What communication scripts might you use to support practice of this skill? Are these complete scripts or just key words to support initiation?
Because of the broad variety of social judgments involved in childcare, scripting may not be the right tool for addressing child and parent interactions. Scripts are concrete and specific in nature. Childcare issues are broadly conceptual. However, if the student has a well-designed schedule of duties that provides productive activity with little downtime, scripting and practice with scenarios may prove supportive around concrete interactions. The goal is to reduce frequency and complexity of child and parent interactions to assure the possibility of success and the learning of social strategies one at a time.
The same rule is true for customer interactions in food service. For most individuals, your first focus is setting up job responsibilities and environmental design so that customer interactions are limited, thus supporting the student in using his strengths. However, having a clear plan for handling the complexity and variety of potential customer interactions is a focus. *Set up scripts to address the specific interaction patterns and issues of the student!
Scripting is likely to prove useful in addressing a variety of customer interactions. Scripting provides a response regardless of the student’s verbal processing, anxiety or shift of attention issues. Scripting fits with the need of many for predictability in interactions. The primary interactions between customers and workers who are busing tables, preparing foods and bringing supplies to a dining room floor are 1) for specific service or complaint or 2) for information. In most cases, this will involve stopping what he is doing, responding to the customer statement and then, often, finding someone who can address the issue before returning to his task. In restaurants and food service, most questions are handled by the server. In service and complaint situations, providing a simple redirection script may be your first target.
A rule or reminder card that contains some scripted language may be helpful in a variety of situations:
For a student who will be serving food, scripting is likely to be an inefficient tool. Certainly there are specific remarks that a server says every time and creating a script that fits the restaurant is a part of the solution. Many servers use scripts /reminder notes to describe specials, for example. However, serving even in a cafeteria requires flexible and friendly responses. If the individual will be dependent on scripts for server interactions, it is likely that this is the wrong setting. Because of the variety of interactions, a script is less valuable than a rule card.
On the script card, does the student need additional picture or word cues to define his body position, facial expression, gestures, etc. during the use of the script?
Consider whether the student needs additional photo or picture cues on the script to encourage 1) turning to face the customer, 2) looking at the customer’s face, 3) smiling and nodding, 4) adjusting voice tone and volume.
What additional visual clarity cues (e.g. color-coding, highlighting) might you add to the visual script to promote attention and comprehension for the student?
What scenarios might you present (using scenario Act it Out cards) to help students produce their own dialogue and interactions to practice or role-play in a scene?
Below are a variety of scenarios to which the student might practice responding when he is ready for a more advanced level of rehearsal. Of course, the needs and strengths of the individual (as well as the environment in which he is working or likely to work) will dictate the complexity of the scenarios you target:
What video scenarios might you present to help students make accurate discriminations between appropriate and less appropriate responses?
If the student is capable of the judgments necessary around customer interactions, and appropriate scripts are developed that support those interactions, it may prove worthwhile to provide practice with scenarios and video scenarios. These can build student confidence in labeling correct interactions and in correcting inappropriate interactions. The video scenario provides an opportunity to label what is incorrect and to correct that identified behavior, perhaps through demonstration.
Are you arranging frequent practice opportunities with visual scripts and scenarios to build independence and fluency through repetition?
In order to align this intervention topic area with the unique needs of the student, do you need to create scripts or scenarios in the View2do program?
