Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA therapy is the application of the science of behavior - often with respect to people with disabilities, including autism spectrum disorder, but applies to behavior of all organisms. Practitioners often focus on replacing challenging behaviors with prosocial behaviors. Using ABA, therapists teach and reinforce new behavior patterns by implementing various techniques such as chaining, prompting, reinforcement, prompt fading, etc. It is widely used to help individuals learn useful skills and live life more independently.
Forward chaining is one of the techniques used in ABA therapy to teach complex tasks or procedures. It works by breaking down tasks into smaller, manageable steps so the learner can successfully complete the task independently.
Let’s take a deeper look at how forward-chaining works, its benefits, and examples.
What is Forward Chaining?
Forward chaining is a strategy for teaching skills, especially complex, multi-step skills, to people with autism or other developmental disorders. In forward chaining, a task is split into smaller steps as some may find a task impossible to complete, but when the steps are broken down, it becomes more manageable. The learner focuses on understanding and mastering each step until they can complete the task overall.
In forward chaining, steps are presented in chronological order, meaning the step that comes first, is taught first. Once the learner gets a good grip on the first step, the second step is introduced and so, the learning process continues till all of the steps have been taught and mastered. Depending on the skill, all steps may be presented at the same time, but the first one is targeted for independence. The therapist either performs or heavily prompts the steps that follow.
Role of Therapists and Parents
Forward chaining can be used for any skill, but it is only effective with sufficient practice. Learning each step of a task takes time, and requires patience and understanding from therapists, caregivers, parents, or partners of autistic people.
Therapists work with parents or caregivers to identify the task that needs to be taught such as brushing teeth, putting on a shirt, or serving a bowl of breakfast cereal. They then break the task down into multiple steps in order of occurrence so the task is taught in a structured flow.
Therapists will then start with the first step, providing guidance and prompts to encourage the learner to perform the task successfully. Often, the learner receives some form of reward to motivate.
The therapist is also responsible for tracking progress throughout this learning process. They will observe and record the skill level that was initially present and any development that occurs during therapy. This is an important step because it is through these data that the therapist determines when to move to the next step.
It is crucial for therapists to track the progress of the learner because that helps them understand if the learner is successfully moving in the right direction. If tracking shows the learner’s progress is stuck at a particular step of the task, the therapist may further divide that task to make it manageable for the learner.
Such customizations are necessary because autism uniquely affects each individual. Therefore, every strategy used has to be tailored according to the distinct needs of the individual and their existing skill level.
Therapists can make use of digital tools such as the Forward Chaining programs offered by Motivity. These programs are conveniently built for tracking the steps taught, recording progress, and plotting results in a graph to visualize how effective the intervention is, or if there is a positive or negative learning trend.
Motivity offers multiple program types to assist with forward chaining. Here are some of them:
- Forward Chaining with All Steps
- Forward Chaining in Phases
- Forward Chaining with Prompt Hierarchy
- Forward Chaining with Steps Isolated
How Does Forward Chaining Work in ABA Therapy?
To understand how forward chaining works, let’s explore the process from start to end:
- Therapists and parents identify a skill or task that the autistic person finds challenging. For example, making a sandwich or packing their school bag.
- They break the task down into a series of smaller steps that are easier to learn than the overall task.
- They start teaching the first step of the task to the child by providing guidance, prompts, and various instructions to get them to comprehend the required activity and successfully learn it.
- The therapists offer rewards such as toys, chocolates, or extra TV time - whatever is a good incentive for the autistic person - for every successful attempt to encourage the learner to positively associate their effort with the stimulus.
- The prompts and guidance are gradually faded until the autistic person can complete the step without assistance or supervision.
- This means the learner has mastered the first step. The process is now repeated for the second step, and then all the following consecutive steps.
- When the learner has successfully mastered all steps of the task, they are in a position to complete the original task independently. This means forward chaining was effective in teaching a specific skill to the learner.
In forward chaining, the series of steps mentioned above generally take place in this order and the steps of the tasks are also taught in a logical order so the learners can understand the process and can complete the task starting from any step in the future. There are other chaining methods that are used depending on the task and the learner.
Benefits of Forward Chaining
Forward Chaining is an effective strategy for teaching long processes or complex tasks to autistic people by dividing the activity into simpler components. Here are some benefits of implementing forward chaining for skill acquisition:
Boosts Confidence
Forward chaining is not a rushed approach that yields results overnight. It is a gradual process of skill development. As learners learn each step of the way, they gain confidence and faith in their ability to complete the task on their own eventually. Thus forward chaining empowers people to look at tasks they once found overwhelming and know they can easily complete them now.
Promotes Independence
As individuals learn to complete various tasks without assistance, they become more and more independent and eventually self-sufficient. This improves their overall quality of life as they learn to manage day-to-day activities without another person’s involvement or supervision.
Enables Generalization
Since forward chaining takes the time to teach every task component separately, learners acquire a good grasp of the task and the sequence of steps. This methodical teaching enables them to master each step individually instead of associating them with one task. As a result, they can generalize their knowledge of the skill to various settings.
Conclusion
Forward chaining is an effective method of teaching skills in ABA therapy. It works by breaking down a task into smaller segments that are easier to learn. The learner’s progress at each step of the way is positively reinforced. Learners not only learn to perform a difficult task with forward chaining but gain a good understanding of task sequence and the skills each step involves. This enhances their confidence and allows them to generalize the acquired skills to complete various tasks.
