Bucket List of Skills

A bucket list is a list of the experiences or achievements that a person hopes to have or accomplish during their lifetime.

Two of our groups have taken the idea of a bucket list a little further and have turned it into a challenge this term. Each Tuesday the groups set a task that they must individually achieve that week. This task can occur at Bayley House, at home or both. The group then reconvenes the following Tuesday to discuss what they liked, disliked, share any challenges they may have faced with the task and whether or not they enjoyed it.

Families and staff members have also been supporting the bucket list of skills by assisting with the development of one new skill per week. The goal is to learn a task each week that is new to the person. Learning these new skills might require assistance in the form of role play, verbal cues or physical prompts.

Completing the challenge includes sharing a photo or video of the skill in action, which has resulted in some amazing photos being sent to the group staff. At the end of the challenge everyone who participated will have a journal full of their skill development journey.

Nicole, learnt how to set an alarm on her phone so that she could wake up a bit earlier and sweep her front porch, which was her task for the week and Spiro has become a superstar at folding and putting away his own clothes. Teresa has been learning how to do more around her home including emptying the tray on the bottom of the toaster that everyone forgets and also vacuuming. Michael learnt how to wash clothes by hand and Charlie is keeping his parents happy by doing the job no one ever wants to do – taking the rubbish out!

Some of the other new tasks include washing and putting away dishes, washing your own clothes and hanging them out, preparing a meal, walking and feeding the dog, mowing a lawn, dusting and bigger tasks such as washing a car! The groups have developed many more skills across the challenge while sharing their achievements and now know first hand that what they are learning at Bayley House can be transferred to their home environments and vice versa.