This week I’ve decided to tell you all about the latest assignment we are working on in the Special Education Assistant (SEA) class.  It is called Task Analysis, and it is one of the key components in Applied Behavioural Analysis (“THE” technique for teaching children who have autism).

So what is Task Analysis you ask?  Well believe it or not, we use task analysis everyday of life in every activity we do.  When reading a recipe the instructions are a form of  task analysis, reading a map would be another form – it is the technique of taking an activity and analysing it into small very detailed tasks that are simple to understand and easy to perform.  With the help of an instructor, prompts and reinforcers the task will get completed.

Children with autism very often need to have even the simplest tasks broken down into small precise instructions, that can be learned as progressive steps,  such as brushing teeth. 

Our assignment is to take an activity and break it down into all of the steps. So here we are in class all running around trying to think of interesting ideas, but then realising that something as simple sounding as drawing a rainbow could actually be about 700 steps …. believe me, being in this class makes one have  a much greater appreciation for the things we all take for granted in life.

I decided to try doing Brushing Teeth. Well all of a sudden, trust me, brushing teeth is no longer as simple as I thought.  Sit back right now and imagine yourself about to brush your teeth.  Where is the toothbrush?  How do you grab it?  With what hand?  Is it in a drawer and how do you open the drawer?  What about the toothpaste?  Where do you put the toothpaste?  On the bristles or the plastic part?  How much do you  put on the brush and where do you squeeze the tube.  Twisting the cap off the tube alone is a whole other lesson.  This is going to be tough!!

Once I have all the steps written out I must then get a classmate to be my guinea pig … she will have to be the child with autism and follow my Task Analysis steps in order to learn the skill of brushing her teeth, and the best part – in front of the class!!

You know that the three days we all have for oral presentations are going to be amazing.  Watching each of us break down these everyday skills into hundreds of simple instructions is going to give us all a different outlook on what it like to work with children who have autism, and to also experience the patience and dedication that it will take to be an SEA in the classroom.