Once the skill is performed accurately and independently under one condition, are you arranging multiple opportunities for the student to practice the skill with different people, and in multiple settings?
Consider the broad steps identified within the Target Selection and Task Analysis section:
1) Help the student recognize stressors.
2) Help the student identify how and when to label those stressors to others and identify who can assist.
3) Next, help the student actually label those stressors in the appropriate manner and environment in order to seek a solution.
4) Guide the student in practicing response strategies to any anticipated environmental stressors.
If the student can perform these steps for you, in your instructional setting, what setting will you target next? With whom should the student practice advocating for needs, once he can do so with you?
Are you arranging opportunities for the student to practice the targeted skill in natural environments and under natural conditions?
Identifying and responding to environmental stressors in the classroom is much different than the unpredictable settings at many job-sites or in the community. Before supposing that the student has mastered the skills based on in-class performance alone, set up and support the student in enacting the same strategies in other locations. Again, be careful to avoid over-stressing the student by placing him in a highly over-stimulating setting.
Have you adapted visual supports so that they can remain in the natural environments that this student encounters now, and in the future?
Are you collecting data to make adjustments to your teaching and to ensure that the student is performing the skill across multiple conditions?
Below is one data sheet you might use to evaluate the effectiveness of the coping strategies, accommodations, or environmental adaptations used to mitigate particular environmental triggers:
Also, the student may use a daily journal or a self-monitoring form to record his own identification of and responses to environmental stress. Together, these tools can provide you with a helpful summary of how the student has maintained the skills over a period of time, and can guide you in making adjustments when the student is not responding well within a particular environment.
