Author: Madhura Manerikar | September 21st, 2021
Life skills are often referred to as independent living, self-care skills or daily or home living skills. Children learn these ‘life-skills’, over time, beginning at home from a young age and developing further throughout children all the way through adulthood. Our aim in teaching life skills to young children is to promote independence and increase participation in society. The tasks associated with learning some of the life skills are difficult and involve multiple steps. Often, children need help in learning the steps involved in the skill. So, breaking down the task into smaller and manageable steps is an effective strategy when teaching the skills. We call this ‘TASK ANALYSIS.’
Task Analysis is the break down of a bigger task into series of smaller steps that are subsequently sequenced. Each step in the task analysis is one part of the bigger task which helps us with two aspects:
1) To determine which steps children can perform independently.
2) To allow children to practice the steps that they have difficulty in doing.
Here are some guidelines that you need to keep in mind whenever you write task analysis for your child:-
– Do the task yourself.
– Do it slowly.
– Try and say each step while you are doing it.
– Do the step again and write each step down.
– Say each step again that you have written down and see if you achieve the goal.
– If you do, you have written the task analysis correctly.
Now you are ready to teach your child!!
MADHURA MANERIKAR
Special Educator