It’s 11:30am as I write this, and I could really go for a grilled cheese right now. Nothing fancy. But one with slices of cheese that may or may not be real cheese; white bread, like Wonder Bread; keep the crust; cut into triangles. If that sounds good to you, go ahead, make it before you continue. I’ll wait….

How did it go? Did you make it how I do? First, toast the bread; then, put one slice of cheese between the bread; then, cut half into triangles; next, put another slice of cheese between the bread; finally, cut the other half into triangles.

Wait, that’s not right. The sandwich would be a mess. There is a logical sequence to making that sandwich, and mine is not.

Many things we do as humans involve an order, a sequence. A chain. A chain is a sequence of behaviors, potentially performed in a specific order, which produces a product. Making a sandwich, vacuuming the floor, driving to the liquor store. These are all examples of behavior chains.

Think about vacuuming (I know, exciting). What is “vacuuming”? It’s not really one specific thing. Check this out:

1. Walk to the closet
2. Open closet
3. Pick up vacuum
4. Carry vacuum to room
5. Pull out vacuum cord
6. Plug cord into wall

Six steps. And we haven’t even started vacuuming yet! This is how behavior chains work. They involve a series of steps (discrete behaviors) that come together to produce something else (in this case, a clean floor). Each specific step can be taught, assessed, monitored, etc. For example, you can do all these steps, except for Step 5 – well, we might teach that specific behavior. Or you can do all the steps up to Step 5 – we might then teach you how to “add on” Step 5 to the end of the chain, and once mastered, we add Step 6. We also may have flexibility in the order of events. We can’t do Step 6 until we do Step 5; but we could do Step 5 before we do Step 4.

We might do forward – we first teach only Step 1, then done! Then, we teach Steps 1 and 2, and done! Then, Steps 1, 2, and 3 – you get the idea. It’s a cool way to go “one step at a time,” ensuring that you learn each step before adding the next.

We might do backward – we teach you only to do Step 6 and done! Then, we teach you Steps 5 and 6, and done! It’s a creative way to teach tasks that aren’t so fun. If you hate vacuuming, then imagine if we only ask you to ‘plug cord into wall,’ and done – that’s not bad!

We might do total task – we teach every step in the sequence. If you know how to do some of the skills, this might be best, since all we need to do is ‘link’ them back together.

Next time you make a sandwich, think about each individual step you take. You’ll find just how many steps are involved! Who would’ve though that a simple sandwich can be so complex!