What educational strategy uses a step-by-step breakdown of a routine to teach a sequence of actions?

What educational strategy uses a step-by-step breakdown of a routine to teach a sequence of actions?

• A. Task analysis
• B. Backward chaining
• C. Chaining
• D. Prompting

Answer: (A)

Task analysis is the process of taking a routine or activity and breaking it into a series of small, discrete steps. This lets the learner practice and master each action in order, which is especially helpful for students with severe to profound disabilities who benefit from clear, observable steps and predictable prompts. In teaching a sequence, you identify every action needed to complete the task—such as turning on the faucet, wetting hands, applying soap, scrubbing, rinsing, and turning off the faucet—and teach those steps one at a time, often using prompts that fade as the learner gains independence. Because the approach focuses on a structured, stepwise plan to guide the entire routine, it directly fits the description of a step-by-step breakdown used to teach a sequence of actions. Other strategies like backward chaining or chaining involve different ways of ordering or delivering supports, but they don’t define the routine itself as a planned sequence broken into steps in the same way.

Task analysis is the process of taking a routine or activity and breaking it into a series of small, discrete steps. This lets the learner practice and master each action in order, which is especially helpful for students with severe to profound disabilities who benefit from clear, observable steps and predictable prompts. In teaching a sequence, you identify every action needed to complete the task—such as turning on the faucet, wetting hands, applying soap, scrubbing, rinsing, and turning off the faucet—and teach those steps one at a time, often using prompts that fade as the learner gains independence. Because the approach focuses on a structured, stepwise plan to guide the entire routine, it directly fits the description of a step-by-step breakdown used to teach a sequence of actions. Other strategies like backward chaining or chaining involve different ways of ordering or delivering supports, but they don’t define the routine itself as a planned sequence broken into steps in the same way.