การพัฒนาทักษะชีวิตประจำวันของเด็กที่มีความบกพร่องทางสติปัญญาระดับเรียนได้ โดยวิธีการฝึกตามหลักการวิเคราะห์งาน ที่เน้นความร่วมมือระหว่างโรงเรียนและครอบครัว

Abstract

This research aims to 1) develop activity plans for daily life skill training in three aspects: self-assistance skills, family helping skills, and skills in effective use of leisure time, using task analysis principles, for the educable mentally retarded children; 2) study the outcomes of the activity plan implementation in terms of development of the daily life skills together with social and emotional skills; 3) study the participation of the caretakers in the children’s families in the training process. The experimental cases are three educable mentally retarded children attending Wat Chang Kien School, Office of Chiang Mai Educational Service Area 1, during the academic year 2007. They are purposively selected using the specific selection criteria. Three caretakers in these children’s families also take parts in this study.

The tools used in this research are composed of the tools for selecting the children as the experimental cases which include the survey forms of daily life skills on the three aspects, the interviews with the caretakers in the families, the behavior records on the children’s basic capabilities as shown in their progress reports, and the observation forms of the children’s daily life skills. The tools used for the development of the children are the activity plans designed by using forward chaining task analysis principles for training skills of tying the shoelace, skills of laundry, skills of painting and creating sculptures with artificial clay. The tools used for data collection during and after the experiment are the behavior observation forms for the children’s daily life skills on the three aspects and the interview form to be used with the caretakers in the children’s families. The data were analyzed using frequency (f), means ( ), the evaluative comparison between the observed results and the set criteria of success, and content analysis.

Research Findings 1. For the development of the activity plans to be used for training of the three daily life skills, the researcher firstly developed original or master plans each with equal steps for all three children. These are used in the workshop for assistant researchers and the caretakers in the families so that they gain knowledge and understanding in training according to the task analysis principles and as a result, are able to correctly train the children in the same direction. However, when implementing the activity plans among the mentally educable retarded children who are the experimental cases, the findings show that the plans need more flexibility, further adjustments, additions or reductions for certain procedures of each task to make the training steps more appropriate to the potentials of each child. 2. The results of using the developed activity plans on the training of the three daily life skills by using the task analysis principles with forward chaining point out that the developed activity plans can help the experimental children gain the three daily life skills. All of them are able to pass the success criteria at Level 4, which means they can accomplish the tasks correctly without help for three times consecutively. Each of the samples, however, needs different length of time and frequencies of practices. The total period of times for the training stands between three and five months depended on potential differences among the children, the levels of cooperation during training, and the intensity levels of the use of media, techniques and the reinforcements by the caretakers in the families. When testing the abilities of the three daily life skills of the children one week after they finish the training, the researcher finds that the samples can perform all the tasks related to the skills they have learned. In terms of the outcomes relating to the development of social skill and emotional control of the children, the research shows that these children have better development, which appears in their higher level of confidence and concentration in working on the tasks. They dare to ask questions or talk to the trainers or teachers, and some of them can advise their friends with special needs in practicing the daily life skills, and as the result, they gain better acceptance among their friends. 3. The observation on the caretakers’ participation in the training of the three daily life skills for these children reveals that the caretakers from the three families offer cooperation in constructing the activity plans, participate in the training, make necessary adjustments for the plan, and join the evaluation sessions. These caretakers participate in the sessions by sharing their learning, adjusting the training methods and giving their reflections on the lessons fully with trust. It is an important factor that influences the success of the training of the three daily life skills for children with educable mental retardation status in this research. This research produces deeper understanding for the teachers and children’s caretakers in the families about the potentials of the educable mentally retarded children. The teachers and caretakers perceive the importance of developing the children through full cooperation with relevant sectors especially the schools and the families, the importance of accepting opinions of every participant as well as giving or sharing information to others, openly providing the chances for the caretakers to participate in identifying the training objectives, learning contents, and adjustment of activities and training steps. Besides, to give successful training, emphasis must be put on repetitive training, revisions of the previous learning steps with children’s actual performance every time before next training steps, continuous measurement and evaluation, usage of concrete media as well as usage of familiar things and the rehearsal of many techniques in training including positive reinforcement that correspond to the needs and preferences of each individual child. More importantly, this research builds the awareness among the caretakers of the families for the possible development of the children. They have pride and good feeling to be parts of this research, and are happy to be the leaders in promoting cooperation between the schools and the families for further development of the children.