Auburn College of Education professor co-authors book on teaching independent living skills to children with intellectual and developmental disabilities

If Christine Drew had to use one word to summarize the goal of her new book, it would be hope. 

“I want readers to take away practical skills and also a feeling of hope for their child’s future,” said Drew, an assistant professor in Auburn University’s College of Education. “I hope they feel motivated and energized by the exercises in the book and come back to the book again and again for each new routine they work on with their child.”

The book, titled “Spectrum of Independence: How to Teach Your Neurodiverse Child Daily Life Skills,” is set for official launch on April 1, and is co-authored by Drew and Kristin Lombardi – founder and director of Zeal Behavior Analysis, a New York-based practice focused on helping those with autism and other developmental disabilities. 

Drew and Lombardi wrote their book to teach parents the techniques they need to support their neurodiverse child in building independent living skills. 

“This means things that many people take for granted like brushing their teeth, showering, getting dressed, getting ready for school, and making a snack,” she said.

Strategies for independence

The book offers concrete strategies for maximizing the independence of a child or teen with autism, intellectual disabilities, or other forms of neurodiversity. Exercises and downloadable worksheets are rooted in scientifically based behavioral principles and illustrated with vivid, empathic examples. 

Drew said her book has some defined goals. 

“First, we want to have parents to start thinking in concrete ways about what their child’s life will look like as an adult. This can be a scary thing for many parents. Next, we ask parents to assess their participation in their child’s routine because many are very involved, sometimes to a larger extent than they realize.

“Then we provide parents with clear strategies for teaching these incredibly important skills that lead to increased independence. Finally, we teach parents ways to fade themselves out of these routines so their child can be more independent.”

Drew said the book is unique in that it’s written especially for parents to use on their own with concrete activities to complete to build their child’s daily living skills. 

“There are books written for parents of children who have specific disabilities like autism or Down syndrome, but they do not focus solely on daily living skills,” she said. “There are some autism-specific workbooks that require high reading and writing levels and the young adult completes them on their own; these are mostly for teenagers. Many books cover broad areas and don’t have specific and clear activities for parents to complete.”

The Auburn Connection

The idea for the book came about thanks to a connection Drew and Lombardi made through Auburn’s College of Education and its comprehensive transition program for students with intellectual disabilities known as EAGLES (Education to Accomplish Growth in Life Experiences for Success). 

“Kristin and I actually met at an EAGLES-sponsored conference on Auburn’s campus,” Drew said. “We are so grateful for that opportunity to meet and discuss the challenges that parents and students face when they are preparing for college and independent living. Kristin and I listened to the struggles of both program staff and the parents of students attending programs. We found that there was a common goal between them, to support student independence, but a disconnect on when and how to start that preparation.”

As an assistant professor in Auburn’s College of Education, Drew has worked extensively with students with intellectual disability, specifically in the college’s EAGLES program. She said she incorporated her research expertise and experience on the college side of independent living while Lombardi brought her years of work with families in their homes. 

Drew said the book focuses on a process called task analysis, whereby large tasks are broken down into smaller, manageable steps. 

“For many people, toothbrushing isn’t even something on their to do list. It’s just part of the morning routine,” she said. “However, this task is actually made up of many smaller steps: walking to the bathroom, getting out a toothbrush, toothpaste, and a cup, taking the top off the toothpaste, squeezing out an appropriate amount of toothpaste, and so on. For many neurodiverse people or people with disabilities, any of these smaller tasks can cause issues with the larger routine.”

She said task analysis allows parents to pinpoint one task at a time for teaching rather than thinking of the whole process, which can feel overwhelming. She said making a task analysis is useful because it can turn into a checklist with words or pictures that people with disabilities can use to complete tasks without parents having to keep them on track or give repeated reminders.

A challenge to readiness

Most parents, she said, “babyproof” their house at some point. For parents of neurodiverse children or children with disabilities, they may still have some things in their home that aren’t totally accessible for their child. So, Drew asks parents to think about these potential barriers to independence and how they can change the environment to support their child.

“For example, if your child is working on what we would call the afternoon routine, parents can through that routine and making sure that it’s clear where their child’s backpack, shoes, and jacket go,” she said. “That could mean installing hooks or cubbies with pictures of their belongings, so they know where to place them. For hand washing, it might mean getting a no-touch soap dispenser in your bathroom if your child has coordination struggles or pumps the soap more or less than they need to. Similarly, if your child needs to come get you to get an afternoon snack, it might be a good idea to move the snacks to a lower shelf or drawer so they can access it themselves, building toward independence.”

Drew said the book is meant to support parents and have them engage in a process of assessing both their own and their child’s readiness, creating a task analysis, documenting routines to determine how often the parent is helping, or prompting, their child, and finally fading the parent’s support out of the routine. 

“This takes time and focused effort on their part,” she said. “We acknowledge that. However, we ask parents to focus on the long term. Yes, it takes longer to teach your child to wash their own hands, but we want parents to think about what their and their child’s life could be like if they could complete that skill independently. We tried to balance what we know — that parents are dealing with so much on a daily basis — and what we also know is possible — that for many children, their lives can be more independent.” 

To purchase “Spectrum of Independence: How to Teach Your Neurodiverse Child Daily Life Skills,” go online to Amazon or the Guilford Press.