Our Preschool Group is Making Moves!
At adaptABILITY, we're excited and proud to offer our preschoolers a supportive and nurturing learning environment through the Preschool Life Skills (PLS) program, developed by Dr. Gregory Hanley. Our goal is to provide young learners with essential social skills that lay a solid foundation for future school success and daily interactions.
What is PLS?
The Preschool Life Skills curriculum enhances preschoolers' abilities in critical social interactions and classroom participation. While it can be effective as part of an intervention plan when challenging behaviors emerge, it's most impactful when used proactively, supporting positive behaviors before problems arise.
Why the PLS?
Research underscores the effectiveness of the PLS approach. The original study by Dr. Hanley and his team in 2007 saw an impressive 70% reduction in problem behaviors and a 400% increase in essential skills. Subsequent studies, including work by Robinson and colleagues in 2019, reaffirmed these findings, particularly in children with developmental disabilities. At adaptABILITY, we've seen firsthand how empowering these skills can be for our preschoolers.
In our preschool group, we focus on three core areas:
Instruction-Following Skills:
Children learn to respond when called by their names, orienting to the speaker, and acknowledging with a "yes."
They master following single-step and multi-step directions, such as passing items to peers, cleaning up toys, and smoothly transitioning from one activity to the next.
Functional Communication Skills:
We teach children to confidently ask for help with tasks enhancing their problem-solving skills.
They also learn ways to gain attention from peers and adults, and making respectful requests.
Tolerance & Friendship Skills:
Our preschoolers practice patience and understanding by calmly saying, "Okay," when asked to wait, developing emotional resilience and tolerance for delays.
They learn empathy and kindness, greeting friends, expressing gratitude, willingly sharing toys and materials, and comforting peers when they seem upset or hurt.
So what’s the take home message?
These skills do not occur without explicit teaching. Evocative situations should not be avoided in schools or homes; they should be introduced thoughtfully, systematically, and when skills can be taught. And when done so, can prevent the development of problem behavior.
