Using Errorless Learning in a Special Education Classroom

Errorless teaching is an amazing strategy to use with children and adults with developmental disabilities. The technique involves ensuring that the individual always responds correctly. During errorless teaching, the individual is always prompted to prevent any mistakes or incorrect responses.

Patrick McGreevy, a BCBA, explains in this article that errorless teaching should be considered in these four specific situations:

"1) with very young children with developmental disabilities, including autism, especially if these children have exhibited a tendency to avoid instructional situations
2) with children or adults who have a history of failure with respect to specific academic tasks or school itself
3) with children or adults with developmental disabilities, who exhibit severe aggressive or self-injurious behavior
4) with children who have experienced any form of abuse."
I use errorless teaching often during direct instruction, but I've also started to use it during independent work for my students who are more reluctant to work independently. I want to share a few tips and ideas for how to make errorless learning activities.

1) Cut sorting tasks in half 
Most special education classrooms have TONS of sorting tasks and activities. A super easy way to make errorless learning task boxes is to simply cut sorting activities in half and only give the student 1 sorting mat. Some of my kiddos are able to do sorting activities with two or more categories, but for my kiddos who need errorless learning, I simply cut the page in half and only give the kiddo 1 category.

2) Make simple matching tasks (all with the same picture)
It's super quick and easy to copy and paste some pictures, clipart or shapes into a document to make an easy errorless matching task. I make mine in word and Powerpoint and I'm able to knock out about 8-10 tasks in 10 minutes, so I promise it's easy! You can grab these errorless learning activities for FREE from my TpT here.

3) Use put-in task boxes
Put-in task boxes are a super easy way to corporate errorless learning. They don't involve any sorting or matching- all kiddos have to do is pick something up and put it into a container or a hole. If you need put-in task box ideas, you can check out these posts:
May put-in and sorting task boxes
New Put-In Task Boxes
Put-in Task Boxes
Spring Task Boxes
Dollar Store Task Boxes

Looking for more printable errorless activitites?

Check out:

Animal Themed Errorless Activities 

Matching & Sorting Mega Bundle