A Coordinated Program to Transfer Self-Management Skills from School to Home

Abstract

This report describes a self-management skills intervention that was initiated at school, and later continued in the home environment with different tasks. The intervention involved four high school students with moderate to severe mental retardation and was analyzed using a multiple-baseline protocol. The students were taught to use picture schedules to initiate a series of behavioral tasks upon arriving at school each morning. When each student mastered the picture schedule at school, s / he was taught to use a picture schedule to do a series of chores immediately upon arriving home from school each day. After the training, all the subjects successfully used the schedules at school and at home, and the results held until the start of summer vacation. Immediately after summer vacation and at a follow-up one month later, the subjects were 100% successful using the picture schedules at school and home.