Running head: TASK ANALYSIS AND CHAINING 1

Task Analysis and Chaining

Dana Wells

EDU 347 – Spring 2018

TASK ANALYSIS AND CHAINING 2

Student Information

Zack is a four-year-old student who attends inclusive preschool at an urban school in his

local district. He has a twin sister in another preschool class and an older brother in the same

preschool class. Zack is African American and currently lives with his aunt. He has an

Individualized Education Plan (IEP) and receives individualized services for speech therapy. He

does not receive occupational therapy or physical therapy. Zack is interested in and motivated by

typical “boy stuff.” This includes cars, sand, dirt, puppets, and his iPad. He also loves stickers.

He began school in August 2017, so this is his first academic school year. In Zack’s classroom, a

paraeducator is present in the mornings to help support him. Additionally, he has two co-teachers

and each of the co-teachers currently has a student teacher. Zack loves individualized attention

and is constantly seeking reassuring touches from his teachers. During group times, he is

frequently seen sitting in a teacher’s lap, or being held by someone.

Targeted Task

The targeted task chosen for Zack is putting on his jacket. Zack will be asked to put on

his jacket completely, which includes identifying his jacket, fixing the sleeves, putting the jacket

on each arm, and zipping the jacket up. Knowing how to put on a jacket is an important daily

living skill for students and independent completion of this task will help prepare students for

kindergarten. Additionally, the use of the zipper is another reason this task will improve the

student’s functional performance. If Zack is able to master use of the zipper in this task of

putting his jacket on, then Zack will be able to generalize the skill and use zippers on other items.

Zack currently needs to put his jacket on multiple times a day, in the morning before school,

before recess, and before he goes home for the day. Also, if he gets cold throughout the day he

wants to have his coat on. However, every time he puts his coat on, he needs assistance from one
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of the teachers. This is a skill that Zack’s classroom teacher wanted him to be more independent

with completing. It is important that Zack learns this skill in order to better take care of himself

and to help regulate his body temperature. Furthermore, he will use this skill for the entirety of

his life, so he should begin transitioning toward independence now. In order to successfully put

on his jacket, Zack will need to focus on the presented task and fully complete the procedures.

Potential difficulties with the completion of this targeted task include the use of the zipper on the

jacket.

Task Analysis

The task analysis used for this chaining procedure was implemented as follows:

Task: Putting on a Jacket

1. Find jacket and lay out in front of you

2. Fix the sleeves

3. Push right arm through right arm hole

4. Swing jacket around to other side and hold in place with right arm

5. Bend left arm, reach backwards, find hole for left arm

6. Insert left arm into left arm hole

7. Make sure the zipper is pushed to the bottom of the line

8. Hold bottom of left corner of jacket firmly with left hand

9. With right hand, insert zipper slide into the base hole until it is pushed in completely

10. With right hand, continue to hold the bottom of the connected base hole and zipper slide

11. Use left hand to pull up the zipper.

12 Connect all four Velcro pieces

Figure 1. Example of task analysis used for chaining procedure.

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In order to complete the targeted task analysis, Zack will need several prerequisite skills.

Zack first must be able to identify where in the classroom his jacket is, find his designated

cubby, and recognize his jacket. Zack visits his cubby frequently, so this is not a foreseeable

problem. However, Zack currently refuses to try using zippers. He has had repeated failure in his

attempts and does not understand how to use one. He will need motivation to try his best and

immediate and significant encouragement on his attempts at using the zipper. This may serve as

a particular challenge in putting on his jacket. Another potential challenge for the task analysis

and chaining procedures is if Zack varies the type of jacket he brings to school, which would

change the task analysis and limit his ability to practice consistently. Some of his jackets may not

have zippers, or may have harder or easier zippers to work with. While this would be beneficial

to help generalize the skill, it is not ideal when the implementation of the skill is occurring.

Chaining Procedure

When teaching a student a targeted task, forward chaining, backward chaining, or whole

task chaining may be used (Walls, Zane, & Ellis, 1981). In the case of this particular chaining

procedure, forward chaining was used to teach Zack how to put on his jacket. Forward chaining

requires a subject to complete step 1, then step 1 and 2 together, followed by completion of step

1, 2, and 3 together, and gradually adding one step at a time until all steps are completed to

mastery (Walls, Zane, & Ellis, 1981). In terms of Zack’s targeted task, he must complete the

steps in the selected order to be effective at completing the task. Since baseline data helped to

determine that Zack already had the first few steps at mastery and developing levels, but did not

attempt steps later in the sequence, forward chaining was deemed to be the most effective

procedure. According to research completed by Shrestha, Anderson and Moore (2013), when

students with disabilities are being taught to complete daily living skills, whole task chaining has
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varying success, while forward chaining, especially when paired with verbal prompts or video

modeling, seems to be more successful.

In forward chaining, after a step is mastered and a subsequent step is taught, all previous

steps must be followed in order to receive reinforcement, which is given at the completion of

every successful response (Slocum & Tiger, 2011). Zack requires this reinforcement to motivate

him to complete the targeted task because he has been previously unsuccessful at his attempts,

particularly in zipping up his jacket. If this is the step where Zack experiences the most

challenge, then this is the step where he will receive the most reinforcement and encouragement.

According to Slocum and Tiger (2011), reinforcement is given at the last step completed,

regardless of the stage of training. Forward chaining also seemed to be the best choice for

teaching Zack the targeted skill due to the contingent reinforcement that accompanies this

chaining procedure (O’Handley, Dadakhodjaeva, Radley, & Dart, 2015). Reinforcement will be

provided immediately after attempt of the last step that Zack is able to complete. In the

beginning, Zack will receive intense, immediate and behavior specific praise paired with a high-

five or a fist bump. Use of correct, motivating reinforcement is vital to the success of the forward

chaining procedure (O’Handley et al., 2015). Zack also thoroughly enjoys stickers, so he will

have the opportunity to choose a sticker at the completion of each chaining procedure.

Results

Overall, the results of the intervention showed an increasing trend, but more data would

need to be collected and more time would be needed to help Zack fully complete this task

independently. During the initial baseline sessions, Zack completed a median of three tasks

independently with no more than five tasks total. After the intervention, Zack’s average number

of independently completed steps was slightly over six, with the highest score being eight. Thus,
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his overall independence did increase slightly, but more data would need to be collected. After

completing five baseline sessions and eight intervention sessions, the data collected from each

session was used to create a graph depicting Zack’s progress towards his targeted task.

Putting on a Jacket
13
12 Baseline Intervention
Number of Steps Completed

11
10
9
Independently

8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Sessions

Graph 1: This graph displays the number of steps Zack was able to complete independently

during each session

Overall, Zack responded well to the intervention. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy the

individualized attention provided and was thus more motivated to complete the task. Each

session, Zack would initially try to get out of working on the targeted task, but as soon as he

began working for a few seconds, he became very excited about the reinforcement provided and

attention given. The easiest steps for Zack to complete were finding his jacket and putting his

right arm into the armhole. Additionally, Zack had mastered swinging the jacket around to the

other side of his body, holding on with his right arm, and pushing his left arm through the

armhole. The hardest steps for Zack to complete independently all involved the zipper.

Previously, it seemed that Zack was used to others just doing this part for him. At baseline, he
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was completely unsure of what to do regarding the zipper. At the end of the intervention, he had

the concept of what to do with the zipper, but did not quite have the fine motor skills needed to

complete this task independently. Zack always enjoyed pulling the zipper up at the end, but he

needed assistance to get to that step.

Future Recommendations

One of the biggest challenges to completing this project was the lack of consistency. I

was only able to work with Zack once a week over the course of a month. At one point, I was

able to go in twice in one week, and on the second day I was there I did see improvement.

Because I was only there for a limited time, if there was a disruption in the schedule or Zack was

having an “off day” I still worked with him on the chaining procedure. If I would be able to

change things for the future, it would be ideal to have worked with Zack more than once a week

to solidify the skills he was learning. This would also help to combat the “off days” that students

sometimes have.

If I was implementing this chaining procedure in my own future classroom, there are

additional things I would do differently. I would work with Zack every day, multiple times a day

to teach and practice the targeted task. I would also contact his parents and request the same

jacket be brought to school everyday, or left at school for the duration of the chaining procedure.

This would build more consistency and mastery of the skill before generalizing it. I would also

graph his results in front of him, and allow him to assist me in charting how many steps he

completed independently each day. I think getting him involved into the learning process would

be helpful in motivating him to complete the targeted task independently. Finally, I would work

on strengthening his fine motor grip and fine motor skills. This would help him put the zipper

slide into the zipper base, grasp the zipper, and zip the jacket up with greater independence.
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Bibliography

O’Handley, R. D., Dadakhodjaeva, K., Radley, K. C., & Dart, E. H. (2016). Promoting

independent ambulation: A case study of an elementary school student with

developmental disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 56, 153-159.

Pisacreta, R. (1982). A comparison of forward and backward procedures for the acquisition of

response chains in pigeons. Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, 20(4), 233-236.

Shrestha, A., Anderson, A., & Moore, D. W. (2012). Using point-of-view video modeling and

forward chaining to teach a functional self-help skill to a child with autism. Journal of

Behavior Education, 22, 157-167.

Slocum, S. K., & Tiger, J. H. (2011). An assessment of the efficiency of and child preference for

forward and backward chaining. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44(4), 793-805.

Walls, R. T., Zane, T., & Ellis, W. D. (1981). Forward and backward chaining and whole task

methods training assembly tasks in vocational rehabilitation. Behavior Modification, 5(1),

61-74.