street crossing

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I think you should consider the age a NT child learns to cross a

street....they probably start learning at around age 5 and are independent with

the skill

at age 7 or 8 for a non-busy street. For a busy street or highway that

independed street crossing age would be much higher. There is a lot of

judgement

and decision making involved with street crossing so teaching this skill is

difficult. I would consider the child's mental age and I would spend years

prompting and supervising the child with street crossing. As you said, the

skill of

street crossing needs to be 100% mastered and generalized before allowing the

child to do the skill independently.

I do think writing out a task analysis yourself would be a great place to

start....stop 6 inches before the edge of the curb....wait for an adult to stand

next to you....look to the left, to the right and to the left.....if no cars

in sight (I would start on a very quiet street and make the criteria No moving

cars), step off the curb and proceed quickly across the street with the adult.

You could also try social skill homemade picture books and videomodeling to

begin to build this skill.

Good Luck!

Barbera