Target Selection and Task Analysis:

In what contexts does the student need to appropriately give a compliment or praise, now and in the future?

What are all of the steps that comprise this skill?

First, it is important to understand what a compliment is and why it is important to give compliments. (e.g. they make others happy, they can build positive relationships, they acknowledge the contributions that others make to a collaborative project or activity, etc.). 

Identify the types of behaviors, attributes, materials / belongings, and skills to compliment.  Pay attention to the kinds of compliments that typically developing teens and young adults give to one another.  This allows you to clarify for the student the types of behaviors, attributes, skills, and materials /belongings that other peers and coworkers view as important (i.e. perspective-taking), which ties into decisions about what to compliment and when. 

Then, you identify those behaviors, skills, attributes, and materials/belongings that the student also likes or cares about. This is an important step in the process because otherwise, the student’s compliment might come off as insincere, or driven by rote performance.

Identify the conditions under which it might be appropriate to deliver a compliment (e.g.  following a recent performance –in school, on the job, extracurricular contexts-, upon completion of a work product, when a new personal belonging is in view –“nice phone” -etc.).

Identify the conditions under which it would not be appropriate to complement a particular attribute (e.g. if a male student complements a female on her appearance or attire, consider how that might be interpreted, regardless of the male student’s underlying intent).

Identify how the delivery of a compliment (tone, body language, gaze) can dictate whether the delivery is awkward or appropriate. 
Consider how the phrasing of the compliment might be viewed as rude, even if that is not the student’s intent (e.g. “That’s much better than what you did yesterday”).   

As you break down this skill into teachable units, consider how a compliment or praise is delivered at different points within an interaction: 

• It might be delivered at the onset of an interaction (in part to initiate an interaction). 
• It might be delivered within an ongoing conversation.  The student might issue the compliment to switch topics.  Or, he might initiate the compliment as an aside (“By the way, I liked your project”), or he might “piggy-back” off someone else’s comment (e.g. “That is true, your project was awesome”).
• It might be delivered via text, social networking, or through a non-verbal signal (e.g. thumbs up).  The extent to which you target these conditions depends on the needs and capacity of the student.

Finally, the student may need assistance in limiting compliments:  How frequently they should be issued (particularly for ones who might be inclined to over-compliment), how much to say and when to stop.

What sub-skill should you target first for the student to initiate? Given what the student can do presently, how will you present the task so that the student can perform steps within his capacity while learning a new step?