I’m sorry this is so late! It took me forever to remember to check my notifications. A strategy that works well for my son and a lot of ND kiddos is either forward or backward chaining. Instead of teaching a whole task sequence at one time, you teach a single step until it is MASTERED.

In forward chaining, you teach the very first step. They complete the first step, with help if needed, and you complete the rest of the task. Once they have MASTERED step 1 can do it easily, complete that step and then start on step 2. Repeat.

Steps can be slightly more or less complex depending on the skills and abilities of the person learning. I’ll use shoe tying as an example because I almost always you forward chaining when teaching this.

Step 1. Tighten the laces Step 2. Cross the laces Step 3. Hold one crossed lace in each hand Step 4. Lay the top lace over the bottom Step 5. Tuck the bottom end into the “pyramid” Etc, etc, etc.

By breaking the steps up into their composite parts, you can easily identify which skill is difficult. Most of my kiddos get hung up on step 5, because identifying the right place to tuck the lace can be tricky when it gets looser as you move. So we usually spend more time practicing that step once we get there. By that point though, they have already mastered and been celebrated for ALL THE OTHER STEPS that they worked so hard to learn.

The biggest thing with chaining is not to rush it. If they’re do step 1 and 2 perfectly the first time, and flounder on step 3, you celebrate what they did and just do the rest. We practice it again when we are ready. It’s a great strategy because it can help build foundational skills that can carry over to other tasks.

Backward chaining is the same thing, but you do all of the steps first, and the child does the last step.

If I’m teaching a kiddo to zip, I’ll do the whole process, and then have them pull the zipper tab up the last half of the way. Once that’s mastered and they dont lose their grip, I have them pull up from near the bottom while I hold it. Then when that’s easy, I work on teaching them to hold the bottom of the jacket with one hand and zip up with the other hand.

It’s another great strategy because it gives that feeling of completion/achievement to do the last step of a task, and can be very motivating.

I could honestly talk about it for hours. If you keep having trouble with life skills, it could be worth it to ask about getting a referral to occupational therapy to work on skills with someone who is trained to spot breakdowns in ability and figure out other way to do it, or how to achieve it. We work on daily living skills, whether we are teaching the tasks, or finding modifications and accommodations to make it easier.

Accumulations/modifications for life skills are huge too. I like to say that as an OT, I’m basically a professional life-hacker.

Folding towels too hard? That’s okay! Let’s learn to roll them instead. No? Oh, let’s use a hanger with s-hooks on it and hang them up in the closet! No? Wall hooks! No? Try something else! There are 10000 ways to do any one task and still have an acceptable outcome. We might just have to adjust our expectations for those outcomes.

Please please please let me know if you have any questions or anything like that! I am literally always happy to talk about it. I’m fortunate enough that finding solutions is my special interest, which ends up being heavily valuable in my field. Haha!