Carry over and generalization

We want our learners to generalize their skills across all environments and people. Following rules is no different! Creating and teaching rules and routines do not have to be taught in a lecture style. They can be taught with fun and games! Having fun and pairing the lessons are proactive strategies to teaching rules. My team and I don’t want to wait until a learner is having a difficult time or engaging in maladaptive behaviors to teach rules and routines. A few proactive ways to carry over the skills and lessons are:

Games that help with rule following

There are many ways to work on rule following and other executive functioning skills needed to participate in a small or large group activity. Some ways and areas are through pivotal response training, discrete trial training, role playing, video modeling, and much more! My team and I like to use physically active games as well as board games to help incorporate skills and practice for rule following.

Board Games

• Chutes and ladders: turn taking, counting a die, waiting, rule differences between a slide and a ladder
• Battleship: waiting, anticipation, taking turns, understanding loss, number and letter identification
• Don’t break the ice
• Union attack
• Yeti in my spaghetti
• Zingo

Social Games

• Candy land
• Simon says
• I spy
• Red light green light
• Red rover
• Scavenger hunt

Resources To Use

Teaching the rules of the classroom, in a clinic, in home, or within the community is a functional life skill that all learners should be taught according to their learning style. If a learner benefits from visuals, they should have access to visual reminders. If a learner benefits from sensory input, they should have access to a sensory diet. We have the responsibility to set our learners up for success in all areas of their life and independence. Some of the following resources from The Autism Helper have benefitted many of my classes!