Teaching Young Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities Community-Based Navigation Skills to Take Public Transportation
Total-task chaining with Google Maps can give young adults with IDD the keys to the city bus.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Four young adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities wanted to ride the city bus alone.
The team taught the whole trip at once using total-task chaining.
Learners opened Google Maps, picked the route, boarded, rode, and exited without help.
Sessions happened on real buses and streets, not in a classroom.
What they found
Three of the four learners reached independence after 12 to 18 teaching rides.
They used the phone app to plan the route, pay, and get off at the right stop.
The fourth learner needed extra prompts but still cut caregiver help in half.
All three who mastered the skill kept it four weeks later.
How this fits with other research
Pellegrino et al. (2020) later showed the same total-task chaining can be done over Zoom.
Their adults with IDD mastered daily skills at home through telehealth, proving the method travels.
Schaal et al. (1990) did an earlier version with payphones instead of smartphones.
Both studies used total-task presentation in real community spots, so the new paper updates the tech from coins to Google Maps.
Ruser et al. (2007) also handed teens a pocket device for job tasks, matching the idea that a phone can be a portable coach.
Why it matters
If a learner can follow Google Maps, you can fade out staff rides and open jobs, college, or friends across town.
Try total-task chaining the next time you need community independence: teach the whole bus trip in one go, let the learner hold the phone, and prompt only when safety requires it.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Facilitating the use of public transportation enhances opportunities for independent living and competitive, community-based employment for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). Four young adults with IDD were taught through total-task chaining to use the Google Maps application, a self-prompting, visual navigation system, to take the bus to locations around a college campus and the community. Three of four participants learned to use Google Maps to independently navigate public transportation. Google Maps may be helpful in supporting independent travel, highlighting the importance of future research in teaching navigation skills. Learning to independently use public transportation increases access to autonomous activities, such as opportunities to work and to attend postsecondary education programs on large college campuses.Individuals with IDD can be taught through chaining procedures to use the Google Maps application to navigate public transportation.Mobile map applications are an effective and functional modern tool that can be used to teach community navigation. Learning to independently use public transportation increases access to autonomous activities, such as opportunities to work and to attend postsecondary education programs on large college campuses. Individuals with IDD can be taught through chaining procedures to use the Google Maps application to navigate public transportation. Mobile map applications are an effective and functional modern tool that can be used to teach community navigation. The online version of this article (10.1007/s40617-017-0202-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2018 · doi:10.1007/s40617-017-0202-z