Putting on Shoes and Socks with Prompts

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Brief Description

Chris is a five-year-old boy with autism. He can follow some basic requests. His expressive language consists of a few one- and two-word phrases. He does not maintain eye contact independently. He will work with a teacher for 20-30 minutes without breaks.

Chris can do most of the individual steps of putting on his shoes, but cannot do so without assistance. He has difficulty with sequential tasks, so this is not unexpected. It is important that Chris learn to do all the steps of simple self-care skills without assistance. It is also important for him to learn to attempt each new step of a sequential activity without stopping for prompting at each stage.

In this vignette, Chris is prompted through the steps required to put on his shoes and socks. Beth uses verbal praise and hugs to reinforce each correctly done step. As Chris becomes more proficient at each individual step, and stars putting together partial sequences, the prompting will be faded.

Detailed Description

Guide to ABA Terms and Concepts

Behavior Issues

Chris, a five-year-old boy with autism, cannot put on his socks and shoes. He can do most of the individual steps required. He does not do so reliably. He has only recently learned the fine motor skills required to open the tops of his socks and pull them on his feet. He has also not learned the proper sequence--socks first, then shoes.

Goal

Chris will put on his socks and shoes in the correct sequence when asked or told to do so.

Teaching Sequence

Chris being prompted to put on his shoes and socks correctly before going outside. Beth prompts each step in the proper order, assisting with steps of the sequence that will be taught later.

Consequences

Verbal praise, hugs, and similar social interactions are used to reinforce appropriate behavior. Inappropriate behavior such as screaming will be ignored. Chris's mother, operating the camera, adds some verbal reinforcement.

What to Look For

At this stage, Beth is helping with some of the more complex aspects of the behavior. She does not want to interrupt the high rate of success by requiring Chris to do things he has not yet learned--such as twisting the socks into the correct position. These skills will be taught later if necessary and added to the sequence.

A high rate of high-quality social reinforcement is important, especially when learning a new skill. Beth reinforces or prompts approximately once each 5 seconds. Beth's responses are natural, cheerful, and frequent. More important, Beth not only prompts and reinforces putting on the shoes and socks, but she also asks him to label the objects.This kind of incidental teaching is especially effective because it keeps Chris engaged with the task, allows him to learn and practice verbal and social skills, and places the vocabulary in a relevant context.

Note that the shoes are not handed to Chris initially, nor are they placed right next to the correct foot. Chris needs to learn to associate the shape of the shoe, not its initial position, with the correct foot. At this point, he is simply putting the shoe on the closest foot. With prompting to put the shoe on the correct foot, the correct association between shoe shape and foot will be taught.

When Chris loses focus, Beth gently prompts good eye contact and then immediately delivers another prompt. It is very important for prompts for attention to be quickly reinforced, either by verbal praise or by a second prompt for a behavior that has been reinforced in the past--a behavior the child can do. That is, prompt is not only a prompt. It is also a reinforcer because correctly responding to the prompt will lead to more reinforcement.

Beth is careful not to respond to Chris's squealing, squirming, and other inappropriate behavior. She simply ignores these responses. There is no need to punish these responses. Because Chris may not yet be able to distinguish between reinforcing verbal praise and other kinds of instructions, telling Chris to "stop" could further reinforce the behavior.

Beth uses Chris's name frequently in prompts. During this early phase of training, Chris doesn't yet know how to distinguish prompts for him from prompts for others. When Chris learns to attend in a more focused, way, the use of the name in prompts can be faded.

Not only does Beth ignore Chris's off-task behavior, she also ignores other potential distractions such as the dog, and here even the mother on the camera. She does not want to model giving the dog attention to Chris, have Chris lose focus on the immediate task, or teach the dog to interact with her and Chris during teaching time.

What comes next?

Details such as straightening his own socks and tying his shoes will incorporated later. At this point, just getting the basic steps in the right order is important. After Chris learns to put his shoes and socks on with prompts, he will learn to do the steps with increasingly fewer prompts. That is, the explicit prompts for each step will be gradually faded, and reinforcement will be given for gradually longer sequences. During these sequences, the shoes and socks will be moved farther away so that Chris will learn to get them himself. Eventually, Chris will learn to put on his shoes and socks merely by being asked to or do so spontaneously whenever he goes needs or wants to go outside.

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