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?
Remind yourself that career development is a long process! You can only move forward one step at a time. Career development may occur over a period of years and each step should be important and well-thought out. You cannot move faster than the student can go. As noted, job-keeping and job-seeking skills are crucial components of getting to the post-school outcomes. Therefore, providing project and job training in those Basic Skills noted at the beginning of this topic can be a productive step toward career development.
Even so, you may work on a single advanced skill with the student within his set of duties. For example, small businesses and chain restaurants now offer wifi for customers. Many of these do not employ an official network administrator, so this could be an opportunity for the student to be involved with some advanced tech work as a secondary job task. The student may in fact know how to setup a secure wireless network with no problems, but you must be sure to address any outlying issues such as flexibility. Consider how the student’s insistence on using only his personal settings and passphrases may not match the employer’s requests, such as using WPA2 encryption instead of the less-secure WEP or naming the wireless network something unprofessional like “Big John’s Big Ol’ Internet.”
What visual supports (scripts, instructions, reminder cues, etc.) will you use to help the student perform the expected skills?
The schedule and to-do list are often critical to student independence on the job. Carefully prepare these materials so that actual practice of the hard skill occurs around the use of the visual supports. You are teaching the student to use the schedule, the to-do lists and the organization of these tools so that he performs the hard skills independently. Refer to the sections on Schedules, To-Do Lists and Visual Cues for specific ideas. Organizing the visual instructions for various tasks and problems may require a notebook or filing system on the computer that can serve as a reference for the student.
It may be necessary to devise a set of sequenced visual instructions for tasks that are complex for the student. Consider that multi-step tasks may sometimes become disorganized so help the student to consistently refer to a set of visual instructions, possibly checking off each step as completed to assure 100% success in performance.
The student will need repeated opportunities to practice responding to the visual cues that you arrange, as well as those cues that exist naturally in the work area. For example, troubleshooting software sometimes involves following pre-determined steps provided by the employer or developer. In these cases, how can you prepare the student to patiently follow these printed or on-screen steps as opposed to getting frustrated and rushing? The visual guidelines provided by the employer may require editing for clarification, or pairing with extra visual cues.
What type of prompting might you need to provide in the initial learning phase?
It is possible that the student will have knowledge in approaching certain computer and IT tasks that is greater than your own. Yet modeling how you refer to and use a visual support that is in place (the to-do list that will eventually facilitate independent task completion) to assure quality and avoidance of mistakes will probably be necessary. Moving from modeling to gestural prompts to the system and increasing social praise for independent use of visual supports is a good approach. You can direct the student’s attention to the visual supports and to the natural features of the task with gestural prompts. Be careful to not pair those gestures with verbal prompts, unless absolutely necessary. In this way, you avoid becoming a part of the task.
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?
As the student demonstrates increasing independence with a skill, delay your gestural prompt to allow time for the student to respond without prompting. In many cases, the student will want to do the task without your involvement so fading is in your best interest as well.
Are you arranging frequent practice opportunities to build fluency through repetition?
Initially, it is important to consistently expect the student to go to the visual support to find information rather than asking what to do next wherever he is inconsistent in performance. As independent employees, all of us self-start and go about our workdays without asking constantly for guidance. How long would we keep our jobs if we did not self-start? Your goal is to build a routine of the student checking the list or schedule for what to do next. As noted above, you want to build reliance on the use of sequenced visual instructions to prevent mistakes that occur as a result of doing familiar tasks from memory. Thus, build a consistent pattern of using the visual instructions so that 100% success is more likely.
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?