Below is a general skill sequence for helping learners conceptualize sharp and dull objects.
It’s imperative to target skills that improve the learner’s quality of life. One great way to do this is to work on skills related to safety. The more a learner can navigate away from the unsafe features of their environment, the more likely they are to stay safe. One dangerous area of our lives has to do with sharp objects. It may come as a surprise to you that many of our learners go through a significant portion of their therapy without being able to identify “sharp” and “dangerous”. This skill area seeks to do just that by having the learner label certain objects while also labeling them as sharp/dangerous or dull/safe. This skill area seeks to target these objects from a 2D perspective. Per the usual, it’s important to keep your learner safe at all times.
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 correctly label 5 sharp objects as sharp and/or dangerous when presented with a picture of that item.
- Learner will correctly label 5 dull objects as dull and/or safe when presented with a picture of that item.
- Learner will correctly label 10 sharp objects as sharp and/or dangerous when presented with a picture of that item.
- Learner will correctly label 10 dull objects as dull and/or safe when presented with a picture of that item.
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.
Intro to Scanning 
Intro to Matching (Visual Perception) 
Following Gestures
Matches Common Items in 2D Array 1.0 (Identical)
Receptively IDs Common Items in 2D Array
Labels Common Items 1.0FFC-Labels Common FFC Item
FFC-Labels Common Features 
Labels Clean & Dirty Skill Possibilities
Below is a possible skill sequence for working on increasing your learner’s ability to follow instructions and discriminate between sharp and dull objects. 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.
Labels Clean & Dirty 
Labels Wet & Dry 
Labels Hot & ColdComposite 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 Open & Closed
Labels Hard & Soft
Labels Long & Short
Labels Big & Little
Follow the link below to better understand component-composite analysis.
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