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Home Resources Blog Tips for Teaching Daily Living Skills

Tips for Teaching Daily Living Skills

August 31, 2022

Categories: Autism

Children with autism can have difficulty performing the necessary habits or skills for independent living and social development, also known as Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) or Daily Living Skills (DLS).

In this blog, we’ll be looking at the following:

  • What are daily living skills?
  • Ways to teach daily living skills
  • Activities for teaching daily living skills to teens and young adults

What are Daily Living Skills?

Daily living skills involve basic activities, including hygiene and time management. These activities may seem simple, but they require cognitive, motor, and perceptual skills simultaneously to perform these tasks. This makes them more difficult for those with autism considering they might be lacking in attention, motivation, motor skills, etc.

Some of the daily tasks include:

  • Eating and drinking
  • Dressing themselves
  • Following routines
  • Sleeping
  • Bathing/Showering
  • Preparing/Cooking Food
  • Saving money

Ways to Teach Daily Living Skills

There are plenty of ways parents can guide their children with autism through a more interactive approach to doing everyday tasks and breaking down tasks into more sizeable sub-tasks.

For instance, putting away toys can be less of a chore and more of a timed race, turning what might be a mundane task into an exciting game. For more complex tasks like washing dishes, it’s best to break them down into smaller tasks, like teaching your child how to dry dishes first.

Other tasks to consider breaking down or gamifying include:

  • Cleaning/Sweeping/Dusting
  • Washing their hands
  • Sorting clean laundry
  • Putting away dirty laundry
  • Making their bed
  • Brushing their teeth
  • Feeding pets
  • Watering plants

Activities for Teaching Daily Living Skills to Teens and Young Adults

Here are some tried-and-true ways to teach your teenager or young adult daily living skills where they can develop communication, executive functioning, and more:

Antecedent-Based Interventions (ABI)

ABI involves changing the environment to modify your learner’s behavior. For example, you can label where specific items belong for practicing organization skills or use a timer for daily and nightly routines for punctuality.

Behavioral Momentum Interventions

Start by encouraging your learner to complete easier tasks before getting to more complex tasks in whatever order makes sense for their particular context.

Exercise and Movement

Physical exertion is vital for stress management and relief, among other benefits, helping them prepare for when they face tasks or situations prone to be frustrating.

Functional Communication Training (FCT)

FCT provides your learner alternative ways to communicate frustrations they otherwise express in maladaptive ways, for instance, by giving them specifically designated phrases to use, such as, “Can we do something else?” or “I don’t like this.”

Modeling

Show your teen or young adult how you’d like them to perform a task or behave by your own example, helping them visualize the behavior and making it easier for them to imitate.

Prompting

Prompting your learner by word, gesture, or direct aid in completing a task is another way to encourage them to acquire a skill or engage in acceptable behavior.

Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement of completed tasks is a great way to encourage and fortify your teen’s acquisition and retention of DLS, such as offering praise or rewards for their successes.

Self-Management

Encouraging your child and allowing them opportunities to self-manage tasks such as completing homework, house chores, daily routines, etc., is a great way to prepare them for independent living.

Social Skills Training

It’s important to teach and develop your child’s social skills by providing opportunities for them to communicate with others. Examples include writing a letter, making a phone call, asking for help, hanging out with friends, etc.

Video Modeling

Similar to standard modeling techniques, video modeling allows for a greater array of skills and activities to be learned by visual example, giving your child a resource they can consistently use without depending on the availability of others present to show them.

Visual Supports

Visual supports, including graphic organizers, visual schedules, checklists, etc., are great ways to fortify routines and expectations involving targeted skills and behaviors.

Further Reading

Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS)

The Childhood Autism Rating Scale, or CARS, helps distinguish the level of support an individual will require. In this blog, we will...

Read moremore about Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS)

Flat Affect in Autism

Emotions are an important aspect of communication, but for people with autism, this can prove to be more challenging to accomplish without...

Read moremore about Flat Affect in Autism

Mast Cells and Autism Correlation

Mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS) occurs when a person experiences recurrent episodes of anaphylaxis symptoms. These symptoms can include hives, difficulty breathing,...

Read moremore about Mast Cells and Autism Correlation

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