Teaching Personal Care Skills to Young Children with Disabilities: Task Analysis
Think about what you’re saying and make sure that you aren’t skipping a step that might be important. It may seem like you are oversimplifying, but your instructions need to be that complete. Often times, you may find that you do something so much you take explaining how to do it for granted.
Repetition is also extremely important. You will need to help the child do whatever skill it is over and over so that it becomes a habit and so that they learn the skill you are trying to teach them. Every time they tie zip their zipper make sure they are thinking about it so that they learn the skill.
While repetition is important, it is even more important to remember not to overdo it. If you are teaching a child to tie a shoe, it doesn’t necessarily help to make him do it 20 times over. Twenty years ago this 'overlearning' method of teaching children with disabilities was taught in some special education programs. We have not found it to be successful. In our experience, forcing a child to tie his shoes over and over, is seen as punishment by most children. If the child will repeatedly engage in the same behavior over and over, it is called stereotypic behavior and not encouraged. Learning life skills, like learning anything else, is a gradual process.
Sometimes physically walking through the steps will help. If you are teaching a child to wash her hands, stand behind her at the sink and with her hands in yours guide her through the steps. This is how we turn on the water. Then we wet our hands. Then we take the soap and so on. By actually showing her the steps by doing it with her, she will get an idea of how it is done.
Establishing a routine can be helpful. If, for example, you start every morning by getting your child up and then having him wash his face, brush his teeth and then put on his clothes, he will get used to doing this every morning and it will become something he gets used to doing. Familiarity is important when teaching self skills.
Patience IS a virtue. It can be hard and at times frustrating that a child doesn’t get something that is very simple, but don’t give up. With your help, your child will be able to grasp these skills and will be able to become more independent.
It can be easy to fall into just taking care of the child’s needs and not making him or her carry out the skills. This does not benefit anyone. It may be faster at the moment for you to brush a child’s teeth or tie their shoes, but eventually children need to learn to do these things for themselves. It may help to think of it this way, while it may be quicker to tie a child's shoes or brush his teeth now, than to walk him through all the steps think about the larger picture. In the long run, will it take you more time to teach him how to do these things or for someone to do them for him everyday for the rest of his life?
It also helps to know when is and when isn’t a good time to teach life skills. For example, when a child is tired and crabby, it may not be the best time to introduce a new skill. He or she will likely not pay attention or be cooperative and trying to teach anything at this time will not be beneficial to either of you.
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