Promoting Independence in everyday

routines

Yolande Daley
October 28th, 2016

A school that specializes in meeting the unique

educational needs of children with autism.
 Everyday Situations
All routines are teachable moments and as such we need to prompt
non-verbally and get ahead of the situations that you know your child
often error with.

Ensure if an error occurs to restart the trial.

If you know your child always errors, get your prompts in ahead of time
and dont allow them to error.

FADING PROMPTS is the systematic removal of cues, and is

absolutely necessary to teach your child to respond independently to your
instructions. Dont continually prompt your child through activity as they
often become prompt dependent.
 Home Routines
Personal care (getting dressed, brushing teeth, brushing hair,
taking a bath, toileting, washing table)
Tying shoe, etc.
Eating dinner independently or with the family
Leisure activities
Occupying time at home (computer, exercise, watching tv, etc.)
Going out in the community (walks, park, etc.)
Learning to ride a bike, etc.
Community outings (not touching or wanting items in stores)
Retrieving items around the house
ADLs ( loading the dishwasher, setting the table , folding laundry)
 Before you start!
Start as soon as possible
Have realistic expectations
Start small
Set attainable goals
Do not give into behaviors
Reinforce independent skills
Keep in mind that there is a time investment
required for success (weeks, months or even
years)
 Do not teach when the routine typically occurs
Teach skills when your child is in a good mood
Ensure you have time
 Reinforcement (fixed, variable)
Reinforcement strengthens any behavior, either appropriate or
inappropriate. When a behaviour is strengthened, it is more likely to occur
in the future. Reinforcement occurs all the time and is one way we all learn
new behaviours.

Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Reinforcement

Immediacy- It must be delivered immediately after the behaviour.

Contingency- It is more effective as a reinforcer when delivered

contingent on a behaviour.

Establishing operations- Deprivation and other events make a stimulus

more effective as a reinforcer at particular times.

Individual differences- Reinforcers vary from person to person.

Magnitude- The greater the reinforcer the more effective it is.
 List of Reinforcements
House Food Drinks Activities/Leisure Games Places Sensory/tactile Crafts
hold items
duster
Band aid
sponge
 Prompt Hierarchy
Provide the opportunity for the child to initiate
Wait
Very subtle/Indirect prompt
Linking to previously learner response
Position/Proximity
Model
Indirect verbal prompt
Direct verbal prompt
Point prompt
Touch
Guidance
Full Physical/Hand over hand
General rule of thumb: LEAST intrusive prompt but MOST effective.
(written/visual prompt, self-echoic)

 Chained Prompts
Forward Chaining
Candidates for Forward Chaining:
A student who completes virtually none of the skills in
the chain independently
A student who tends to take extended periods of time to
acquire skills
Advantages to Forward Chaining:
It can be used to link smaller chains into larger ones
 Backward Chaining
Candidates for Backward Chaining:
A student who completes virtually none of the skills in
the chain independently
A student who tends to take extended periods of time to
acquire skills
A student for whom reinforcement must be delivered
immediately after completion of the chain
Advantages to Backward Chaining:
Following each teaching, the learner comes onto contact
with the terminal reinforcer for the chain
 Total Task Presentation
Candidates for Total Task:
A student who can perform at least 80% of the steps in
the chain, but needs to learn them in sequence
A student who has good imitation skills
When a task sequence is not very long or complex
Teaching procedures
 Chore Board
Walks to clip board area
Pulls out clip board
Touches 1st chore
Puts clip board in appropriate location (left side of table)
Sets up/gathers materials task # 1
Completes task # 1
Puts task # 1 materials away
Walks to clip board
Picks up chore clip board
Checks off task # 1 as completed
Puts clip board in appropriate location (left side of table)
Sets up/gathers materials task # 2
Completes task # 2
Puts task # 2 materials away
 Four Functions of Behavior
1. Socially Mediated Positive Reinforcement (adding something)
Attention
Activities
Tangible items

2. Socially Mediated Negative Reinforcement (removal of something)

Escape or removal of unpreferred demands
Avoidance or at least postponement of unpreferred demands

3. Automatic Positive Reinforcement

Self stimulatory sensations produced by behaviour

4. Automatic Negative Reinforcement

Medical reasons
 Before you implement a plan:
The replacement behaviour is one of the most important aspects of any
behavioural plan. In order to teach your child to stop demonstrating
maladaptive behaviour you must know what to replace it with:

It must be clearly defined

It must be of equal strength

Types of replacement behaviours:

Language
Compliance
Play/Leisure skills
Social skills
 Review
There are three things you should always think about when
dealing with problem behaviour:

Manipulate the reinforcement (Proactive)

What is maintaining the problem behaviour?
Ex. If attention is maintaining the behaviour, then how can I
manipulate attention? Provide lots of attention throughout the day and
when he is NOT engaging in problem behaviour.
Ex. Using a promise when escape is maintaining the behaviour.

Use extinction (reactive)

You must NEVER let attention reinforce the behaviour ever again.

Teach a replacement behaviour

 How to teach a replacement behaviour
Modelling
Video modelling
Scripts
Positive practice ( contrived situations and teach child how to cope)

Keep in mind that before a behavior gets better it usually gets worse:

Extinction burst-this occurs because the behaviour is no longer reinforced,

the behaviour temporarily increases in frequency, duration, or intensity
before it decreases. Novel behaviours or emotional responses may also
occur during an extinction burst.

You need to be consistent

You need to be clear

You need to follow through

 Behaviour Example
Your child often grabs things off the shelves in the grocery store.
Proactive solution:
Increase amount and frequency of reinforcement
explain expectations prior to practicing
be ready and block all attempts
keep time in grocery store short (only go down a couple aisle then leave)
provide verbal feedback
physically prompt your child to remain with hands down as he walks by.

Note: If nothing changes proactively prior to the behaviour occurring,

nothing will change the behaviour from happening again. You will have to
use your reactive approach over and over with little to no change in
occurrence.
It seems that almost every time you ask your
Child to turn off the computer they refuse
and/or start screaming.

What should you do? (your reactive approach)

What will you ask yourself after this happens?
What will you do next time you are at the computer?
What tools do you have to extinguish this behaviour
in the future? (your proactive approach)

If you allowed them to remain at the computer,

what would you be teaching them?
Group Practice