Running head: TASK ANALYSIS AND CHAINING PROJECT

Task Analysis and Chaining Project

Maryceline Josephson

EDU 347
TASK ANALYSIS AND CHAINING 2

Student Information

Kyle is an African American four-year-old preschool student who comes from an Urban

environment with his family. He has many siblings and although his mother and father are split,

they still do live together. His family is very close and they go to the same Urban school. Kyle

has an IEP that come with Accommodations. His goals in his IEP are due to the fact that he

needs guidance when it comes to transitions, attending to tasks, following directions, and speech

and language. Often times, the teacher will ask the class to participate and Kyle refuses and will

try to get out of it. Another example of his behavior is that when the class is transitioning from

play time to learning time, Kyle will sit and play until he is convinced to stop or that the stuff

that he is playing with gets taken away. The IEP shows that he has one on one direct instruction

and direct group instruction and that his accommodations include modeling, extra practice and

prompting by an intervention specialist and the general education teacher.

Targeted Task

The task that was chosen for this student is brushing teeth. By the end of the task analysis

and chaining project, it is anticipated that Kyle will be able to Independently brush his teeth. The

steps that he will be expected to learn when brushing teeth include: identifying the toothbrush,

toothpaste, and cup for spitting. The student will also be expected to know how to turn the water

of the sink on and off. This skill is very important for every student to learn. As his teacher

mentioned, it cannot be guaranteed that he is learning how to brush his teeth at home and it is an

important life skill to have. If he never learned how to brush his teeth, eventually, they would

begin to rot and all fall out. It is very important not only to teach the skill but also teach that

consistency is key. He could know how to brush his teeth but only do it once in a while. The

student should understand that brushing teeth should be done at least twice a day.
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Task Analysis

According to Miltenberger (2014), the task Analysis is a process of analyzing a specific

chain by breaking it down into steps. While making it, several aspects must be taken into

account. It is important to try the task yourself, so that you can determine exactly how many

steps are involved in the task. It is also important to decide whether or not the skill is age

appropriate. If the skill is too advanced for the student at the time, maybe a different skill should

be chosen. The table below represents the task analysis that was used for the chaining method

Task: Brushing Teeth

1. Grab the Toothbrush

2. Put the Toothbrush Under Water

3. Grab the Toothpaste
4. Put the Toothpaste on the Brush
5. Brush the Back of the Bottom Teeth
6. Brush the Back of the Teeth on Top
7. Brush the Front of the Top Teeth
8. Brush the Front of the Bottom Teeth
9. Spit
10. Put the Toothbrush Down
11. Grab the Cup

12 Fill the Cup with Water

13 Drink

14 Spit the Water Out

Table 1. Example of the Task Analysis

Before the student can learn the skill, it is important that he understands not only what the

toothbrush, toothpaste, and the cup look like but also, why and how they are used. Kyle may
TASK ANALYSIS AND CHAINING 4

have a difficult time staying on task while learning these skills because there are many steps and

that his IEP demonstrated that he struggles to attend to the tasks in class. The chaining method

will be given to the student two to three times a day and will be scored using, verbal, gestural,

modeling, and physical prompting. After every step, there will be a short amount of time for

positive praise and feedback. According to Wind, Kremers,Thijs, and Brug (2005), by having the

student learn to brush his teeth at school, he will be more likely to brush his teeth daily. This is

vital to know because it simply verifies the goal of the chaining project.//////////////////////////////

Chaining Procedure

According to Snodgrass, Meadan, Ostrosky, & Cheung (2017), there are three different

types of chaining. These are forward, backward, and total task chaining. When completing a

chaining procedure, it is important to determine which types of chaining will be chosen. In order

to determine which chaining type of chaining to use, it is necessary to know what forward,

backward and total task chaining are. According to Slocum and Tiger (2011), forward chaining is

when the first step of the chaining process is taught first to mastery and then the rest of the

chaining procedure is taught. The backward chaining; however, is much different than the

forward. When backward chaining is used, the last step of the procedure is taught to mastery

before the other steps are taught (Slocum, Tiger, 2011). Finally, the last type of chaining is the

total task. Total task chaining is where every step in the task analysis is taught to mastery

through modeling. (Snodgrass, Meadan, Ostrosky, and Cheung, 2017).

All three types of chaining are very useful when learning a task and according to Slocum

and Tiger (2011), one type of chaining is not better than another. They all can be very effective

when teaching; however, you may still want to choose one that the student may understand best.

Every student is different and it is important to discover how a student may learn best. One way
TASK ANALYSIS AND CHAINING 5

that you can determine how a student learns best is either through direct or indirect assessments.

According to Miltenberger (2014), direct assessments are interviews or questionnaires while

direct assessments are where the teacher observes and records a behavior or how a student is

excelling in a specific academic topic. An example for why the teacher should take a student’s

style of learning into account is that a student might need the teacher to model every step before

he or she can complete a task. If this was the case, the teacher should use total task chaining.

The type of chaining that was chosen for Kyle was forward chaining. This type was

chosen because, although he was able to complete the first couple steps independently, he did a

lot of them out of order and was unable to complete the last few steps independently. By using

the forward chaining process, Kyle will be able to master the first steps in the correct order and

then build upon those steps in order to completely learn how to brush his teeth. In order to

reinforce the chaining project, positive reinforcement and praise will be used. According to Al-

Ghamdi, (2017), praise can not only help a student achieve higher standards for work but also

can promote a positive learning environment. Another reason why praise was chosen was

because Kyle loves praise and in any activity, if he is praised, he will continue to do a task or a

behavior. It is important to praise a desired behavior every time it occurs and immediately.

Results

The results in Graph 1. demonstrates that there was an increase in trend over the

intervention sessions. Kyle was consistent throughout baseline and was independent nine out of

the fourteen steps. Although he was independent, in nine steps, he did them out of the typical

order. For example, the first thing he did was grab the cup, fill it with water, drink and then

swallow. Typically, drinking water and spitting it out is the last step. It is apparent that the first

day of intervention, there was a dramatic change. On session 6, he required 13 verbal prompts;
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however, it immediately decreased by the next session. Once intervention began, there was a

slight decrease in how many prompts he needed and an increase in how independent he became.

He loved the praise after every session. There would be praise and a high-five in order to

reinforce the behavior. He became so excited after every session, that he even would run up to

his teachers and show them his teeth. After all of the sessions, the teacher explained that outside

of the sessions he had asked her if he could brush his teeth. Although more sessions would be

required in order to officially determine the results, it seems that he not only became more

independent while brushing teeth but also developed a desire to brush his own teeth.

Graph 1. AB Graph portraying the steps of brushing teeth that Kyle completed independently in

baseline and intervention.

The graph shown below is Graph 2. This graph demonstrates the prompts that were used

throughout the intervention sessions. It is clear that verbal prompts were used throughout the

sessions including the last session. Session 7, or intervention session 3 as shown below, was the

only time that there needed to be a full physical prompt. This was when he had to brush the back
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of the teeth in the bottom. Kyle was confused with how to do it and needed hand over hand to

help him brush the back.

Graph 2. The different interventions used and the amount of times in each intervention session

that they were used.

Future Recommendations

In order for the student to move forward, I would suggest that there would be a few more

intervention strategies in order to give him more opportunities to become independent. Once he

became independent, there should be a time where he brushed his teeth during the day. The

classroom has breakfast every morning; therefore, if he would brush his teeth after every

breakfast, it would reinforce what he had learned and would create an organized schedule.

Although this project was very interesting and I did learn a lot, there was one challenge

that made the whole project difficult. Throughout baseline, he was excited to brush his teeth and

would often run to his toothbrush, toothpaste, and cup so that we can begin. At the end of each
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baseline session, I would give him a high-five, praise him, and tell him how proud I was of him.

I would even tell the teachers how nice his teeth would look and Kyle would smile from ear to

ear. After the first two intervention sessions, his behavior changed. He refused to do anything the

teachers asked him and would even try to hit or kick them. I struggled to convince him to brush

his teeth; however, once he brushed his teeth, I could not get him to stop. It was the initial task of

brushing teeth that he did not want to do. After observing his behavior in the classroom, I

determined that it was not simply brushing teeth but he did not have positive behavior when he

had to do something that was not his idea. Although there were challenges there were at least two

aspects that I learned from. I learned how to work with a student who did not have positive

behavior, which is important because there will be students who will not have positive behaviors

in the classroom. I also learned how to complete a task analysis that will not only help me in the

classroom, but with everyday life.

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Bibliography

Al-Ghamdi, A. (2017). Building a Positive Environment in Classrooms through Feedback and

Praise. English Language Teaching, 10(6), 37. doi: 10.5539/elt.v10n6p37

Miltenberger, R. G. (2014). Behavior modification: Principles and procedures. Boston,

MA: Cengage Learning.

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. doi: 10.1901/jaba.2011.44-793

Snodgrass, M. R., Meadan, H., Ostrosky, M. M., & Cheung, W. C. (2017). One step at a time:

Using task analyses to teach skills. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45, 855-862.

Wind, M., Kremers, S., Thijs, C., & Brug, J. (2005). Toothbrushing at school. Health

Education, 105(1), 53–61. doi: 10.1108/09654280510572303

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Appendices A

Task Analysis & Chaining Project

Teacher Interview
EDU 347
Student Pseudonym: Kyle
Grade: Pre-school
Age: 4
Environment: Urban
Parents/Guardians: Mom
Siblings: 7 or 8
Present Level of Performance:
Reading: Cannot read yet

Spelling: Cannot spell yet

Writing: Can write a couple letters

Math: He can count to 9 and match shapes but does not know the vocabulary

Any adaptations in place for taking assessments?

No
Academic Strengths:
Strong in math
Academic Areas for Improvement:
Needs improvement in all academic areas
Behavioral Strengths:
He loves to help, especially cleaning
Behavioral Areas for Improvement:
He often refuses to attend large group activities. Over the past few weeks he has
become more vocal about refusing to participate. He strives for attention whether it is positive
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or negative. He pouts if he doesn't get his way. He has become increasingly more violent with
others as of lately.
Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP)?
No
Describe the level of independent functional skills.
He can put his own coat on. He uses fork and spoon independently. He washes his
hands. He can clean up his own mess
Describe social skills and relationships with peers:
80% of the time he plays well with his peers. He has some trouble taking turns and
sharing, usually needs prompting. He can become violent with others if they do something he
doesn't like.
Describe organization and decision-making skills:
His organization and decision making skills are an area that needs improvement. He
struggles to make appropriate decisions
Describe things that he/she finds motivating and reinforcing:
He still needs plenty of extrinsic motivation to complete tasks. Food is a major
motivation for him.
Goals or aspirations the parents have for their child for this school year:
Current goals are just to listen to authority and participate with the group.
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Appendices B
Task Analysis & Chaining Project
Review of Records
EDU 347
1. What items did you review (e.g., sample work, report card, progress reports,
behavioral records, IEP, BIP, FBA, anecdotal notes, etc.)?
IEP

2. Record information on the student’s current level of performance as it related to their

grades, goals, and current level of development.
Goals: Be able to match/sort colors and point to shapes with 80% accuracy

Needs to attend to tasks and follow directions

Is deficit in speech and language

3. Does the student receive any accommodations or modifications in the classroom or

during assessments?
Intervention Specialist in school: One on one direct instruction and direct small

group instruction

Accommodations: Modeling, extra practice, prompting by intervention specialist

and general education teacher

4. How much of the school day does the student spend in the general education
environment per the IEP?
90 minutes weekly

5. Does the student have a completed FBA, BIP, or another behavior-specific plan?
No

6. After reviewing the information, what was most helpful and interesting? What
impact, guidance, or influence does it have on your chaining project?
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The most helpful information was that he needs help following directions and

being attentive to tasks. It helps impact the chaining project because I can be

better prepared to help him stay on task and follow directions.

7. What additional information would you be interested in obtaining?

More information about his family life
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Appendices C