Content area
Full text
Research has shown that the acquisition of functional life skills, including daily living and self-care skills as well as household tasks, by individuals with learning disabilities is a positive predictor of community involvement, employment and independent living (Carter et al., 2011; Harr et al., 2011; Test et al., 2009). Teaching individuals with learning disabilities functional skills, which are composed of complex chains of behaviour, remains a significant challenge for carers and practitioners alike. The breaking down of functional composite skills into their component skills is a critical part of being able to programme for individuals with intellectual disabilities. It is crucial to ensure the practitioner performs the level of task analysis correctly and to identify the steps where dysfluencies can be found. The task analysis within the paper by Vascelli and Iacomini (2024; this issue) found the specific motor skill of reaching behind to locate the sleeve opening, which was the source of dysfluency in the participant’s ability to complete the full composite skill. Precision teaching (PT) has led the way in thinking about component motor skills, for example, with its work on the Big 6+6 (Twarek et al., 2010) and the positive impact that training these component motor skills can have on composite functional skills (Vascelli et al., 2020). These seemingly subtle skills, which so many people take for granted, are the foundation of all functional skills but are so often not specifically targeted with individuals with learning disabilities in the UK. The ability to identify the very specific motor skill dysfluency and then target that motor skill dysfluency presents an opportunity for efficient and effective teaching, particularly when papers such as Twarek et al. (2010), Vascelli et al. (2020) and now the paper by Vascelli and Iacomini (2024; this issue) have shown that teaching these skills in isolation has a beneficial effect on the composite functional skills.
Many individuals with learning disabilities can require a significant number of learning opportunities to master a single new behaviour. Using PT to offer frequent learning opportunities facilitates the progression of dysfluent skills to fluent levels by allowing for numerous repetitions (Lindsley, 1990). This approach accelerates...