Shoebox Tasks – Based on TEACCH Methodology
January 23, 2009 by Abby
Filed under Educational Treatments
ShoeBox Tasks were created by Ron Larsen while he was working as an autism therapist using the TEACCH method. The TEACCH method of teaching children with autism focuses on fostering independent work skills by structuring the environment, schedules and tasks in such a way to make them highly visual and closed-ended to ensure high rates of success. The ShoeBox tasks are individual work tasks of varying complexity. Their activities include put-in, pull-apart/put-in, stacking, sorting, fine motor coordination, pre-academic, motivational and pre-vocational tasks.
In addition to selling these Shoebox tasks, the company is also a vocational setting for people with autism who working on assembling and packaging the materials. They use the same teaching methodologies in their workshop and individualize each employee’s work station and work schedule to best meet their needs. Everything is very structured and visual to maximize independent work.
Check out these videos of the ShoeBox tasks and the ShoeBox Task Workshop.
ShoeBox Tasks for Children with Autism
ShoeBox Tasks Vocational Workshop
Although I agree that fostering independence is very important, I’m reticent to encourage the use of these types of products. It is important, I believe, to teaching people with autism to be independent, but my fear with types of products like this is that teachers may rely on them as their sole method of teaching and create a classroom full of drones that are very quiet and compliant but are not necessarily learning and growing. By no means am I saying that the TEACCH method and practices or the ShoeBox tasks are bad. My point is that I fear that “busy-work” tasks will over-take the educational programming of students because they are easy and when the student is successful there may be a desire to continue to build on that to the detriment of other skills.
When I am creating programs for kids I like to make sure there is a balance between independence building, social skills, academic skills, and naturalistic learning. To help my students learn, grow, and prepare them for real-life and the real-world they need a full and holistic program which addresses all their needs and also treats them with respect and dignity by focusing on their likes and dislikes, not just routine busy work.
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I’ve just watched your shoebox video and I am very impressed. I am getting a 5 year old boy who has autism and am looking for ideas. He has recently been made a small cornered space in his Reception class where he is just visiting occasionally. He is now taking children to his new area. I work in main stream environment and really want to try my best for him. Obviously I haven’t got much detail about what he can do as yet, but the idea of the shoe box and the concepts of matching, stacking, fine motor tasks as well as motivational tasks could be adapted to his immediate needs. It has really given me something to find out and again an avenue to start from. He does have a visual timetable aswell. Any bursting ideas to get me started.
Dear Sandra, Thank you so much for your comment. Using structured activities and visual schedules can be very effective for children when they’re in the general education classroom (mainstream) or in any other setting for that matter. When designing activities, it will be important to base them on the activities being completed by the other children in the classroom. Rather than having the student complete an alternate activity, you would adapt/modify the assignment in some way to meet the needs of the student. This is important because it addresses the idea that “being there” (being in the general education classroom) is not enough in and of itself… the child needs to be involved in and participate in the general education curriculum to derive the most benefit from the inclusive environment.
When adapting materials to meet the needs of students it is important to identify what all the students are required to complete and then modify the requirements based on the abilities of the child. For instance, if the class is completing an assignment in which they have to cut out pictures and paste them onto a different page in categories and the target child is unable to cut effectively and efficiently you might modify the task by cutting out all but one for the student ahead of time. This minor modification can mean huge success because the difficulty level of the assignment has been modified to meet the needs and capabilities of the student. For more information about modifying curriculum, I refer to the information provided on the Center for Applied Special Technology (CAST) website about using Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to differentiate instruction.
Once you’ve modified the assignment, you can use the “shoebox” type of activity setup and a visual schedule for the student to clearly define what activities need to be done and provide reinforcement for completion of activities. Let me know if there is any way I can help you once you know the student a little better. On a final note, don’t forget to thoroughly read his Individualized Education Program and work to address his annual goals when planning instruction. This will help support the special education teacher by focusing instruction and attention on the students highest areas of need which will increase the likelihood that he will meet the annual goals and generalize the skills being taught.
Does any one else have input on this topic?
All my best,
Abby Twyman, M.Ed., BCBA
Editor, http://www.autism-community.com
I haven’t looked deeply into the Shoebox tasks so I can’t really comment. I’m sure using some of it would be helpful but, like you said, as long as it isn’t relied too heavily upon. Some of the concepts I have heard before..
Abby you made such a good point about the best way in teaching children – it’s a standard that should be adopted for all children everywhere. I feel I was really let down by (most) of the education system when growing up – not to mention other things. Some children can slip through the cracks because they are compliant, and/or aim to please, which leads to bigger problems in later life. I do worry that most adults just want children to follow in line instead of creating individuals.