Tasks Galore for the Real World

This book is valuable for preparing your exceptional student for independence in the real world. Full color pictorial series of visually structured tasks teach domestic, vocational and other independent living skills for individuals with autism. Applicable to school, home and community, this book is designed for older children, adolescents, and adults. 240 photos.

Reviewed by Maureen Bennie
Director, Autism Awareness Centre

Tasks Galore for the Real World teaches domestic, vocational, and other independent living skills to the adolescent and young adult. Applicable to home, school, community and training sites, this book uses a functional approach to tasks. Tasks are created using multi-modal presentations, which use visual, tactile and motor movement. Using the functional approach is important because individuals with autism will fool you with their ability to memorize concepts without really knowing how to apply the concepts. An example of this would be an individual can demonstrate subtraction on a worksheet but may not know to apply the same principal for making change from a purchase.

The book not only looks at the tasks themselves but also shows how to create physical environment boundaries (here is where I eat my lunch, store my things), a daily schedule, and a work system or “to do” list.

Chapters deal with domestic skills such as sorting laundry and housecleaning, independent functioning skills, vocational skills, and job sites. There are 240 tasks outlined that have visual structure components embedded in them. Each chapter divides the skills into chores/jobs. An example of the visual structure for cleaning windows shows a photo of the window with several colored sticky dots on it to indicate where and how much window cleaner to spray. In the vocational skills section, a way to stock items on a shelf would be to have a photo of that item on the shelf with the correct number of sticky dots to indicate how many of that item should be on the shelf.

Tasks Galore for the Real World helps the individual to have success both at home and in the workplace by teaching the skills through visuals, a learning strength for people with autism. The ideas in this book can be adapted to different work environments because the principals for teaching success remain the same. Parents, teachers, employers and work or adult supervisors will find this book a useful tool to teach practical skills.