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?
Your list of strengths vs. teachable jobs may prove helpful in priming the student. Create a visual support (graphic organizer, list, etc.) that shows what the student will do in the job. You may want to provide a social narrative that ties these skills and the larger job to his motivation: money, job experience that helps him get a better job, external reinforcers that you set up as a result of completing the shift, etc.
Cleaning a diaper changing station and bathroom is probably not a favorite task in childcare. Yet it is necessary. If you provide a graphic organizer that shows all the job responsibilities, the student may better see this as an important skill that is related to other activities that are more motivating. He may need a social narrative to connect the importance of keeping the children safe and healthy so that favored play activities can occur. Your sequencing of the tasks on the student’s schedule may also assist this. If cleaning and stocking the diaper changing station is followed by setting up and helping with an art activity on the schedule, does this increase the student’s motivation to complete the non-favored task?
**Consider that the priming process is ongoing. Initially a student may be interested in childcare. However, as a result of specific job experience, volunteer or other exposure, the student’s preferences and opinions may change. Provide opportunities for self-assessment during and after the job experience. In this way you can support the student’s improved understanding of his job preferences as a result of experience. Below are the self-assessment and instructor assessment tools that align with this intervention topic:
Family and Consumer Sciences Interests – Food Services
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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?
You may have noticed that interspersal is a central focus in successful job matching. We intentionally encourage you to find a job with about 80% of job tasks within the ability of the student so that you are teaching only a small percentage. This is natural interspersal. The student has a variety of tasks that are not stressful and within his independent capacity while your instructional focus targets a few specific job steps or skills.
Before the student encounters a situation where he will need to perform this skill, how do you help the student prepare? How do you orient the student to the upcoming situation? How do you orient him to the materials he will use?
Prior to starting a job, orientation to the space, materials, and people is an important step. The experience of seeing the settings, where materials are stored, the workstations, etc. can be followed by setting up a map or graphic organizer of the various tasks the student will perform. This may serve to reduce stress by visually clarifying all the aspects of the job. Even if the student does not show stress, knowing what you face each day is necessary to increase quality of life. How are you preparing the student to know what he will do?
The student will need a work schedule that prepares him for work expectations. He may also need a to-do list within specific workspaces to organize his performance. Generally, your visual supports support orientation and preparation for performance.
For example, with regard to the task of washing and foil-wrapping 50 lbs. of baking potatoes, prime the student by familiarizing him with the sequenced instructions for 1) rinsing and cleaning the sink, 2) filling the sink with cold water, 3) obtaining the potatoes from the storage space, 4) placing potatoes in the sink, 5) using a soft brush to scrub each potato, 6) rinsing again and setting on separate surface for ‘clean potatoes’, 7) wrapping each potato, 8) placing on baking trays, 9) moving baking trays to oven station, 10) rinsing sink and wiping down sink station. In priming, does he know where things are stored and where to find all needed items? Ensure that the student has time to review the schedule, as well as any task list (to-do list) that he will use at work.