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?
As you saw from the task analysis, what seems like a simple greeting or farewell actually involves a series of overlapping behaviors (verbal and non-verbal) that must happen in quick succession. Practicing one element at a time to a level of confidence and chaining those elements together slowly may be the way to build confidence and quick thinking to use the various overlapping behaviors fluidly and confidently. Look carefully at the task analysis. Provide ongoing assessment of the student’s performance with one or two aspects of the greeting. Add another aspect and repeat practice until the student is quick and comfortable.
What visual supports (scripts, instructions, reminder cues, etc.) will you use to help the student rehearse the expected behavior or skill?
Social narratives are great for introducing this topic as they offer structure for explaining the process and perspectives involved. Scripts and video models support role-play demonstrations and can be adjusted for continued use by the student as priming tools for real-world experiences. The video model is particularly valuable here as it shows the verbal and non-verbal behaviors together within the greeting or farewell. Graphic organizers and thought maps are useful for visualizing the steps or arranging responses to common small-talk exchanges and exit strategies. With so many subtle pieces of beginning and ending the interview, reminder cards and other custom visual cues may prove useful tools for quick referencing.
What type of prompting might you need to provide in the initial learning phase?
This topic lends itself well to modeling many of the nonverbal skills (e.g. initiating a handshake, holding for 3-seconds, making eye contact, smiling, release the hand, sit when the interviewer sits). As the student begins practicing the skills, your simultaneous models and verbal prompts may be necessary to support performance but should reduce with progress. As noted, working on only 1 new element of the greeting or farewell at a time will reduce the need for constant prompting. If you are working on too many elements at once, you will be prompting a lot and the student may easily become prompt dependent.
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?
While modeling and verbal prompts are likely to be used when introducing the skill, how might the addition of visual cues to the environment turn the student’s attention away from you during practice? You most likely will not be attending a formal job interview with the student, so he’ll need to be able to perform without your assistance before being truly successful. Prompting the student to the visual cues initially during practice then fading to orientation to the cues prior to the mock interview is a sequence for prompting. Unless the cue is a reminder card that the student can carry into the interview, the natural cues of the interviewer are what you are fading to. Again, fading prompts will be easier if you are not trying to teach too many things at once!
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?
Are you arranging frequent practice opportunities to build fluency through repetition?
Even if the student blows through a role-play of entering an interview with no prompting or visual cues, it is unlikely that practice should be considered complete. There are far too many variables involved for a single practice to thoroughly assess the student’s comprehension and ability to deliver in all situations. For such a student, be sure to offer opportunities to explore different settings (walking through a warehouse during the interview versus sitting in a quite office), to respond to different topics during the small talk and closing comments, and to read different levels and types of nonverbal cues. By systematically altering details across practice situations, you will discover certain areas with which the student requires further instruction. The student may be distracted by the setting or change of venue. Repeated practice in multiple settings with multiple people is the best way to achieve real competence.
same level of prompting and fades it out at the same rate to support initiation by the student?
Where does the student keep his visual supports used during role-play demonstrations? Other instructors will need to not only have access to these supports, but should be familiar with how they are used with this specific student. At different points of instruction, it is likely that the student’s use and reference to visual supports will vary. For example, when introducing an icon indicating “Have a seat,” you may have to point to it in the first practice exercises. The intent is for the student to begin self-identifying the cue without external prompting, but this process hinges on the same level of prompting being delivered systematically by everyone else working with the student. As you fade your gestures toward the visual, so should the other instructors at the same rate.