Teach Your Child to Wash Their Hands with Task Analysis
If you want to teach your child proper handwashing techniques, we recommend you use a task analysis. A task analysis is a step-wise written outline of all the steps required to complete a specific skill. The task analysis we recommend is to prompt you, not your child. After all, we want you to shape-up independent behavior and mastery of a critical self-care skill. Please note that increasing the frequency of practice may facilitate faster acquisition of this skill.
First, to create the task analysis, engage in the behavior yourself, and as you do, write down all of the steps involved to complete the task. Your list may look something like this if you are washing hands in the bathroom:
Turn on the light
Turn on the hot water
Turn on the cold water
Put hands together, with palms facing each other for a vocal count of 5 (1-1000, 2- 1000, etc.) as you rub your child’s hands back and forth
Put your right hand on the pump on the soap and left hand under the pump
Pump the soap three times
Rub hands palms facing 5x while vocally counting 1-1000, 2-1000, 3-1000, etc.
Rub the back of the left hand 5x while counting to 5 aloud
Rub the back of the right hand 5x while counting to 5 aloud
Place both hands, palms facing, under the water while counting to 5 aloud
Turn off the hot and cold water
Pull the towel off of the towel rack
Hold the towel in your right hand and dry, alternating between the back and front of the left hand while counting to 10 aloud
Hold the towel in your left hand and dry, alternating between the back and front of the right hand while counting to 10 aloud
Fold the towel in half
Using two hands, put the towel back on the towel rack
Turn the light off
Exit the bathroom
Your list may differ from ours, and that’s fine. When teaching this skill to your child, guide through the entire sequence at first. After guiding your child through the whole progression a few times, remove assistance for the last step in the chain; this is called “backward chaining.” Then, if your child completes the last step independently, during the next opportunity to practice, remove assistance for the last two steps in the sequence. Continue removing support from the end of the chain to the first until your child can demonstrate the skill independently. Good luck!