+ Participation (continued… techniques!)

Techniques to Facilitate Participation

Chart #2

Examples for the trainer

Modeling:

This technique involves demonstrating the activity to the person.

Example:

A person does not know how to put on their life vest at the canoe area. You need to put on your own life vest slowly and explain everything that you are doing.

Important Things to Remember

1. Allow time for the person to process what you are doing and saying. Go slowly enough so that the person can follow you and imitate you, but not so slowly that it seems patronizing.
2. You may have to model that activity many times, over many occasions-that’s ok. It will take some people longer to get the hang of what you are trying to show them.
3. Be very specific in your verbal descriptions of what you are doing. Keep your verbiage simple and to the point.

Prompts:

Prompts are cues that you will give to the person to remind them of what they need to be doing in the activity. Prompts can be physical or verbal

Example:

A person is holding and staring at a bottle of glue in their hand, looking confused. You might say to them, “Gary, pull the top of the glue up.”

4. Assisting in directions can vary. Prompts that you can use include,

• • Gesture
  • Verbal Reminder
  • Verbal Direction
  • Physical Assistance
  • Hand-over-hand

Feedback:

Feedback is the information that you give a person about how they are performing the task. Feedback is very important!

Example:

A person touches a horse for the first time. Your feedback might include a pat on the back, saying to them “I know that was hard but I think the horse really liked to be petted so gently.”

Important Things to Remember

1. Be specific and descriptive with your feedback.
2. Give POSITIVE feedback!
3. Give feedback on approximations as well as “correct” responses.

Example:

You’re assisting someone to put on their life vest and they keep tapping it on their head. Your feedback might be “That’s right, the vest goes over your head. Try pulling it down over your head.”

Task Analysis:

Task analysis is looking at a task and breaking it down into its smaller parts.

Example: Brushing teeth

1. Find toothbrush and toothpaste
2. Turn on water
3. Put toothpaste on the toothbrush
4. Point to visuals that are located on the wall.

Also:

1. How much you have to break down a task will vary with the person’s abilities. You may end up with five steps, you may end up with twenty steps.
2. Keep in mind what your goal is when you break an activity into parts. Are you going to teach all of those parts to the person? Or are you searching for one or two parts that a person can do so that they may participate?
3. Use visuals if needed. The Speech and Language Pathologist can assist in this area.