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Last week, we touched on 40 skills that you’ll likely want to have in place before aggressively programming for classroom and group time with your learners. Our readers expressed how much they loved the topic and the layout of the blog post. So, I’ll be launching a series of three, shorter posts over the next few weeks. These will be similar to the one from last week. Each post will include a series of targets for common programming areas that I see BCBAs struggle with frequently. More importantly, these are areas that are fundamental and directly impact a variety of other targets and skill areas you might be working on right now.
This week’s post serves as part 1 to our series and we’ll start with following gestures!
It shouldn’t take much convincing that helping your learner know how to to follow gestures is imperative to their overall success in programming. First, it has to do with how we teach. In programming, when an error occurs, the gesture prompt is there to help. For learners who haven’t developed a listener responding repertoire or generally are averse to gentle physical prompting, the gesture prompt may be the thing that routinely saves them when it comes to learning a new concept or skill. I’ve mentioned before that attention and motivation is the name of the game when it comes to programming. If a therapist can direct the learner’s attention with a proximal or distal point, they’ve effectively opened the door for all kinds of learning for them. Additionally, gestures are non-verbal cues—and this can be one of the child’s first introductions to following the body language of another person.
Like anything you teach, you’ll want to make sure that you’re ready to substantially reinforce this new behavior. It’s the kind of skill that should be programmed for frequently and with enough high value reinforcement that the kiddo equates your proximal or distal point with all kinds of good things. This can mean the introduction of an awesome thing if they follow your point. It can also mean the return and continued engagement with an awesome thing if they follow your point.
Here are 15 programming targets for helping your learner follow proximal and distal gestures with fluency. Note that some of these skills build off of each other. Targeting the first or second one and then gradually introducing the rest of the targets may be the best route to take. As always, there’s no one size fits all approach and you should tailor your programs to your learner and their family. Hopefully this gets your programming juices rolling.
#1 Therapist Points/Touches High Value Item During Learner’s Engagement With It
#2 Learner Follows Point to High Value Item BEFORE Engagement
#3 Learner Follows Point to Neutral Value Item
#4 Learner Turns Head to Left/Right to Follow Point
#5 Learner Looks Up to Follow Point
#6 Learner Follows Gesture to Page In Book
#7 Learner Follows Gesture to Screen
#8 Learner Follows Gesture to Another Person
#9 Learner Follows Gesture to Mirror
#10 Learner Follows Gesture to Look Through Binoculars (or similar)
#11 Learner Follows gesture to look in trashcan/box
#12 Learner Orients Body 180 Degrees to Follow Point
#13 Learner Follows Gesture to Look Out Window
#14 Learner Follows Point To Item 6 ft Away
#15 Learner Follows Gesture to Look at Dry Erase Board/Similar
Again, ideally, the therapist would offer the learner a substantial reinforcement when the learner orients toward the target! And—again—not all learners are the same.
What other approaches do you use to help your learner follow proximal and distal pointing?
Let me know!