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?
It is likely that the student is motivated by at least one of these factors: successful employment, socialization, or self-advocacy. Better management of these relationships results in a more successful job, can be an avenue to expanding his social life, and is a requirement for self-advocacy in the workplace. Define these in terms that are comprehensible and relevant to the student.
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, get agreement on the solution, and create the motivation for change?
If the student sees no immediate reason to change his curt or sneering response to certain ‘overtures of friendship,’ it may be appropriate to have peers express their response to a ‘rude’ rejection. Does this ‘rude’ rejection make you want to help a peer at work? Does the rejection build good co-worker relationships? Consider whether a video scenario of this type of discussion (not specifically about the student’s specific behavior) could help the student see the advantages of a ‘co-worker code of conduct.’ A coping comic could support efforts to clarify the effect of ‘rude’ rejection.
As another example, if the student does not realize that his attempts are viewed by others as “over-eager,” you might also consider the use of video scenarios (not depicting the student), role-plays, and certainly social narratives that can clarify how others might perceive 10 Facebook wall posts per day, or repeated requests to hang out after work. Obviously, the intent is not to hurt the student’s feelings, but to help him understand how everyone follows certain social norms, and those who follow those norms generally experience more acceptance by their peers. This student may simply need more concrete rules that he can follow – rules visually depicted in narratives, graphic organizers, and reminder cues, for instance.
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:
"Social Communication - Complex Skills 3"
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?
The task analysis of this skill lends itself well to interspersal. As the student successfully labels and practices initiating an invitation and getting an acceptance, you will add trials of initiating and getting a rejection, initiating and negotiating, responding with acceptance, responding with rejection, and responding with negotiation. Interspersal should be systematic. Add one new response pattern at a time to already acquired skills. Intermingle trials so that the student gains confidence. Intersperse trials that are face to face vs. on Facebook or on the phone.
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?
As a result of repeated practice and labeling, be sure that you have created a visual support that orients the student to keys in the process that he needs to use in upcoming real life situations. Does he need to review the reminder card for those keys before he goes in to his job training, into a group work project at school, or into a school club activity?