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?
Many students will be motivated because they actually want to know how to handle their downtime. Downtime may be a time of anxiety for them, and they will be interested and happy to have some structure and guidance.
With regard to work settings, you may also find ways to connect these skills to ‘making the boss happy’ and thus sustaining employment. You may need to explain that if they are engaging in inappropriate activities, their supervisor or instructor may not like it and they could get in trouble. Giving them structure during the downtime will help them engage in appropriate activities that they enjoy. In other words, the goal is to find activities that meet both of these criteria: appropriate and meaningful. This message could be conveyed using a social narrative, such as a situational story.
As you introduce this skill, how will you incorporate (visually, thematically) the student’s unique interests?
Can you make it visually clear to the student who is resistant to change that his assumption is only one way of looking at things? Can your use of visual supports and self-assessments help get agreement that there is a problem with how they manage downtime, get agreement on the solution, and create the motivation for change?
Priming is a form of negotiation that can reframe and sharpen a student’s assessment of self. Below are the self-assessment tools that align with this intervention topic:
"Organization and Self Direction - Task Completion 3"
Before the student encounters a situation where he will need to manage downtime appropriately, how do you help the student prepare? How do you orient the student to any “downtime materials” that he might use to keep busy during this period?
Prepare the student by teaching what downtime is. When does it occur?
hen, you will need to teach the student what to do during downtime. What is acceptable at their job? Are there certain rules that they need to know? For example, in most jobs they will need to independently find other tasks to do to keep busy during their downtime.
At some jobs, it is okay to make a quick phone call during downtime. However, making this judgment requires perspective-taking skills and ongoing assessment of what is acceptable. In other words, an employer may think it is fine to make one quick phone call. However, the student may increase that frequency by making one quick phone call 2-3 times each day for several days. The student needs to then recognize that the employer is ‘looking unsettled,’ that this behavior is now excessive, and that he is in danger of upsetting the supervisor. Considering that perspective-taking is problematic for many, think about setting up activities (what to do) for downtime that are very clear and do not imply or require social judgment.
Make sure that the student knows who to ask for ideas of what to do if he needs further support. The instructor may need to coach co-workers on the issue of perspective-taking and social judgment for certain individuals.
Practice will help prepare the student for managing downtime appropriately. Arrange for some downtime to occur during their day so that they have an opportunity to practice what to do. In the beginning, you may tell the student that they will have some downtime in their day. As they become successful at managing their downtime, do not give them forewarning, but rather see if they recognize when downtime occurs on their own and if they handle it appropriately.