Task analysis guidance for number of and readability of steps for individuals with intellectual disabilities*

We examined the relationship of number of and readability of content of steps of task analyses with subsequent task performance. The results of the current study indicate that the number of and readability of steps were significantly associated with task performance via a non-linear, quadratic relationship. From our results, we suggest that task analyses may consider up to seven steps with a grade level of content (i.e., readability) of up to approximately 7th grade without diminishing task performance. These results do not provide final guidance as to the suggested number of steps or readability of content for task analyses but some initial guidance, especially in the absence of well-established task analyses. We suggest results should be used for those practitioners seeking guidelines for content development in the absence of well-established task analyses for suggested values for number of and readability of steps.