When is it Optimal to Teach New Skills and Behaviours? (5 mins)

Remember to start activities by following your child’s lead, or by introducing a predictable pattern to an activity (e.g., singing a verse of a waiata a few times until your child is familiar with it) without putting any demands on your child – that is, without using the ABC model to teach any new skills. It is important to establish an enjoyable activity together first, and identify your child’s focus of attention, before you start teaching. Once you have used the strategies from Module 1 and Module 2 to be accepted into your child’s game, you can then use the ABCs to build social interactions into the activity, and encourage other target behaviours.

Provide lots of opportunities for your child to practice new behaviours and skills during your interactions together and offer a variety of different skills for your child to try (e.g., communication, social skills, dressing, preparing food, fine and gross motor skills). This should be balanced with tasks and behaviours that your child already knows how to do, so that they remain interested and motivated for the shared activity without becoming frustrated. As a general rule of thumb, a good balance is 60/40, with new learning opportunities occurring 60% of the time, and opportunities to practise or engage in well-known tasks 40% of the time.

It is important to ensure that your child is motivated and that you have their attention when teaching new skills or behaviours. Tamariki are not always motivated to learn new things, especially if the task is difficult or related to a non-preferred activity. However, some skills (e.g., self-care skills such as brushing teeth or washing hands) are essential to health and independence and so are important for your child to start to learn and practise. The strategies outlined in Module 1 and Module 2 (e.g., making experiences interesting and exciting for your child by incorporating their preferences and games) can be used to enhance your child’s motivation for learning. In addition, the strategies outlined in this module (e.g., breaking tasks into smaller, manageable steps, and then teaching these steps with the support of clear antecedents [e.g., visual supports such as ‘first-then’], prompting, and positive consequences) can facilitate learning. Positive consequences are particularly important for motivating your child to engage in behaviours they are less willing to try; generally, the more difficult the behaviour, the more fun and rewarding the consequence should be.

Provide clear and consistent cues and consequences for your child’s behaviour; however, if you find the strategies you are using are not successful in teaching new behaviour, then vary the strategies you are using (e.g., try using a visual support alongside a verbal instruction, or a different positive consequence). Remember to make learning experiences as fun for your child as possible, and to set them up for success by prompting them as needed to achieve their goals.

Continuing looking for ways to follow your child’s lead to embed learning opportunities within play and every day routines; for example, building a tower together may create teaching moments about following instructions, giving and taking objects, imitation or requesting. If your child is hungry and motivated to eat, then having a snack together can provide lots of opportunity for language exposure such as labelling food and cutlery, describing actions (e.g., eat, chomp, nibble, chew, bite, scoop, cut, push), and using adjectives (e.g., big/ small, hot/cold, colours, textures) as well as imitation skills (e.g. copying each other eating in different ways), and fine motor development (e.g., modelling and prompting your child to use a spoon or fork).