who serve as editors and advisors for all courses.
Every course is designed to give direct support professionals the knowledge, skills and attitudes they need through innovative, engaging and interesting training.
- Civil Rights and Advocacy
- Community Inclusion
- Cultural Competence
- Direct Support Professionalism
- Documentation
- Emergency Preparedness
- Employment Supports: Exploring Individual Preferences and Opportunities for Job Attainment
- Everyone Can Communicate
- Functional Assessment
- Home and Community Living
- Individual Rights and Choice
- Individualizing Personal Care
- Introduction to Developmental Disabilities
- Maltreatment of Vulnerable Adults and Children
- Medication Support
- Person-Centered Planning and Supports
- Positive Behavior Support
- Safety at Home and in the Community
- Supporting Healthy Lives
- Supporting Jobs and Careers in the Community
- Teaching People with Developmental Disabilities
- Working with Families and Support Networks
- You’ve Got a Friend: Supporting Family Connections, Friends, Love and the Pursuit of Happiness
Civil Rights and Advocacy
This four-lesson course will help you understand your role in supporting a person with a disability as he or she stands up for his or her rights. You will learn what it takes to be an effective advocate for those you support. You will learn how to work with each person to overcome the challenges faced in exercising his or her civil rights.
- Lesson 1: Your Role in Effective Advocacy
- Lesson 2: History of the Disability Rights Movement
- Lesson 3: Disability Rights and Legislation
- Lesson 4: Challenges and Strategies for Exercising Civil Rights
Community Inclusion
Learn key strategies through this course to help people with disabilities grow into active members of the communities in which they live and work. You’ll also learn key strategies for enhancing inclusion.
- Lesson 1: The DSP Role in Community Inclusion
- Lesson 2: Matching Community Resources with Individual Interests
- Lesson 3: Community Bridge Building and Networking
- Lesson 4: Natural Supports
Cultural Competence
Get an overview of cultural competence and its importance in providing quality support to people with disabilities. You will learn about valuing diversity and recognizing your own culture and the culture of others. You will also learn skills that allow you to adjust your behavior based on the needs of a situation or individual.
- Lesson 1: What Is Cultural Competence?
- Lesson 2: Understanding Your Own Culture
- Lesson 3: The Culture of Support Services
- Lesson 4: The Cultural Competence Continuum
- Lesson 5: Cross-Cultural Communication
- Lesson 6: Cultural Competence in Daily Support
- Lesson 7: DSP Roles in Culturally Competent Organizations
Direct Support Professionalism
Over the course of six lessons, you will be introduced to the national movement to professionalize the field of direct support. Following accepted best practices and a standardized ethical code are essential concepts in this course. You will learn how the DSP can become involved in professional organizations. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) is also a key part of this course.
- Lesson 1: Becoming a Direct Support Professional
- Lesson 2: Contemporary Best Practices
- Lesson 3: Applying Ethics in Everyday Work
- Lesson 4: Practicing Confidentiality
- Lesson 5: Working with Your Strengths and Interests
- Lesson 6: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
Documentation
This course will help you understand why recording specific activities or events is important, and show you the proper way to complete documentation and maintain confidentiality. This course material can also be adapted for individual employer, agency or state requirements.
- Lesson 1: Purposes of Documentation
- Lesson 2: Types of Documentation
- Lesson 3: Effective Documentation
- Lesson 4: Confidentiality in Documentation
Emergency Preparedness
This course will help you to understand the importance of being prepared for emergencies and the many types of emergencies you could encounter. It will help you to identify actions to take and the important role you play in supporting a person with a disability during these times.
- Lesson 1: What Is Emergency Preparedness?
- Lesson 2: The Role of the Direct Support Professional in Emergency Preparedness
- Lesson 3: Defining Disasters and Emergencies
- Lesson 4: Pandemics
Employment Supports: Exploring Individual Preferences and Opportunities for Job Attainment
During this four-part course, you will learn to assist people with identifying skills and preferences, exploring job opportunities, completing job applications and making appropriate workplace accommodations.
- Lesson 1: Introduction to Employment Supports
- Lesson 2: Identifying Individual Employment Preferences, Interests, Strengths and Support Needs
- Lesson 3: Job Opportunities and Job Searching
- Lesson 4: Applying, Interviewing and Making Accommodations
Everyone Can Communicate
The goal of this course is to help you learn the importance of communication in relationship building. You will learn key strategies for interpreting verbal and nonverbal communication. You will also learn about using augmentative and alternative communication strategies.
- Lesson 1: What Is Communication and Why Is It Important?
- Lesson 2: How People Communicate
- Lesson 3: The Role of the Direct Support Professional as a Communication Partner
- Lesson 4: Strategies to Enhance Communication
- Lesson 5: Augmentative and Alternative Communication
Functional Assessment
This course will help you identify challenging behaviors and discover their underlying causes. You will learn how to support positive behaviors and help each person you support to improve his or her life.
- Lesson 1: Comprehensive Assessment and the Role of the Direct Support Professional
- Lesson 2: Strategies for Gathering and Organizing Functional Assessment Information
- Lesson 3: Understanding Behavior and Participating in the Functional Assessment process
- Lesson 4: Using Functional Assessments and Behavior Support Plans
Home and Community Living
This course will help you and the family members of the person you support to provide critical support so that he or she can live at home. Each course includes facts, techniques, and possible methods of support.
- Lesson 1: Clothing Care and Laundry
- Lesson 2: Comfortable Living
- Lesson 3: Home Maintenance and Upkeep
- Lesson 4: Maintaining a Clean Home
- Lesson 5: Supporting Home Living: The DSP Role
Individual Rights and Choice
This course will give you critical knowledge of the legal rights of individuals with disabilities. You will be equipped to ensure those you support can balance appropriate risk and choice with the right to be protected from harm. This course can be modified to reflect local or state laws that DSPs may need to know.
- Lesson 1: Overview of Individual Rights
- Lesson 2: Restrictions of Individual Rights
- Lesson 3: Overcoming a Past of Barriers, a Future of Risks, Choices, and Solutions
- Lesson 4: Your Role in Supporting Expression of Rights and Facilitating Choice
Individual Personal Care
This course will help you learn to support people with disabilities with personal care in a way that is both sensitive and respectful of individual tastes and habits. This course includes skills in the areas of grooming and hygiene.
- Lesson 1: Understanding Personal and Self-Care
- Lesson 2: Individualized Personal Care Support
- Lesson 3: The Basics of Hygiene
- Lesson 4: Basics of Grooming and Dressing
Introduction to Developmental Disabilities
This recently updated course will give you the background information you need to support a person with an intellectual and other developmental disability. You will learn about appropriate vocabulary and communication strategies that will help you explain the support system to a person you support and his or her family. This course will also give you a historical perspective of people with disabilities and the supports available to them.
- Lesson 1: A Brief History of Developmental Disabilities
- Lesson 2: The Language and Ideas of Best Practices
- Lesson 3: Terminology and Classification in Developmental Disabilities
- Lesson 4: The Causes of Developmental Disabilities
- Lesson 5: Services for People with Developmental Disabilities
Maltreatment of Vulnerable Adults and Children
Learn to identify abuse, neglect, and exploitation, and how to protect a person you support. You will learn to document and report suspected abuse. The course will also introduce you to advocacy, ombudsman services, and other agencies that deal with abuse and neglect situations.
- Lesson 1: Defining Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation
- Lesson 2: Preventing Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation
- Lesson 3: Reporting Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation
- Lesson 4: Documenting Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation
- Lesson 5: Following Up on Reports
Medication Support
This course will help you learn about medications. You will learn to monitor for problems and document any reactions. It will also help you learn about the basics of storing and administering medications. The course has been designed to help you understand the difference between regional laws and how these affect your job and those you support.
- Lesson 1: An Overview of Direct Support Roles in Medication Support
- Lesson 2: Medication Basics
- Lesson 3: Working with Medications
- Lesson 4: Administration of Medications and Treatments
- Lesson 5: Follow-up, Communication and Documentation
- Lesson 6: Using Medication References
Person-Centered Planning and Supports
Get a historical perspective on person-centered planning. This course will introduce you to five different types of person-centered planning and how to bring these plans to life. You will learn how to create solutions that solve the most common challenges to person-centered plans.
- Lesson 1: Foundations of Person-Centered Planning
- Lesson 2: An Overview of Person-Centered Approaches
- Lesson 3: The Person-Centered Planning Process
- Lesson 4: Bringing Person-Centered Plans to Life
Positive Behavior Support
This seven-part course will help you learn to better support people who may engage in challenging behavior. You will learn safe, fair, and compassionate strategies that help to reduce and even prevent these behaviors.
- Lesson 1: Understanding Behavior
- Lesson 2: Functions and Causes of Behavior
- Lesson 3: Understanding Positive Approaches
- Lesson 4: Preventing Challenging Behavior
- Lesson 5: Responding to Challenging Behavior
- Lesson 6: Behavior Support Plans
- Lesson 7: Rules, Regulations, Policies and Rights
Safety at Home and in the Community
Ensure the safety of those you support at home and in the community with help from this course. You’ll learn how to follow OSHA requirements and prevent and respond to safety risks.
- Lesson 1: Risks, Choice and Common Sense
- Lesson 2: Safety at Home
- Lesson 3: Fire Safety
- Lesson 4: Responding to Emergencies
- Lesson 5: Safety for All Occasions
- Lesson 6: Motor Vehicle Safety
- Lesson 7: Universal Precautions and Infection Control
- Lesson 8: Accident and Incident Reporting
Supporting Healthy Lives
This course will help you show the people you support how to make healthy choices about eating and exercising. It reviews health-related issues across the life span and gives advice on working with health care providers. This course also includes a lesson on recognizing the signs and symptoms of illnesses and how to take care of someone who may be sick.
- Lesson 1: Living a Healthy Life
- Lesson 2: Health through the Age Span
- Lesson 3: Individual Health Needs
- Lesson 4: Care of Common Health Care Conditions
- Lesson 5: Recognizing Signs and Symptoms of Illness
- Lesson 6: Working with a Health Care Provider
Supporting Jobs and Careers in the Community
In this important course, you will learn to support a person with a disability as he or she enters the workforce. You will learn how to match a person’s specific abilities and desires with a job he or she will enjoy. You will also learn how employment and wages may affect government benefits and how to support a person to move toward independence.
- Lesson 1: Successful Community Employment and Retention
- Lesson 2: Employment Supports and Volunteering
- Lesson 3: Introduction to Government Benefit Programs
- Lesson 4: Government Benefit Programs and Their Interactions with Work
Teaching People with Developmental Disabilities
This course will help you understand the fundamentals of teaching and learning. You will learn key strategies that help a person with an intellectual or other developmental disability absorb information. You will also learn how to organize teaching and learning for maximum effectiveness.
- Lesson 1: Understanding Teaching
- Lesson 2: Preparing to Teach
- Lesson 3: Teaching Strategies
- Lesson 4: Organizing and Applying Teaching Strategies
Working with Families and Support Networks
This course will help you learn to develop strong working partnerships with families and other support networks.
- Lesson 1: Understanding Support Networks
- Lesson 2: Family Networks
- Lesson 3: Creating Partnerships with Support Network Members
- Lesson 4: Problem Solving within Support Networks
You’ve Got a Friend: Supporting Family Connections, Friends, Love and the Pursuit of Happiness
Discover the importance and meaning of human relationships in the lives of all people through this valuable four-part course. You will learn about the value that healthy family and community relationships bring to life. You will also learn how prejudice and stigma can get in the way of these relationships for those you support.
- Lesson 1: The Importance of Relationships
- Lesson 2: Barriers, Challenges and Opportunities for Friendships
- Lesson 3: Strategies for Building and Maintaining Relationships
- Lesson 4: Supporting Family Networks