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?
What visual supports (scripts, instructions, reminder cues, etc.) will you use to help the student rehearse the expected behavior or skill?
Visual scripts and scenarios can support the student in rehearsing not only reactions to acute stressors, but also the self-advocacy behaviors (e.g. asking for help, expressing needs, requesting an accommodation, etc.). Video models can reinforce elements addressed within role-play. Visual cues can serve to remind students of how to respond in a given situation – what steps to follow. Graphic organizers, such as a stress rating scale, can be used within the work environment to identify and track stress levels before reaching an unsafe or unacceptable state; this same scale could be modified with cues indicating what to do at certain levels to cope (e.g. next to “Level 3” is a picture of the student taking a walk with the text “Take a 5-minute walk and breathe.”). Explore other ways to create and customize visual supports for each student!
What type of prompting might you need to provide in the initial learning phase? What is your plan for systematically and quickly fading out your prompting?
Initially, it is likely that you would use verbal and modeling prompts to guide the student in labeling and responding to acute triggers (in practice sessions, and in real situations where stressors arise). To build long-term independence, direct your prompts to the natural environmental features that are the source of the stress, and to the visual tools that guide the student in identifying and responding to such triggers. For example, the student might refer to a key ring of cards that offers a series of steps, or a “menu” of appropriate response options.
Can the student discriminate between the more versus less appropriate response (to an environmental stressor) 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?
Use scenario role-plays and video scenarios to build these discrimination skills. (See Scripts and Scenarios section for examples)
Are you arranging frequent practice opportunities to build fluency through repetition?
Self-regulation responses (coping strategies) to environmental stressors are not developed overnight. Furthermore, the self-advocacy behaviors (identifying who can help, asking for an accommodation, expressing a need to step outside, expressing a need to avoid a particular situation) are not developed overnight. Repeated rehearsal opportunities, in increasingly naturalistic and novel contexts, are crucial to the cultivation of these skills.
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?
As you move away from prompting the student, be sure to keep other trainers, the student’s parents, and on-site co-workers and job coaches aware of the progress. This step is very important when promoting independent execution of skills. If the student begins using visual supports independently in the classroom and when in the community with you, communicating this fact and your techniques to others involved with the student is a necessity. Too often, instructors invest time and energy into teaching a new skill and promoting independence to find out later that the skills dissolved due to others not knowing how to continue what had been taught.