Picture the following scene.  You are ready for lunch and all you can think about is making a grilled cheese sandwich.  What are all the steps involved in that process?  

1) Locate the bread

2) Locate the cheese and butter

3) Open the bread and take out two slices

4) Spread the butter on both sides

5) Put the cheese on the bread

6) Put the pieces of bread and cheese together, etc.

...well you get the idea. 

In behavior analysis, this process is called a task analysis--and it can transform your life.

When teaching children, we often use task analyses to teach daily living skills such as brushing teeth or handwashing, but most behavior chains (skills that involve multiple behaviors) can be broken down into a task analysis.  This includes organizational behaviors such as standard operating procedures, as well as executive functioning skills such as decision making and problem solving. 

So how can this transform your life?  The biggest way a task analysis can transform your life is by combating that overwhelming feeling you have when you have a large project, or a goal for skill acquisition that you need to shape in a client or staff member.  By breaking the large skill or project into a sequence, a task analysis can help you focus on one step at a time and organize the process.  By breaking it down into small component parts, you can also collect more accurate data to measure skill acquisition, thus giving you information on the specific steps you need to focus on, as opposed to having to focus on the whole large process.

Have a strategy to share on how task analyses have transformed your life?  Comment below!

Want more ideas on skills you can focus on for a task analysis?  Check out our ebooks!

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