Chaining is the process of teaching an individual a new skill in sequential form and reinforcing each step along the way. For example, when I tell my student to put his lunch box away the steps involved are: 1) open the lunch box, 2) put all the food containers in the sink, 3) close the lunch box, and 4) put the lunch box away in the cupboard.
There are 2 different types of chaining: forward and backward. Forward chaining is the process of teaching a new skill by beginning with the first step in the "chain", while backward chaining is the process of teaching a new skill in reverse order, or starting with the last link in the "chain".
Can anyone give any examples of this? Are any of you using these skills on your students or can you describe ways that these types of chains may be effective in your classrooms?
2 comments:
I find backward chaining extremely effective with adaptive living skills, like washing hands, going to the bathroom, dressing, or chores.
Walking the client through all the steps, except the last, and providing reinforcement after the last step (which is naturally the END of the chain--and a natural place to provide reinforcement), is extremely effective.
I have used a variation on chaining in teaching academic tasks and have found that demonstrating what the final product should look like is a very effective means of motivating students to complete projects and other tasks. For example, I did a brochure with my students and had several examples of previous work as well as a task list written the order in which they needed to complete each task in order to achieve the final product. This helped them visualize what they were working towards and supported them in each step along the way.
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