Introduction to the Assessment of Functional Living Skills (The AFLS ®): Administration, Analysis, and Program Development for Individuals of All Ages with a Diagnosis of Autism or Other Developmental Disabilities
The AFLS ® introductory workshop will provide participants with the knowledge, skills, and tools to analyze and track a learner’s functional living skills and develop an individualized teaching program to help a learner become less dependent upon assistance from others. Individuals of all ages need to learn many critical functional living skills in order to participate successfully in a wide range of home, school, and community-based activities.
The Assessment of Functional Living Skills (The AFLS ® ) system reviews more than 1,900 skills in 66 functional areas such as basic self-care, school participation skills, navigating the community, making purchases, seeking assistance as required, preparing meals, helping with household chores, participating in social and leisure activities, and much more!
Participants will learn how to conduct an AFLS assessment and transfer the results to the skills tracking grids. An emphasis will be placed on helping parents, other caregivers, and educators identify and prioritize functional skills the learner needs to develop. Additionally, practical and easy-to- implement methods will be discussed to help learners develop these skills without taking more time than is currently required to perform these tasks. By identifying and prioritizing some learning targets for daily activities, a quick and significant impact on an individual’s ability to perform specific skills independently can be made.
A major focus of the workshop will be placed on learning how to break down tasks into easy-to- teach steps (task analysis). Participants will learn strategies to support and enhance the learner’s motivation to participate in the tasks in addition to data collection examples and tips. The presentation also includes demonstrations of teaching methods for using – and then fading – prompts as learners acquire skills. A review of videos showing parents teaching various functional living skills to their children in the home will also be provided.
Participants will be able to:
- Identify the differences between functional and basic/conceptual skills
- Identify 6 broad clusters of functional skills
- Identify at least 66 specific skill repertoire areas of functional skills
- Identify safety precautions that must be implemented when assessing a learner’s functional skills
- Score the AFLS, complete the tracking grids for learners, and update an existing assessment
- Conduct a task analysis of functional and common daily activities
