David W. Test and Fred Spooner
The role of community-based instruction for adults with mental retardation is changing. Community-based instructin was once viewed as a vehicle for getting people ?ready? for community interaction. Today, community-based instruction is considered one of a number of support options available to people with mental retardation as they seek to improve the quality of their lifes. This philosofical change about the place of community-based training also directly impacts on the role of the professional. Direct-service staff are now charged with helping to support an individual´s dreams, rather then training to remediate skill deficiencies. This is not to say that community-based instruction is no loger important. It is! In fact, we believe that community-based instruction is one of the major supports direct-service staff can provide. However, as a support, community-based instruction must: a) be based on individual choice; b) focus on specific, immediate outcomes that enhance an individual´s community participation and quality of life; and c) be effective but not attract undue attention to the person being trained.
This is not an easy task. The purpose of this text has been to provide direct-service staff with practical strategies for developing community-based training that meet these new guidelines. To help with this task, we have provided the reader with a Checklist for Developing Community-Based Training. The checklist outlines a four-step process for developing quality task analyses and instructional strategies: a) selecting a goal; b) writing the task analysis; c) selecting instructional strategies; and d) collecting data for decision making. Within each of the four steps, the checklist asks critical questions that a trainer can use to develop a quality community-based training package.
Finally, we presented two case studies that illustrated the strategies presented earlier in the text. In the first example, community-based instruction was developed to help Sarah achieve her goal of learning how to grocery shop. In the second case study, Jean learned to wash clothes at their apartment´s laundromat. Both instructional support as menas of achieving the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life for people with disabilities.
