Teaching Adaptive Behaviours

The teaching of adaptive behaviours, which refers to the ability to independently perform activities of daily living, has been the subject of a large number of studies.

Conclusions:

• There is good evidence that interventions that teach toileting, street safety, self-dressing, etc. have broad effects on the child’s ability to live successfully in the community.
• The selection of reinforcers to help children develop the desire to learn new skills is very important and their discovery and consistent use requires considerable effort on the part of parents and educators.
• In a small study (2 children) peer tutoring was found to be effective in teaching activities of daily living skills.
• Barriers to use of these interventions are the lack of knowledge on the part of teachers and others about what is available, and the availability of manuals and training resources.
• Pivotal response training, which focuses on improving "responsiveness to multiple cues, motivation, self-management, and self-initiations" (p. 144) has been used successfully to teach play skills. These skills are viewed as the basis for further, more complex learning.

Recommendations:

• It is important that all adaptive behaviours skills be generalizable across home, school, and community settings.
• Individualized programming and one-to-one care should be investigated as the means of teaching self-care skills