The Effects of Backward Chaining and Most-To-Least Prompting on Daily Living Skills of Children with Developmental Disabilities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of backward chaining and most-to-least prompting on the performance of daily living skills of children with developmental disabilities. Two second-grade students from the special middle school participated in this study. Daily living skills, organizing one's bag, shoes, and jacket when the students arrive at the school in the morning, was selected as the dependent variable. The backward chaining and the most-to-least prompting provided as interventions were selected as the independent variables. For observation and measurement, the change in the performance rate was examined after analyzing daily living skills in individual 6-10 steps for each child. In this case, the performance rate was calculated as a percentage by dividing the number of task analysis steps performed by the child by the total number of task analysis steps. Using a multiple probe baseline design across behavior, the data of baseline, intervention, and maintenance phase were collected and functional relation was verified. The result of visual analysis revealed that the daily living skills of children with developmental disabilities have improved effectively by the backward chaining and the most-to-least prompting, and these intervention effects were maintained even after a period of time. Discussions, limitations, and suggestions regarding the overall study were described.