How can you connect this new skill to the student’s priorities? How can you assure ownership by making the development of this skill the student’s goal rather than just your goal for the student?
Connect the concepts of asking and divulging personal information to the student’s specific interests. Does he want to work? Does he want to keep his job? He may need help to see how to separate professional co-worker relationships from ‘friendships’ outside of work. Mapping out the information may be the way to engage the student’s interests. Just having a clearer picture of what to do and where may reduce anxiety and may improve student motivation to address the topic.
As you introduce this skill, how will you incorporate (visually, thematically) the student’s unique interests?
Can you make it visually clear to the student who is resistant to change that his assumption is only one way of looking at things? Can your use of visual supports and self-assessments help get agreement that there is a problem, get agreement on the solution, and create the motivation for change?
The student may understand the rules of not asking others about personal information, but not comprehend why divulging his own could be dangerous or offensive. The use of visual supports in priming may help clarify the problem. Social narratives or other models can help illustrate the risks of divulging information. The thought story may clarify the perspective of another through the use of thought balloons that concretely show the internal reaction of someone when you share personal information that is not desired. A coping comic can clearly show the possible reactions of a co-worker being asked “how much do you weigh?”
Priming is a form of negotiation that can reframe and sharpen a student’s assessment of self. Below are the self-assessment tools that align with this intervention topic:
"Social Communication – Complex Skills 1"
Interspersal is a proven technique involving the presentation of familiar, higher success tasks with the new, more challenging task. When it is appropriate, are you varying the activities to maintain the student’s confidence and focus?
As you saw within Target Selection and Task Analysis, assuring success requires attention to one or two categories at a time. You may start with ‘Personal Information that May be Shared with Supervisors’ vs. ‘Personal Information that is Never Shared with Supervisors.’ If this distinction is challenging for the student, intersperse trials on these two categories with other previously learned activities or scenarios from other topics. Interspersal allows you to sustain a higher degree of success in practice and thereby sustains motivation. Once the student shows success with these two categories and you have introduced a third category within practice (for instance, ‘Personal Information Never Shared with Co-workers’), intersperse previously learned, but slightly adjusted, scenarios from the first two categories to sustain motivation and success.
Before the student encounters a situation where he will need to perform this skill, how do you help the student prepare?
In this initial phase, you will work with the student to construct the graphic organizer or lists that will visually support the student in asking about or divulging personal information in role-plays. Constructing this visual support requires student involvement to sustain motivation. Review of the support will be necessary to assure that the student can clearly define which information fits within specific categories. Orientation to the support just prior to practice can prepare the student for application. Remember that talking about the skill does not mean the student has developed the skill! Practice is mandatory. Referencing a graphic organizer or list that indicates the off-limit topics is one way to prime the student before demonstrating the skill. Additional visual cues may include a list of “always safe at work” topics that provides the student with appropriate options.