Where is the student now? Where do you want him to be? Given the sub-skill you selected within your task analysis (your starting point for instruction), how can you shape this behavior into a practical skill for the future?
Responding appropriately to negative feedback or mistakes is a critical skill for lifelong success in jobs and social interactions. The environment in which to begin the practice of this skill will be dependent on the self-regulation abilities of the student and the coping strategies he is able to use.
For the more explosive student, your first goal is designing the setting, the practice, and the strategy so that the student can succeed in using the strategy. For the student who reacts explosively to any type of negative feedback, extensive teaching and practice will need to be done in a controlled environment (e.g., 1:1 job coaching, or a curriculum assistance or resource classroom). Self-regulating and self-calming strategies will need to be taught, practiced, and reinforced. (See Self-Identify Anxiety and Self-Regulating Anger) What can the student do or what kind of feedback can he handle? Modeling the behavior by the instructor and labeling appropriate responses through videos, print, or by other individuals would help to support the learning of this skill. Teaching to use a visual reminder to ‘1) stop and take a deep breath, 2) ask for help or apologize and 3) fix the mistake’, needs to be emphasized.
Practice this strategy in structured environments and heavily reinforce the positive responses. Verbal or gestural prompting to the visual cue needs to be an initial strategy in shaping the desired behavior. In initial teaching, choose one area where the student may be comfortable, such as a favorite class or teacher. Design the strategies and start in that environment. For students who really struggle with self-regulation, it will be important to have systematic constructive feedback given under only one condition or situation at first. Using a set script or routine of what to do and say, and practicing in one area or situation that is not as stressful or anxiety producing, will encourage success and build the student’s self-confidence. Move the same script or routine to other classes at school or to the work environments as the student uses the routine successfully. Remember to build practice with not only teachers at school, but also job coaches, supervisors, and experienced co-workers, as the student will need to be able to handle mistakes not only in a variety of situations, but also with a variety of adults in different roles. This should be done slowly and one area at a time depending on the student’s ability level, anxiety level, and self-regulation abilities.
*Job selection and placement will be very important for student success. If this is a difficult skill for the student, placing him in a situation where there may be a greater potential for negative feedback from customers or where task requirements are high is ill advised. Again your goal is providing practice and teaching where the student can succeed more than 80% of the time.
What visual supports (scripts, instructions, reminder cues, etc.) will you use to help the student rehearse the expected behavior or skill?
A social narrative can be used during priming to introduce the skill and emphasize the importance of appropriate responses in order to keep a job or develop positive relationships. Does a graphic organizer help the student see which response leads to the best result (see Motivation and Priming)? Then a reminder card can be developed that shows what to do. This can be used and reviewed during the teaching component. The social narrative may be reviewed at the start of the day or the start of practice sessions. Scripts or reminder cards for specific situations such as handling angry customers or dealing with mistakes will be an important tool for the student to learn to use and refer to consistently. A video model that portrays an appropriate response sequence can be developed to orient the student before practice in a variety of situations relevant to that situation. Because some students misinterpret tone of voice or stance, labeling these elements in the video could help the student learn what to look for and how to react. The types of supports and amount of rehearsal will be dependent on the student’s anxiety and skill level. It may be important to develop one specific script or routine to be used for all situations for some very concrete learners.
What type of prompting might you need to provide in the initial learning phase?
Modeling and verbal prompts will be necessary in the initial stage to redirect behavior, especially for the student who responds more explosively. For those students, practice needs to occur in a controlled situation. The instructor will need to design the visual support so the student is able to use it and label other student’s responses during practice sessions. An emphasis on developing appropriate self-regulation skills must be the major emphasis at first. For less explosive students, the initial learning phase might occur in less controlled situations where modeling and verbal prompts may still be important, but prompting to the visual cues will be necessary.
What is your plan for systematically and quickly fading out your prompting? How do you time and fade the prompt to support the student in initiating the target behavior?
Since the need for accepting feedback and handling mistakes can happen at any time, it will be important for the student to be comfortable in using his routines or scripts consistently. Depending on the student’s ability to regulate his anxiety and to use his coping strategies, modeling and verbal prompting should be faded slowly enough that the student experiences success and gains confidence in his abilities. Moving from modeling, labeling and verbal prompting should gradually change to prompting to the visual cues. For some students, this will be an extremely challenging skill and may take lots of practice and reinforcement.
Can the student discriminate between the more versus less appropriate response in a given role-play scenario? Are you arranging opportunities for the student to make such discriminations and to label when the instructor or someone else performs the behavior incorrectly?
Many TV sitcoms and cartoons revolve around inappropriate responses to situations. The use of commercial cartoons or comics that show inappropriate responses to situations could be used to discriminate between incorrect responses and the correct ones, labeling body position, tone of voice, and demeanor, and also bring in humor to the teaching session. Some of these could help the student label inappropriate responses to mistakes the characters make and discuss more appropriate responses in a humorous format. Video scenarios could also be made for specific situations the students may be involved in. These may provide further practice in recognizing and discriminating behaviors.
Role-play scenarios could be arranged to emphasize the appropriate behaviors, but must be specific to the situations the student will face. For example, a teacher telling a student to correct math problems in class where many students are also making mistakes will be very different than in a restaurant job where the supervisor tells the student to correct the way he wraps silverware.
Are you arranging frequent practice opportunities to build fluency through repetition?
What steps do you need to take to ensure that everyone targeting that skill applies the same level of prompting and fades it out at the same rate to support initiation by the student?
Receiving negative feedback and handling mistakes can happen at any time during the day. Sharing the visual strategies with all instructors and developing a consistent feedback system that everyone will use is critical for student success. For students who really struggle with handling this appropriately, one situation (such as correcting a worksheet), with one strategy (such as a reminder card), along with one feedback system (such as pairing a positive statement with the correction request), should be shared with all instructors of the student and reviewed and practiced multiple times during the day. Will all instructors help the student orient to his coping strategy or calming routine at the beginning of class periods? This may prevent anxiety from escalating. (See Self-Identify Anxiety) Keep assessing the student’s comfort and confidence level before moving to the next step. It may be better to take it slow to ensure competence in one instructional setting before moving it into multiple settings and environments.