Tips on Working with Your Child At Home (I)

Below we outline some STEPS to consider prior to teaching skills at home:

• Setting Out to Teach
• Targetting a skill to teach
• Establishing the separate steps that make up the skill
• Picking rewards that your child will work for
• Setting the Stage for Success

Setting Out to Teach More than anything else, one of the key success factors in learning to teach children with special needs revolve around EXPECTATIONS.

• It is not surprising that many families with special needs kids have often encountered failure and frustration in their child's performance in school and social situations. How many parents had to listen to some version of the phrase "He'll only go so far?"
• Thankfully, with advances in research and techniques over the past decade, children with special needs are seen as children who can. They can learn. They can interact productively with their non-labelled peers. And parents can make that difference by equipping themselves to teach skills to their child. Once you acquire the ability to teach your child a skill - from beginning to end - and once you know how to manage behaviour problems, you will be much more prepared to be a partner on your child's educational team, together with teachers and professionals.

Targeting A Skill to Teach Some useful guidelines in choosing a Target Skill:

• What Skills Are You Now Doing for Your Child? Observe your child's typical day, make a list of some self-help skills that you now do for him & those you might want to teach him to do for himself (eg. wearing shoes, making the bed, putting the toys away, toileting skills). Play skills can also be included (eg. toys/games you would like to see him master or could he learn to play better by himself or with other children). Prioritise the list, consider these three points when targetting a skill to teach:
  1. Which Skills Does Your Child Want to Learn? Observe your child to see what he might want to learn next. Perhaps he will tell you or show you by attempting a skill on her own. Eg. Trying to spread butter with a knife, or trying to tie shoelaces.
  2. Which Skills Is Your Child Ready to Learn? Keeping in mind that as a child grow and develops, some skills naturally happen before others. Sitting, for example, comes before walking. When choosing a target skill, consider what your child can already do and what he might be ready to learn next.
  3. Which Skills Do You Want to Teach? As a parent, you will want to begin with a skill you feel is important for your child to learn now. Perhaps there is one area in which a lack of skills is an issue. For instance, inability to dress or wear shoes in the morning may mean always having less time to spend with other of your children or being held back late. In choosing a skill, target self-help or play skills first, as toilet training, social and informational skills are more difficult to teach. These can wait until you have attempted a self-help or play skill.

Establishing Steps Learning Progresses in Gradual Steps:

• Proceed in Small Steps To build up a skill, first break it down into small steps manageable from a child's point of view. Breaking a skill down into separate, specific and simple actions. Write these steps down as a guide for teaching. Wearing shoes may be broken into the following steps.
  1. Sit down on the step or stool
  2. Take left side of shoe
  3. Undo the velcrose straps by pulling up to loosen
  4. Put the left foot in and adjust for fit
  5. Pull the velcrose strap over and down to secure
  6. Repeat the process with the other foot

Picking Rewards For a special child, learning may not happen easily, particularly if the child has experienced failures and frustration in previous attempts. Sometimes, it may be easier for the child to relax in a routine where you will do things for him. Rewards is one way in which he may find added incentives to participate in a teaching programme. Rewards, if used correctly, can help turn failure into success and frustration into satisfaction.

• Why Rewards? Often we act in a certain way because it pays off in one way or another, in money (salary), approval of others (praise) the promise of good things (holidays) or the pleasant feeling of a job well done. All these outcomes represent rewards for performance. Your child's behaviour is motivated the same way. Behaviour that is followed by a reward is much more likely to happen again.
• Purpose & Use of Rewards To use rewards effectively, it is important to understand the purpose and use of rewards. A simple rule of thumb is to set a reward (performance target) for which it would be received if the child completes a step or series of tasks in a teaching session. Undesirable behaviours should not be rewarded at all while good behaviours should be rewarded as soon as they happen. (More tips on the effective use of rewards will be covered under Part II of this article).

Setting the Stage for Success To set the stage for effective learning, it is useful to consider the following:

• When is the most appropriate time to teach? While there is no one time of the day that is best for teaching, try to consistently set aside 10 to 15 minutes during the day for teaching. Consider the child's attention span and chose a time of day when the child is not too tired or hungry. With some skills, you can make progress even if you teach only once or twice a week (eg. riding a tricycle) whereas others need to be reinforced daily (eg. toilet training).
• Where should the teaching take place? Decide on a place that is away from distractions and interruptions. After a couple of days to make sure it works well, plan to use that same location every time. Your child could soon get used to the fact that this is where he comes to learn.
• What materials will be needed? Teaching most skills requires using some materials. Check if you set the stage that make the materials more manageable for your child? Some children with special needs have more than one physical or sensory disability. If your child has a motor impairment, for instance, you know that he won't be able to manipulate some toys or articles of clothing easily. Substitute items that you (or his therapist) know he can handle and slowly graduate to the next stage of difficulty when he is ready.

A final note - Patience: Sometimes, teaching a child with special needs, as you may know, can be a slow process. Approach teaching with optimism, but also with realism. With patience. Your willingness to proceed gradually and stick with it - despite your child's minor setbacks and your frustrations, will be his gain!