Backward Chaining...It's Not Exclusive To ABA!

Chaining is a technique used in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to teach students complex tasks by breaking each step in the process down into individual behaviors (discrete responses). 

During Backward Chaining all behaviors involved in a process are completed by the clinician (or parent) except the last step which is left for the student to complete.

I love to use backward chaining to help my dyslexic students learn the letter names.

First the student selects a phonemic object for each letter.  These objects must begin with the same sound as the letter we are targeting.  A = Apple (or in this case Asher because it happens to be his name), B = Batman, C = Cookie, etc.

The verbiage becomes "B says /b/ like Batman."

When completing drill and practice activities, the phonemic objects are available, the student is presented with the flash card, and the clinician says:

"This letter says /b/ like Batman. It's the letter __."

Hopefully the student will be able to supply the "B".  However, if they are unable to perform the task a phonemic cue can be given as another cuing level.

When the student begins to show success with supplying the final step in the chain, the clinician can then begin supplying all but the last two responses:

"This letter says /b/ like _____, it's the letter ____."

Until ultimately the student is able to supply the entire sequence (without cues) when shown the 

flash card.

I'm including a video to help demonstrate how backward chaining can be used to teach letter names/sounds. Many thanks to Asher for being such a hard worker!  

He's a super star reader these days!!

Disclaimer: I purposefully allowed him to struggle on some trials longer than I normally would for demonstration purposes.

Art Therapy in the Speech Room

A couple of years ago, one of my first grade students had a piece of art entered into an art auction. His parents did not attend the auction, so I purchased his painting and promptly hung his art in the therapy room.  He was thrilled, but all of my other students wanted to know when they were going to get to paint a picture for the room.

While I have always liked to include arts and crafts in my day-to-day therapy activities, I usually stick to really basic activities that can be completed in one session.  There are many reasons for the simple, quickly completed, craft selection however it usually boils down to the
fact that I have very little available storage and well over 45 students on my caseload.

I originally thought about doing a joint project similar to this one that our after school Barton Reading and Spelling students completed:

This project was great because they were each painting an individual canvas, but had no idea what, exactly, they were creating.  Teamwork at its finest : )

After much debate and consideration, it was decided that canvas painting would be reserved for the 3rd graders (highest grade in my building). We took a vote, and decided to paint inspirational sayings.  The students researched various sayings, created a rough draft on paper, and then began the actual painting. This process obviously took more than a few therapy sessions, but it was well worth the effort.

Since these students are third graders, this was an excellent opportunity for them to practice their speech objectives and/or learn new skills in a relaxed environment.  They were encouraged to use learned skills in conversational speech. However, the most amazing thing to watch was their social interactions. Students don't get to practice social skills nearly often enough in naturalistic environments.
We are pretty happy with the results!  What do you think?