Trends in Secondary Curriculum for Transition-Age Students with Severe Disabilities

This literature review examined trends in the curricular focus and type of articles published on secondary curriculum for transition-age students with severe disabilities across a 40-year time span (1981– 2020). We analyzed 397 peer-reviewed journal articles by decade. The number of articles published steadily declined from 1981–1990 to 2001–2010 and then increased from 2011–2020. The majority of articles focused on functional curriculum particularly in the area of social, speech, and language skills. Few articles were published in the areas of science, social studies, music/art, safety skills, and sex education. Changes in the percentage of articles published within each curricular area occurred in the areas of curricular issues, recre-ation and leisure, domestic and daily living skills, and self-determination. Most articles were empirical and utilized single-case design. There was a decline in non-empirical articles over time.