Community Integration & Participation
Community Outing is an opportunity to generalize the child’s learning in a real-life setting. The purpose of doing Community Outings is to take skills from the therapy sessions out into real -life settings to strengthen the skill, expand upon the skill, and/or promote generalization. Community Outings also may be necessary with certain clients if the child consistently struggles in a specific place, such as the doctor’s office, McDonald, or at a playground. To summarize, community participation will allow the child with ASD:
- To gain new experiences
- Interact with different people and environments
- Creates opportunities to generalize learned skills
- Participate in daily living activities
Examples of community outings:
- Going to the Park
- The Grocery Store
- Restaurant
- Car Rides
- Running errands
- Doctor’s Office
Through evidence-based practices targeted skills can be trained in the community towards the desired outcome.
General Examples of Community Outings Skill Trainings:
- Money Exchange: Purchasing items at a store
- Greetings the greeters
- Community Signs (e.g. identifying community signs)
- Play skills (e.g. run, skip, climb, bend, squat, gallop, etc.)
- Eating Skills/ Self Help (e.g. Restaurant)
- Waiting Appropriately/Transitions (e.g. Stores or Malls)
References
Community Participation – University of New Mexico. (n.d.). Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://cdd.health.unm.edu/autismportal/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/15-9_Community-Participation.pdf
Tameika Meadows, B. C. B. A. (1970, January 1). What are community outings? I Love ABA! Retrieved June 12, 2022, from https://www.iloveaba.com/2011/12/community-outings.html