Where is the student now? Where do you want him to be? Given the sub-skill you selected within your task analysis (your starting point for instruction), how can you shape this behavior into a practical skill for the future?
If the student is easily distracted in most transitions or if the student has difficulty putting away materials from almost any previous task, consider working on improving performance with specific transitions that are easiest to support and modify. If a problem is pervasive, be careful if you decide to work on it in all daily transitions. The student may become frustrated with limited success.
You may need to identify the transitions that either involve 1) less organization in putting things away, 2) less distance to travel, or 3) fewer innate distracters. Successful practice using the visual supports and cues to transition independently and ‘in a timely manner’ is essential. Over time, you can add supports or cues to assist with more complex transitions. In the meantime, it may be worthwhile to consider ‘structuring out’ those more complex transitions. You can assign a ‘buddy’ to help the student with multi-step ‘putting away’. An escort can be assigned to help the student move over the longest distances with the most distractions. Get success in increments and build on your successes.
If he is experiencing success in using the alarm in one area, he will be more willing to start using it in other situations. He may need a reminder written on his schedule to set his alarm for an upcoming activity.
If the organization of the student’s materials is a primary target, what minor adaptations to his schedule, to-do list or environmental design will allow him to fluidly put things away and move between tasks or activities?
What visual supports (scripts, instructions, reminder cues, etc.) will you use to help the student practice and use the expected behavior or skill?
Your choice of the visual supports he will use to make quick transitions is crucial to effective practice. Is the student able to tell time and does he use a watch? *Note that many students tell time and attend to the clock. However, telling time is different from using the concept of time to adjust your own activity! Many students have difficulty with the concept of time. For example, seeing that I have only two minutes before the end of class does not necessarily motivate the student to realize that he needs to turn in work, clean up and pack up for his next class.
Think of the watch as a ‘natural’ visual support that will help with building the concept of time. Analog watches can be a better option for some students because they help to show the passage of time more clearly than a digital watch. For others, the use of an alarm or even multiple alarms on the watch to assist in organizing his time for a job site or for an outside activity may be worthwhile.
Refer to Organizing Space and Materials for strategies if the student is disorganized in packing or putting away materials before making a transition to the next activity. The student may need assistance in using an organizational system to keep up with or put away materials. He may need a reminder card on his desk or notebook.
The use of role-plays or practice sessions may not be a primary strategy in building independent and quick transitions. Transitions occur frequently in school, community and work settings. Use the actual settings and transitions. Complete a thorough assessment of the problems. Design and implement the visual supports in actual daily transitions. However, practice sessions initially may involve practice within a resource class or small group instruction in order to promote generalized responding to verbally issued directives (e.g. “It’s time to stop and move to…”), and to orient the student to the expected behavior and to the supports he will use.
What type of prompting might you need to provide in the initial learning phase?
The initial stage will include direct orientation to the visual supports and may involve modeling the sequence and strategies by the instructor. Verbal and gestural prompts to the schedule, the environmental design, the reminder card, or to auditory reminder cues will be important to help the student rely on these supports and not the instructor. The student might need verbal prompts at first to check the time, or self-assess how much time he has before he needs to move on to the next activity. Fade these to gestural cues to the supports as quickly as feasible. If you cannot fade your prompts, you may need to simplify the visual support!
Can the student discriminate between the more versus less appropriate response in a given role-play scenario? Are you arranging opportunities for the student to make such discriminations and to label when the instructor or someone else performs the behavior incorrectly?
Designing visual supports for actual daily transitions is the most effective procedure for building this skill. The use of role-plays is not suggested since transitions are frequent in daily activity and provide ample opportunities for practice. Practice in discriminating fast vs. slow transitions will occur naturally.
Are you arranging frequent practice opportunities to build fluency through repetition?
As there are multiple transitions throughout the day, practicing these skills should occur naturally and repeatedly in all or selected environments. Once your intervention is successful in specific situations, you should familiarize other staff and personnel with the supports. Are you assuring that they know how to prompt to the supports? Practice to build fluency requires that staff use parallel procedures to support the student’s independent use of the supports.
What steps do you need to take to ensure that everyone targeting that skill applies the same level of prompting and fades it out at the same rate to support initiation by the student?
All instructors should be familiar with the strategies being put into place, the specific steps or times being focused on, and the methods of prompting being used. As the student begins to initiate and become not only successful, but much more confident, verbal prompting should be faded to prompts to the visual cues.