Children and Family Services: Garcia Family

The Garcia family includes Tom (dad) and Glenda (mom). They have four daughters: Natalie (12), Rebecca (10), Pati (8) and Julianna (6). Glenda’s mother, Elena, and Glenda’s adult sister, Victoria, also lives with the Garcia family. Victoria has an intellectual disability.

The Garcia family has recently put in place a family-wide plan for improving positive social interactions and getting chores done around the house. The family identified positive and person-centered life values that are important to everyone. They created plans to teach and practice these social skills together, and discussed a plan for sharing tasks around the house (and recognizing each person for their contributions).

One of the values important to everyone is the care of their home. For example, Julianna signed up for emptying the garbage baskets that are in each person’s bedroom into the kitchen garbage can. Victoria offered to bring the garbage and recycling out to the garage. Each member of the family has a list of specific chores that are their responsibility each week. There is a chart in the kitchen where each family member receives a check mark for completing their tasks related to home care and upkeep. Family members who receive 5 check marks in one week go out for ice cream on Sunday afternoon. Everyone is reminded to thank each other for completing chores.

The two youngest daughters, Pati, Julianna, and Aunt Victoria have difficulty remembering to complete their chores. They often cry and yell when Natalie, Rebecca, and Grandma Elena go out for ice cream on Sunday. Tom and Glenda decided to use a visual reminder to help them remember to do their chores. The family also uses a picture schedule for each of jobs that Pati, Julianna, and Victoria are responsible for completing. Natalie and Rebecca, the two older sisters also provide verbal praise immediately after their siblings complete their task.

Julianna has still been struggling to complete her chores. When others work on their chores, Julianna stays in her room and listens to music. Natalie or Rebecca will often prompt Julianna to bring out the garbage from the different areas, but Julianna yells at them or cries and tries to hide from them. When the others get ice cream on Sundays for completing their chores, Julianne becomes upset and is unhappy to be left out. Tom and Glenda call a meeting with the entire family to discuss with Juliana how to help her complete her chores. The family works with Julianna to complete a functional behavior assessment (FBA). This strategy helps the family understand why Julianna’s hides and doesn’t want to complete her tasks. The FBA confirms that Julianna’s behavior is due to her wish to escape from this task because it often occurs when she is involved in listening to music and she feels that she is forced to give up doing something she feels is important.

Tom and Glenda now give Julianna a choice of when to complete the family chores and whether she will bring out garbage from different areas or help Victoria in taking the garbage outside. They also prompt Julianna to tell Natalie or Rebecca when she will be completing her family chores if she needs a little more time before transitioning from what she is doing. This new approach was very successful. Julianna was excited to be able to go out for ice cream again with her family. Within a few months, Julianna was completing her family chores without any negative social interactions occurring.