Teaching Daily Living Skills to Special Needs Students Using Video Conferencing

Do you work on teaching daily living skills to special needs students? Have you ever used video conferencing to teach new activities of daily living? Recent research indicated that using video conferencing to teach daily living skills to individuals with autism spectrum disorder help them to independently perform targeted skills and all targeted skills were maintained during
follow-up. In addition, all of the participants rated the intervention highly and said that they would recommend the intervention to others.

Benefits of Video Conferencing

There are multiple benefits of using video conferencing to teach daily living skills to special needs students at home.

• interventions can occur in the students natural setting.
• for older students or adults with disabilities, video conferencing can increase independence and reduce embarrassment instead of relying on in-person family members or staff members.
• the individual does not need to travel anywhere to learn new skills (this is very helpful during times of distance learning or telehealth such as the COVID-19 pandemic).

Four Components to Teaching Daily Living Skills to Special Needs Students Using Video Conferencing

Here are four possible components to include in the video conferencing session. Before the sessions begin, you will need to establish target skills and steps that are needed to accomplish the skill. Task analysis is very helpful to determine the steps to reach the goal. (You can read a task analysis of bathing and showering here).

The participant will need to place phone or computer in an area where the therapist or teacher can see them over the video completing the skill.

Four Components of Video Conferencing

1. Begin with a brief, light, friendly conversation to get to know each other without including any instruction or teaching about the skill.
2. Prompt the target skill/steps using a system of least prompts procedure. (Read more about prompting here).
3. Offer specific, descriptive praise throughout the session.
4. Avoid using any negative comments about the participant or his performance of the target skill.

Conclusion

In situations where it is difficult to provide in-person services due to distance or a pandemic, video conferencing interventions are beneficial to help teach daily living skills to special needs students.

Reference: Ford, K., Wang, M., Koegel, L. K., Koegel, R. L., & Fedders, A. (2020). Use of a Videoconferencing Intervention and Systematic Hierarchy to Teach Daily Living Skills to Young Adults With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 1098300720921214.

Resources to Help Teaching Daily Living Skills to Special Needs Students