A task analysis is a process of breaking down a larger tasks into a sequence of smaller tasks. This is usually used for teaching independent skills (eg: dressing, washing hands).

How to determine the steps?

The best way is to have the student engage in the behaviour and record what he does, adding in whatever necessary steps he may have missed. For example, for tooth brushing, I might record the step of rinsing brush before the toothpaste but the student may be used to doing the opposite. This is not worth reteaching.

Once you’ve broken down the steps, you can use either a forward-chain teaching procedure or a backwards-chain teaching procedure. When prompting through a task analysis, it’s best for the prompting to be NON-VERBAL and to prompt from BEHIND. This way, the therapist is out of the picture as much as possible and therefore easier to fade (we want independence!).

Forward chain – teach the first step first and then prompt through the rest. Once the first step is independent, then make the first 2 steps independent, etc.

Backward chain – prompt the student through the entire sequence except for the last step. Once the student can do the last step independently, add the second last step, etc.

Data – for chaining procedures, we usually only take data on the current independent step.