BCBA Corner: Independent Living Skills
“Independent living skills” is a broad term that can include any skills that help your child care for themselves with as much independence as possible. It may seem intimidating to think about all the ways your child could be more independent or all the tasks they need help with day to day, so here are some tips for helping promote these independent living skills at home:
1.Break each task down into small, manageable pieces
When teaching a new independent living skill, it can be overwhelming to try to teach the whole process at one time. If you break the task down into lots of smaller steps, this can help your child learn each step one by one
A set of steps put together to complete a larger goal is called a “task analysis.” If you need inspiration for how to break a task down, googling “task analysis for ________” should yield some examples to get you started
2.When teaching a new skill, you can use the following process to help encourage learning
Provide an instruction (e.g., “turn on the water”)
Show your child how to do the instruction (e.g., “turn on the water like this” while demonstrating how to turn the water on)
Allow them to practice the skill (e.g., “your turn, turn on the water”
Tell them how they did; if they followed the instruction correctly provide lots of enthusiastic praise! If they didn’t get it quite right, that’s okay, praise them for trying and show them how to do it correctly.
3.Provide lots of enthusiastic praise for steps toward independence
Your child isn’t going to get it quite right every time and that’s okay! We want to make sure to give lots of praise and positive attention for trying to learn new things and participating however they’re able.
Praise any attempt at doing the new skill. For example, if you ask them to turn on the water and they reach for the faucet but don’t quite get the water on, you can still give lots of praise for trying, that’s a step in the right direction, try to get closer to turning the water on next time!
4.Meet your child where they are
Beginning to teach independent living skills can feel like a good opportunity to address every skill you help them with or every way your child can be more independent, but I encourage you to take things slowly and work at a pace that suits your child’s current skills and interests
For example: if your child loves playing in the sink, it might be a good opportunity to teach hand washing. However, if your child doesn’t like getting wet, hand washing might not be the best task to start with
It can be overwhelming to think about how your child can be more independent, but with patience and practice it can be so rewarding to work on these skills! Don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s BCBA for help with individual skills or strategies!
