Course Overview

This course is part of the series of online courses called “Beyond Behavior: The Cognitive Abilities and Intervention Strategies (CAIS)”. These courses focus on relating to a person with cognitive challenges or distressing behavior. They explore how to reduce distress (including frustration and stress for you and for a person you are interacting with) and distressing situations by looking beyond a person’s behavior to this person’s cognitive abilities, since changes in a person’s cognitive abilities can frequently cause distress and changes in behavior. These courses look at effects of changes in the brain on cognitive abilities (for example, the ability to think, imagine, and to understand and respond to your surroundings), and how changes in cognitive abilities affect a person’s behavior and emotions, their ability to communicate and perform tasks, and their sensitivity to the behavior of others.

This course is Module V: the task and daily routines. This course also uses the CAIS Questions to Ask and CAIS Intervention Strategies, a guide to supporting a person and their cognitive abilities. It shows examples specific to modification of tasks and daily routines. 

This course is for anyone who interacts with a person, assists with a task, or advises (or supervises) someone who does. You do not need specialized expertise or training to use the CAIS or to take the online course.

  • Duration: 1.5 hours
  • Credit Hours: MCBAP-R (0.0) MCBAP-S (0.0) Mi-CEC (0.0) Nursing (0.0)
This module has been designed to conform to the WCAG 2.0 AA accessibility standards.
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This course is only assignable via your agency.
This course is unavailable for direct enrollment, please contact the Community Mental Health Association of Michigan.

Topics Covered

  1. Describe how the structure of a task and daily routines of a person play a major role in this person’s ability to perform a task, communicate, and feel competent and comfortable.
  2. List (using the CAIS) six concepts regarding interventions that modify the task and daily routines to meet the needs and use the strengths of a person’s cognitive abilities.
  3. List questions to ask to better understand how well the structure of a task and daily routines support a person’s cognitive abilities, including the questions listed in the CAIS Task and Daily Routines Questions to Ask.
  4. List appropriate intervention strategies for a person’s cognitive strengths and needs by using the CAIS Task and Daily Routines Intervention Strategies.

Additional Considerations

Have you wondered why a person acts the way they do? Or why a person seems to get upset over nothing? Or how to get a person to do something when you are in a hurry? If so, this course is for you. It takes a close look at the causes of distress and how to address them. It gives tips on how to respond to or even prevent distressing behavior and situations.

Course Objectives

For a person with cognitive challenges and you who are helping or interacting with them:

  • Increase comfort, quality of life, and the ability to communicate and perform tasks
  • Reduce distress and distressing situations, including frustration, fatigue, stress, and discomfort
  • Address this person’s cognitive abilities by using and relying on this person’s cognitive strengths, and supporting, adapting to, or compensating for this person’s cognitive needs

What People Are Saying

The course flowed smoothly. I appreciated the mini quizzes in the lecture to help make sure I was understanding concepts before moving on to new concepts.

- Kristen Y.