Specifying Criteria for Meaningful Versus Nonmeaningful Activities

The first step in an evidence-based process for moving a center’s participant activities from nonmeaningful to meaningful is having applicable criteria available to help center staff distinguish between the two types of activities. This chapter provides five guidelines for specifying meaningful activities. The guidelines were derived from existing literature on identifying meaningful instructional tasks for adults with severe disabilities and applied behavior analysis (ABA) research that socially validated the guidelines. The guidelines also coincide with the previously described professional consensus about meaningful activities for adults with autism. Each guideline specifies that for any task in which an adult with autism is engaged in a center-based program to be meaningful, the activity necessary to complete the task and the materials involved in performing the task must meet the guideline for meaningfulness. Examples of how each guideline can be used to differentiate meaningful versus nonmeaningful activities and materials are likewise provided.