Need suggestions on performing remote tasks (cross-posted)

November 8, 2002

Does anyone have any good suggestions for the following problem:

If we ask Evy (nearly 5 y.o.--HFA) to get dressed, get his underwear on,

brush his teeth--any level single or multistep task in a different room, he

struggles with wandering, forgetting, doing off-task behavior. He seems to

forget frequently where the spoon drawer is, etc. He can't remember which

dresser is his. He won't remember where something is kept. And he has a

hard time maintaining focus on what he was supposed to do after you ask him.

We have used verbal mediation sporadically in the past, with some

success--but it doesn't seem to address the deficit of forgetting where

things are. Is there a level of backward chaining, or visual prompting that

would be helpful for him? Has anyone specifically addressed the dressing

yourself issue? He will put all of his clothes on if they are placed in

front of him. He just can't figure out where to find them. He will ask a

lot of questions: e.g. Is this my dresser? Is this where my underwear

are? But if I say, " Go get dressed, " he can't figure out that he has to go

to his bedroom, find his dresser, find underwear, then socks, pant, shirt,

etc. Didn't we have a thread on this last year? Something about SD's

cueing a sequence of events--what is this called again, and how do you teach

it????

There's always something...

t Burk

Www.autismteachingtools.com

November 8, 2002

There are a couple of ways you can teach this skill. One way to look at it is

through the task analysis/chaining approach. You would write down each step

required to complete the task. Example:

Sd: When in the kitchen, I tell Evy to get dressed after breakfast

Step 1 - walk to bedroom

Step 2 - go to correct dresser

Step 3 - open underwear drawer

Step 4 - take out 1 pair of underwear

etc.

Then you would probably want to teach the task analysis using backward chaining

(as opposed to forward chaining). This means that if the very last step in the

task analysis is fastening the velcro closures on the left shoe, then this would

be where you fade the prompts first and work your way down the list until he is

independent for the entire task including walking to the bedroom.

Some teaching points to remember... Never use verbal cues as prompts for

teaching task analysis. Try to keep the teacher out of sight as much as

possible (always from behind). You may need to fade your presence as part of

prompt fading which should be planned for.

Another way to look at teaching this would be to teach the specific areas of

need outside of the dressing scenario. For example, you said that Evy doesn't

always remember which is the underwear drawer. You could specifically teach

" Where is your underwear drawer " , " Show me where you get your underwear " " Go get

your underwear " and other similar questions. After you teach each individual

skill, you would then put them together to help him accomplish the entire task.

You can also teach Evy how to look for something. This way, even if he forgets

which drawer his underwear is in, he can look through several of the drawers

(something I seem to do every morning).

I would not recommend this approach if Evy would have difficulty generalizing

the individual skills to the task that asks him to do something very different

with the same information.

If you would like more information on either technique, feel free to e-mail me

privately.

Sincerely,

e Quinby

Behavior Consultant

e@...

[ ] Need suggestions on performing remote tasks (cross-posted)