Below is a general skill sequence for helping learners label their favorite stimuli when asked.
As learners develop an understanding of what they “like” and “dislike”, one can start introducing skill areas that deal with the communicating and conversing over “favorites”. This skill area seeks to accentuate the learner’s ability to identify preferred stimuli. More importantly, it functions as the beginning stage for teaching one to converse about preferred subjects—specifically through answering questions about favorite stimuli. This potentially opens the door for more back and forth conversations about preferred topics down the road.
How this skill area relates to your assessments!
This skill area aligns with various assessments and their respective domains, with milestone and domain codes provided for reference. Additionally, DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for Autism are included to help clinicians identify how this skill area potentially supports medical necessity in relation to the diagnosis.
VB-MAPP (Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program)
- Tact, T 6-M, Tacts 25 items when asked “what’s that?”
- Intraverbal, IV 9-M, Answers 25 different what questions (e.g., What do you like to eat?)
- Intraverbal, IV 10-M, Answers 25 different who or where questions (e.g., Whose your friend? Where is your pillow?)
AFLS (Assessment of Functional Living Skills)
- Basic Communication, BC10, Labels common people (actual individuals, not professionals)
- Basic Communication, BC12, Labels locations (locations in home, community, school)
- Basic Communication, BC16, Answers "Where" questions regarding home, school and community (e.g. where items are found within the home, activities done in home, etc.)
- Basic Communication, BC17, Answers "What" questions regarding home, school and community (e.g. "what" questions regarding items found in the home, school and community)
DSM-V Diagnostic Criteria for Autism
- A1, Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.
CDC’s Developmental Milestones
- 30 months, Language/Communication Milestones, Names things in a book when you point and ask, “What is this?”
- 4 years, Language/Communication Milestones, Answers simple questions like “What is a coat for?” or “What is a crayon for?”
Treatment Plan Goal Ideas
This is a list of treatment plan goals. These are different from the goals you will find in the skill sequence below. Your treatment plan goals encompass any number of goals from the skill sequence. Sometime they will include multiple goals from the sequence (”Learner will label 5 toys”) and sometimes the treatment plan goal will be simply consist of a really important goal from the skill sequence (”Will label caregiver”). An analogy I like to use goes as follows: Each skill sequence goal (commonly known as a “target”) represent each stair in a flight of stairs. The treatment plan goal is the flight itself.
Treatment plan goal ideas for this particular skill area are as follows:
- Learner will accurately identify one “favorite” with visual prompts when asked to identify a favorite person, place, or thing.
- Learner will accurately identify one “favorite” stimuli when asked to identify a favorite person, place, or thing.
- Learner will accurately identify all/more than one “favorite” when asked to identify what their favorite thing to do is.
Component Skills
Your learner may need to be fluent in these component skills first before introducing this goal/skill area. Component skills for this skill sequence may include skill areas that are fundamental to other areas. Fluency in the skill areas listed below may increase the likelihood that your learner will succeed in this skill sequence and those afterward.
Skill Possibilities
Below is a possible skill sequence for working on increasing your learner’s ability to follow instructions with multi-functional toys. Note that every learner is different and that you likely will need to tweak and vary some programming to their needs. Click the triangle icon to view the full description for each skill in the sequence/area.
Concurrent Skills
Working on these skills at the same time could help with goal mastery. Maybe your learner has mastered these skills already. Perhaps they are already listed as component skills above. That’s okay! Targeting other learning channels might help your learner.
Responding to “What” Greetings
Labels Own Behavior
Greetings (Verbal)Composite Skills
These are the possible next steps for learners who have mastered, or are mastering, the skills listed above. Note that new skill areas may require fluency in other component skills not listed above. Also, you can introduce composite skill sequences prematurely to keep your learner progressing, as generativity may occur earlier than expected.
Labels Likes/Dislikes of OthersFollow the link below to better understand component-composite analysis.
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