Case Study - Ariel

Jennie Inchausti

SPEDE 777
Fall 2013





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Case Study - Ariel
1

Contents
Background ................................................................................................................................................. 2
Language/Communication ........................................................................................................................ 3
Cognitive ................................................................................................................................................... 4
Physical ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
Social ........................................................................................................................................................ 7
Self- Regulation ......................................................................................................................................... 7
Self-Care / Adaptive Living ....................................................................................................................... 8
Observation ................................................................................................................................................. 9
Goals ........................................................................................................................................................... 13
Intervention ............................................................................................................................................... 14
Baseline Week 1 ................................................................................................................................... 16
Intervention Introduction Week 2 ........................................................................................................ 17
Intervention Phase Week 3 ................................................................................................................... 17
Graphs .................................................................................................................................................... 18
Analysis ................................................................................................................................................... 19
Future Recommendations ....................................................................................................................... 19



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Background
Ariel is four years old and nine months of age. He is currently placed in a self-contained
kindergarten classroom within a public school in Long Island City. Ariels Individualized
Education Plan (IEP) notes that he has a speech and language impairment.. He currently
receives pull out services for occupational therapy (OT) two times a week for 30 minute
sessions. He receives one to one speech therapy (ST) three times a week for 30 minute sessions
and ST with a group of five students two times a week for 30 minute sessions.
Ariel lives in Woodside Queens with his father, brother, and mother. His family is from
the Philippines however English is spoken in the home. His mother is a live-in nanny on Long
Island and is with her family three days out of the week. The fathers occupation is unknown
however it is assumed that his main responsibility is to take care for his sons. Ariels brother is
in the fifth grade and also attends school with Ariel. The elder brother also has an IEP noting a
speech and language delay. The elder brother attended the same school starting in kindergarten
and the school staff regularly comments on how the brother presented with very similar delays
when he began school.
Little is known about Ariels previous education placement however it is known that he
attended a prekindergarten setting and has had an IEP since the age of three. Despite previous
classroom experience Ariel is having a very challenging time adjusting to kindergarten in his
current placement. He rarely engages with content and routines alongside his peers. In a recent
interview with Ariels mother she mentioned that Ariel was previously diagnosed with Autism
however there is no mention of this on his IEP. She also mentioned that she believes that Ariel
will grow out of his Autism which is why it is not the current classification on his IEP. Ariels
current developmental functioning suggests global delays and his teacher, therapists, and parents
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have expressed concern and are currently in the process of requesting a reevaluation in the hopes
of providing Ariel with more services and perhaps a more accurate diagnosis.
Language/Communication
Ariel has significant delays in regards to his receptive and expressive language. He is
currently functioning below two year old expectations.
Receptive
In regards to receptive language functioning, Ariel does not respond to multi step directions.
Most directions are now presented to him one step at a time and he typically needs a physical
prompt to get him to follow the direction. For example, when told to stand up he will remain
seated until a hand is presented to him, at which point he will take the hand and stand. It is
unclear however, if this delay is a result of not receptively understanding language or a delay in
motor planning skills. Ariel also has difficulty sustaining joint attention when compared to
classroom peers. For example, when verbally prompted to color, read, or perform other non-
preferred tasks Ariel will produce unrelated repetitive vocalizations. This lack of joint attention
is another challenge in gauging his receptive language strengths.
Expressive
Ariel also very rarely expresses himself through spontaneous language. The few times
when he does spontaneously use expressive language is to communicate the need to toilet when
he will say pee pee. When verbally prompted, Ariel has begun to produce single words to
label objects and images. However as previously mentioned, keeping joint attention with Ariel
is a challenge. He has recently begun producing simple language that he hears through song.
For example he will sing criss- cross applesauce in the same manner his teacher does. At the
end of the day he has started singing goodbye everyone. Both phrases are used during
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appropriate contexts. This new language production is a form of echolalia and with all language
production he attempts to mimic the tone and speech pattern from where he heard the phrases.
Ariels speech therapy sessions have proven to be very successful at encouraging him to be
effortful at trying to use language. The one to one attention, relationship development, and
following his lead in regards to interest have encouraged him to speak throughout a whole
session, repeating simple two-word phrases and words that his therapist uses. He has also
spontaneously produced a few words that were used in speech sessions during his OT sessions.
While he is beginning to produce more language it is important to note that his speech is often
unintelligible.
Cognitive
Through center type activities during the school day and free play times Ariel has
displayed certain cognitive strengths. Ariel enjoys puzzles and some of his favorite center
activities include a floor size alphabet puzzle and a shape matching activity. When playing with
an alphabet game which contains various blocks with letters on them, he was observed placing
the letters into their carrier in order and facing the same direction demonstrating awareness of the
alphabet. He often states the numbers 1, 2, 3 however this is typically not in context of
demonstrating one to one correspondence of items and is instead probably another example of
his language echolalia. While Ariel demonstrates strengths in regards to puzzles and spatial
relations, his difficulties with joint attention again make it difficult to assess his other cognitive
functioning.
Ariel does recognize the cover of his favorite class book and he regularly chooses to look
at the same book during reading time. Currently Ariel does not participate with his peers in
pretend play activities. When directed to the pretend play center he will choose one object and
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perseverate on it by moving it to another area of the room. His favorite item to remove from the
kitchen area is an egg. Egg is a word he has been heard saying out of context in the past.
When prompted by a teacher to engage with other items such as a phone or doll he does not
show interest, unlike his peers. Recently however, he demonstrated symbolic representation
when a teacher built a structure out of blocks and started acting like it was a space ship. He said
rocket and took the structure from the teacher.
Areas of Ariels cognitive development are above the functioning level of the students in
his class, for example his letter awareness. However other areas are far below the functioning of
his peers such as his functional use of objects and symbolic play. Ariels communication delays
make it difficult to assess his cognitive functioning so this is a developmental area that should
continue to be assessed through informal observation.
Physical
Physical activities are often the cause of frustration for Ariel. He exhibits signs of motor
planning difficulties. For example, when he enters a room and is given two step directions such
as go to your chair and sit down, he has difficulty following through. He will walk to his chair
but does not complete the second part of the instructions. This may also be a result of his
communication delays. Ariel also currently displays weak core strength and has difficulties with
many fine and gross motor activities. He has difficulty sitting in class for a 15 minute long
lesson, resulting in him frequently lying on the floor.
Gross Motor
Ariel enjoys running during gym and playing on the playground after lunch. According
the Carolina Curriculum measurement tool, Ariel is currently functioning around a 30 month
year old developmental level in regards to his gross motor skills. While he runs, he does so with
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his feet grounded and his arms stiff by his side. He has difficulty imitating movements that
require him to lift one foot off of the floor such as marching, skipping, and galloping. He does
walk up the stairs using alternating feet however he holds onto the rail to do so. On the
playground he plays on a select amount of equipment. He will climb across the low monkey bars
and he grasps them firmly with his hands. He can also climb a ladder to reach the slide. His
play is currently restricted to this area and unlike his peers he does not run around the
playground or explore new areas. Ariel was recently evaluated to participate in Alternative
Physical Education (APE) and it was determined that he would benefit from APE. A referral has
been made for him to add APE to his IEP.
Fine Motor
Ariel has significant fine motor delays. The occupational therapist has determined that
Ariel still presents the primitive ATNR and STNR reflexes which may be contributing to his
difficulties. In OT sessions he does activities that are working to expand his reach, encourage
him to cross his midline, and build core strength.
He does not demonstrate a hand preference and has not developed a pincer grasp. His
current grasp is palmer and he places his hand high up on writing utensils. When using a pencil
or crayon he will repeatedly lift the utensil and hit the point to the paper or desk resulting in dot
like marks. Currently he will only make stroke marks when using a marker or dry erase board.
However he does not currently copy any markings regardless of writing utensil. Ariel often
avoids participation in activities that require fine motor skills such as cutting and gluing. Many
of these in class activities are done for Ariel by the teacher.
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Social
Ariels communication delays are impacting his social development and he currently has
no language to enable him to communicate with peers. Ariel most commonly engages in solitary
play. When paired with another student during center activities he tends to remain focused on
his own play and rarely interacts with the other student. Most interactions stem from a
frustration that Ariel experiences, for example if the other student attempts to put a puzzle piece
in a floor puzzle Ariel will grab the piece out of the classmates hand. This frustration has also
led to hitting when another student has taken an object that Ariel was playing with. Ariels
parents have mentioned to the teaching staff that Ariel does not know the difference between
girls and boys, which has resulted in further aggressive frustration from Ariel when the girls
were expected to go into the classroom first. However, within the past week Ariel has begun to
show a preference for one of his female classmates. He has been observed smiling at her during
a class song when they were placed face to face on the carpet. The girl was also observed
encouraging Ariel to go down the slide with her during recess. Ariel complied and appeared to
enjoy this interaction as he smiled and repeated the process a number of times.
Self- Regulation
Ariels communication and motor delays seem to be frequently the causes of frustration
for him. For the first few weeks of school, Ariel would sit quietly for most activities. However,
currently Ariels demands in the class are increasing and he is regularly being prompted to
participate in class routines and movement breaks. Because of his current lack of means of
communication, Ariel has started exhibiting challenging behaviors that allow him to escape
classroom activities. For example, he will yell out pee pee and rush over to the bathroom to
avoid participating. Another common behavior is lying in the middle of the carpet and repeating
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vocalizations which often result in him being taken out of the room and being allowed to play
with toys in a hallway break area. Ariel has also hit teachers and students upon becoming
frustrated, however most recently he has started kissing an individuals hand if they are
attempting to make him do a task that he is uncomfortable with. Ariels teacher, therapists, and
parents all agree that he will develop better coping skills with a means of communication and
one to one attention.
Self-Care / Adaptive Living
In regards to his adaptive living skills Ariel demonstrates strengths. Ariel is able to toilet
independently. He is also able to zip and unzip independently, even though he needs prompts to
begin the dressing or undressing process. He can also take his shoes on and off when desired. In
regards to his eating skills, he is able to open and appropriately use food items that he is familiar
with. For snack, on most days, Ariel has a juice box and a small Tupperware container of
goldfish crackers. He is able to independently open the juice box straw and he is able to open the
four-clasp Tupperware and close it when done. However, when he has a snack that is in a sealed
plastic wrapper he is unable to open the item. This is not uncommon amongst his classmates.
Finally he has restrictive food preferences which affect the amount that he eats and the quality of
food that he eats at school. He prefers food with a crispy texture such as the goldfish crackers.
When given chicken fingers or cheese sticks he will only eat the outside breading. When fed
tacos he will eat only the outside of the shell. It is recommended that the school staff work with
the parents to ensure that Ariels nutritional needs are being met as he is a small stature for his
age.
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Observation
Ariel has been observed in a variety of settings including during morning routine and
meeting, center activities, movement, and speech therapy.
Every morning when the students come into the room they have a routine of going to
their cubby, hanging up their backpack and coat, and then they go to sit on the carpet. All of the
students in the class are able to complete this routine independently. When Ariel walks in the
room he goes directly to his cubby and stands facing the cubby. During a September 26
th

observation, Ariel followed this pattern and walked straight to his cubby. He began to unzip his
jacket then stopped and stared at the cubby. A classroom Para asked him if he needed help. Ariel
verbally responded by saying help please. The Para responded by completing all of the steps
in Ariels morning routine and ended by telling him to go to the carpet. Ariel is able to take off
his backpack, unzip his coat, and hang the items up. However, he will not do so until he is given
a prompt from an adult. The prompts typically continue throughout the morning routine in an
attempt to speed up the process for Ariel, often times resulting in these tasks being completed by
the teacher, such as happened during the September 26
th
observation.
Once all of the students were seated on the carpet the teacher prompted them to sit with
crossed legs by singing a criss-cross apple sauce jingle. Ariel repeated the song and pointed to
the teachers legs. She laughed and asked him to sit that way. He remained sitting on his knees
so he was physically put in a cross legged position by the teacher. The teacher then initiated the
Starfall program on the computer. The software program teaches letter identification and
phonics through brightly colored animations. Ariel did not make eye contact with the teacher
during the morning greeting however, when she began Starfall he stared at the computer screen.
The other students in the class also enjoy Starfall and they repeat the letter names, sounds, and
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words. They also laugh at the animations. Ariel does not have the same reactions. During the
September 26
th
observation, the teacher was showing the students the animation for all consonant
letters. When viewing the N animation Ariel began to say oink-oink which seemingly had no
connection to the animations. However, the next letter was P which featured dancing pigs.
This demonstrated Ariels cognitive awareness of the letter order. The teacher at this point
called out what does a pig say? and Ariel had no response. As the next animation began, Ariel
quietly said oink-oink. The teacher continued through the rest of the consonants. Ariel was
calling out vocalizations that may have been approximations of what he was hearing however,
most of these vocalizations were unintelligible. He did repeat snake and tiger. The teacher then
played songs on Starfall that the class sings every day. At this point Ariel stood up and said pee
pee He was allowed to go to the bathroom. Upon coming out of the bathroom he stood in front
of the sink but did not begin washing his hands. The teacher assistant (TA) went over to him and
verbally prompted him to wash hands. Ariel held up his hands over the sink. The TA turned the
water on and squirted soap into his hands. Ariel continued holding his hands in a stationary
position over the sink. The TA verbally prompted him to rub his hands and then physically
assisted him in this task. She then moved his hands into the water stream. During this process,
Ariel was singing along with the Starfall song that was playing. When he returned to the carpet
he stopped singing and did not participate in the rest of the Starfall activities.
During the afternoon on September 26
th
, Ariel was observed during small center
activities. The teacher hands out a puzzle, alphabet activity, or math manipulative for the
students to explore. Ariel was first given a basket of Unifix cubes. When verbally and
physically prompted by the TA, Ariel was able to identify the cubes by color. He continued
stacking the cubes in one long form naming the colors with each cube that he added to the
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structure. He then began to stick his fingers in the wholes on the outer sides of the cubes. He
then held the structure up above his head, lining it up with his eye, and staring up. This is a
common behavior for Ariel and has been observed when using blocks and writing utensils.
Noticing that Ariel was beginning this stimulatory behavior, he was prompted to choose another
center activity. He put away the cubes with assistance and chose a set of rounded blocks which
he often chooses to work with. He began attaching the blocks to the provided base structure.
When one block got stuck in a whole in this base, he grabbed the aids hand and placed it on the
block. The aid verbally prompted Ariel to say help please he repeated help please. Ariel
then began to perseverate on a spinning wheel which is found on the base structure. He was
easily redirected when given one block at a time to add to the structure. The teacher then
prompted the class to clean up their centers. Ariel continued working with the blocks. Then the
aid said goodbye blocks to Ariel and he began cleaning up.
Ariels school has begun a movement break policy during which music is played over the
intercom and students are expected to stand up and participate in a designated movement. Along
with this break, Ariels teacher guides the students in silly movement songs every day for about
30 minutes. This is part of their daily routine and is a favorite with most of the students in the
class. On October 2
nd
Ariel was observed during this movement break. Previously, Ariel would
not independently participate in these songs or dances. However, this observation found Ariel
participating in some slight manner to all of the songs which he has heard since the first day of
school. During the yoga clock song the students stretch their legs out and stretch from side to
side. Ariel independently extended his legs from a crossed leg seat when this song began.
During the butterfly song the students extend and stretch their arms and rest their heads for a
butterfly nap. Ariel independently returned to a cross legged seat and rested his head on his
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hands during the appropriate time in the song. Next the fish song came on which guides the
students through fast transitions from lying on the carpet, swimming, to sitting up riding a bike.
Ariel independently joined the pile of students lying on the carpet. While he did not attempt to
complete the physical transitions he was observed bobbing his head to the rhythm and smiling at
the female classmate lying in front of him as she smiled back. Ariel does not typically interact
with or look at other classmates so this was a new development. In the middle of the fish song
the school movement break movement began. The teacher paused the fish song and the students
were told to stand. Ariel remained lying down on the carpet and he was physically prompted to
stand. When he began standing and the class began the leg lift movement break Ariel called out
pee pee. He had recently used the bathroom so this request was viewed as an escape attempt
so he was told no. The teacher held onto his hand and he kissed it. She let go of his hand and
his behavior was ignored as he was prevented from entering the bathroom. Once the movement
break was over, the teacher started playing the fish song again and Ariel rejoined the other
students on the carpet smiling.
Finally, Ariel was observed during a ST session on October 5. In the classroom Ariels
speech consists mostly of vocalizations and echolalic one word phrases. The one to one attention
and relationship building strategy of the ST session seemed to expand Ariels vocabulary and
give him a functional forum to use this vocabulary. The therapist set up a floor space to work
from and followed Ariels lead. She focused on simple language and worked to expand Ariels
speech from one to two word phrases. Ariel quickly repeated every simple phrase that the
therapist said to him including, fall down, push door, nice doggy, and wheres truck?.
Some of these phrases were later repeated by Ariel during OT in an appropriate way, showing
that he is building vocabulary, not just echoing sounds that he hears. They began by digging for
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a truck in a bin of foam noodles. Ariel quickly lost interest with this activity and started
searching the space for a more desirable toy. During the 25 minute session Ariel played with a
variety of toys including the truck, a slinky dog, people figurines, and a train tack set. Ariel
would spend a few minutes engaged with each toy and then get up and begin to search for a new
object. While this format was observed to be helpful at encouraging Ariel to use his speech, it
has also proven to be a challenge within the class. Since Ariel has begun ST sessions he has
begun moving around the classroom and taking desired objects. Now it is a challenge to get
Ariel to sit and attend to any activity during class, because he will get up at any moment and
switch his attention to a toy, block, or puzzle in another area of the room. Recently he has also
been allowed to leave the room to take toys from the break area in the hallway.
Goals
Currently Ariel is very prompt dependent when completing regular routines in the
classroom such as unpacking his belongings in the morning and washing his hands. Despite his
ability to complete the steps to the various classroom routines, the teaching staff currently finds it
to be more time efficient to consistently prompt and at times assist Ariel with routine actions.
Ariel is becoming more and more isolated within the classroom and is almost never held to the
same expectations of the other students, which is further enabling him to escape non-preferred
tasks. It is recommended that Ariel begin to take ownership over his behavior in class, in
particular with the routines which he is currently able to complete but may need some support to
do so.
Goal: Ariel will increase his independence during classroom routines.


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Objectives:
During the morning routine, Ariel will place his folder in the homework bin, place is
snack in his cubby, hang up his backpack and coat, and sit on the carpet with no more
than 4 verbal or physical prompts.
Ariel will complete his morning routine, as described above, in under 4 minutes in 3 out
of 5 trials.
Intervention
Ariel does not currently have a diagnosis of autism, but he previously did have this
diagnosis. Upon evaluation of the recent observation Ariel exhibits characteristics that are
typically seen in individuals with autism, for example his difficulty with verbal communication,
limited social interactions, and repetitive vocalizations. For this reason Ariels intervention will
include visual supports, which are an evidence based practice for children with autism spectrum
disorder (ASD). Individuals with ASD often have an easier time processing visual images as
opposed to verbal communication (Meadan, Ostrosky, Triplett, Michna, & Fettig, 2011). In
general visual supports have been successful when used with students who have social
developmental delays, behavioral challenges, difficulty with transitioning, and communication
difficulties (Meadan et al., 2011). Meadan et al. (2011) suggest using a visual task analysis to
increase independence with task completion noting that this is particularly helpful for individuals
who have difficulty completing multi step tasks, are easily distracted, or have become dependent
on adult prompts. A visual task analysis will be created to help Ariel complete the morning
routine.
A sign will be made and presented to Ariel during the morning. The sign will have four
steps outlined with simple language and photographs. Ariel knows to walk to his cubby when he
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enters the room but from there he presently does not independently unpack and hang up his
belongings. Therefor the first step on his analysis sign will be homework in bin and will
include a photograph of the homework folder inside the bin. The next step will be snack in
cubby and will include a photo of his snack bag in the appropriate space. The third step is to
Hang up coat and backpack and will include a photo of his belongings hung in the cubby. The
final step will be to sit on carpet including a photo of Ariel sitting in the desired position on the
carpet.
Along with the four step visual task analysis, Ariel will be encouraged to take ownership
of the routine by moving photos for each of the four steps to a matching photo when he
completes the step. For example, after he puts his homework folder in the bin he will move the
photo, which is attached by Velcro, to a card that is sitting next to the homework bin. This card
will be labeled 1 and includes the matching bin photo. Next he will place his snack in the
cubby and then move the photo of his snack bag to a card labeled with a 2once the task is
completed. The 2 card will be hung on his snack cubby. The process will continue until he
moves his final photo onto the 4 card which will be found on the carpet.
Special Considerations
Recently the classroom routine has slightly changed and the teacher asks the students to
first go to their desks to unpack and wait to be called to put their belongings away. The new
routine was very confusing for Ariel. In order to see progress with the intervention, it is
recommended that Ariel be allowed to enter the room first and go straight to his cubby so that he
has a few minutes alone at the cubbies to complete the task analysis.
Motivation and Maintenance
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The intervention is expected to be motivating for Ariel as he will be matching pictures of
himself and his belongings. He enjoys puzzles and matching activities. However, his motivation
should continue to be monitored and in the event that he stops using the task analysis before he
can complete the steps independently then he should be offered a motivator for completion. Data
should be taken on a weekly basis to ensure the effectiveness of the intervention. Steps may
need to be broken down more or may be combined. When Ariel reaches his current objectives
new ones should be made aiming for complete independence during the morning routine.
Baseline Week 1
Baseline data was collected over three days during the morning routine. Duration time
was collected to track the amount of time Ariel took to complete the routine from the moment he
walked in the class to the moment he sat on the carpet. Teacher prompts were also noted.
Verbal prompts were defined as a teacher providing a verbal direction. Physical prompts were
defined as pointing to an item or location or touching Ariels hand. Physical assistance was
defined as partially or completely completing part of the task for Ariel.
The duration of baseline data ranged from 4.02 minutes to 6.27 minutes. The 6.27
minutes resulted from attempting to have Ariel follow the new routine in which the students first
go to their tables to unpack. On day one of baseline Ariel received 13 verbal prompts, 3 physical
prompts, and 3 physical assists within the 4.22 minutes it took him to complete the routine. On
day two Ariel was prompted to participate in the new routine which resulted in a variety of new
behaviors. On day two he only received 6 verbal prompts, 4 physical prompts, and 3 assists.
However, Ariel also began eating his snack at the table once he unpacked it and refused to
complete tasks. On day three, he returned to the more familiar routine which lasted 4.02
minutes. He received 14 verbal prompts, 3 physical prompts, and 1 assist.
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I ntervention I ntroduction Week 2
During the second week Ariel was introduced to the intervention tool so that he could be
taught how to use it. Every morning the task analysis sign was presented to him in the cafeteria.
He seemed to enjoy seeing his photograph and belongings on the sign. Once the students were
brought to the class, the interventionist took Ariel to his cubby with the task analysis sign. She
first pointed out the matching number one card near the homework bin. Ariel was prompted to
put his homework in the bin and was then shown that the photo could be removed from the sign.
Ariel took the photo and independently placed it on the 1 card as he said nice. The snack
step proved to be confusing for him as he wanted to hang up his backpack first. The
interventionist referred to the task analysis and prompted Ariel to remove his snack from the
back pack. Ariel then independently removed the task analysis step and placed it on the 2 card
again saying nice. Ariel then took the 3
rd
task analysis photo and tried to place it on the 3
card. He was stopped and prompted to hang his backpack and coat and was then allowed to
attach the photo to the 3 card. Finally Ariel took the final photo of him sitting on the carpet
and walked to the carpet to excitedly find the final card. He attached the photo and walked
around the class with it, perhaps looking for more cards. During the following two days of
introduction Ariel remembered the process and moved through the steps quickly with minimal
prompts. He was only allowed to attach the photos to their matching cards after a task was
completed, including him sitting on the carpet.
I ntervention Phase Week 3
During the intervention, the duration of Ariels morning routine steadily decreased
starting at 5.24 minutes and ending at 3.45 minutes. A conscious effort was made in the
classroom to limit verbal prompts and instead using physical prompts when needed, primarily
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focused on pointing to a photo or object. On day one of the intervention Ariel received 6 verbal
prompts, 3 physical prompts, and 1 assist. On day two of the intervention phase he received 7
verbal prompts, 4 physical prompts, and no assistance. On day three he received only 2 verbal
prompt, 2 physical prompts, and no assistance. It should be noted that on day 2 of the
intervention when the prompt level rose slightly, Ariel left school early due to illness suggesting
that the extra assistance may have been a result of him not feeling well.
Graphs

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Analysis
The intervention has been successful at improving Ariels independence. The data
clearly shows that verbal prompts have significantly decreased with the use of the intervention.
Physical prompts increased at the beginning of the intervention phase but this was a result of
pointing to the visual task analysis sign to remind Ariel of his task. Most of the physical prompts
given to Ariel occur at the beginning of the routine. Once he gets his backpack open, the
prompts stop. The physical prompts however, were decreased throughout the intervention phase.
Another surprising result was the decrease in duration found by the end of the intervention phase.
Ariel completed his task with less than 4 prompts and in less than 4 minutes on the final day of
the intervention phase, suggesting that he will soon be able to complete his objectives.
Future Recommendations
It is recommended that Ariel continue to use his visual task analysis plan. It is also
recommended that the teacher continue to monitor the tools effectiveness and continue to fade
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physical prompts. If Ariel continues to struggle with the beginning of the routine, it is
recommended that another step be added to prompt Ariel to open his backpack. With continued
use, Ariel should gain more independence during his morning routine. Similar task analysis
signs can be created to support other routines in the classroom like washing hands and circle
time.

Referenced:
Meadan, H., Ostrosky, M. M., Triplett, B., Michna, A., & Fettig, A. (2011). Using visual
supports with young children with autism spectrum disorder. Teaching Exceptional
Children, 43(6), 28-35.