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?
Performing these skills (both demonstrating and identifying in others) is essential to learning. For some students who are either anxious in attempting them or who have limited competence, you may start with exercises that get the student to label the target behaviors that they see when others practice. However, if practice does not immediately follow several labeling trials, you will be disappointed in the results of your work. Practice must immediately follow labeling to get the skills. Many students can label the appropriate behaviors yet not use them.
Because of this, carefully choose your initial target of intervention at a level that is concrete enough for the student. For those with limited skills, both head direction and body direction are quite concrete. Using a mirror or video to support and discuss the direction the student is facing or the position of his body in relation to the peer can help assure the positive practice by the student. Multiple practice opportunities of the specific skill are always vital.
Choose topics for conversational practice that are initially of very high interest to the student. With what topics is the student most verbally fluent? You are not working on verbal skills at the same time as non-verbal skills. Your target is a specific non-verbal skill that will become fluid and comfortable for the student while he is verbally engaged. Since you are adding one non-verbal skill at a time, initially emphasize familiar conversational topics.
What visual supports (scripts, instructions, reminder cues, etc.) will you use to help the student rehearse the expected behavior or skill?
It is your goal to simplify and concretely define the expected non-verbal skills in a way that the student can understand and use. While the practice of each non-verbal skill to a fluid and self-confident level is your goal, a reminder card that portrays either a picture or written cue for the behavior(s) being practiced can greatly support skill development. The reminder card should only portray one of the expected non-verbal skills. As the student shows fluid and quicker use of the specific skill, you can add a picture of another skill.
Scripts may be employed in initial practice to reduce the stress of producing verbal conversation. Using the script in role plays and video models can help when practicing expressing and deciphering interest.
Video scenario review is a practice technique that can prove highly useful in critiquing or pointing out proper or improper use of non-verbal skills in conversations. Using video to record practice sessions allows the instructor to point out where the student made eye contact or nodded or mirrored a facial expression. Even counting the number of targeted behaviors (i.e., nods) and then setting the bar higher for the next practice can be motivating to the student (“You nodded once during that practice. See if this time, you agree or understand twice and can nod both times!”). It is important in teaching to connect the function of the behavior (understanding or acceptance) with the behavior (nodding). *Note the difference between video scenario review and video modeling (watching the behaviors performed correctly before using the same behavior in practice or in real life conversations.
Finally, rule and reminder cards can be placed in the environment as references for the student to remember the concepts.
What type of prompting might you need to provide in the initial learning phase?
Your role as a social interpreter is crucial in initial practice. You are labeling what you see. You are modeling the expected behavior. You are getting the student to imitate and practice the expected skill in small, concrete steps. You are getting the student to label the non-verbal skills that he sees in you and in his peers in initial practice sessions. Repeated practice is important. Initially you may have a reminder card that visually portrays the expected non-verbal skill and you may point to it as you label, as you demonstrate, as the student labels and as the student demonstrates the expected skill. Over time, you may reduce your labeling and gesturally prompt to the reminder card to encourage the initiation and use of the skills by the student.
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?
Live role-plays of nonverbal communication can be strengthened by providing “freeze” or “pause” prompts that require the actors to hold their position. Since nonverbal cues tend to be subtle and brief, these “frozen moments” provide an opportunity for the student to take time in processing the details of facial expression and body language more carefully. Using this technique, the student can observe the “frozen” characteristics that differentiate appropriate versus inappropriate signs of showing interest. For some, “freezing” may prove difficult, even confusing. In this case, consider using video to record a scenario or practice trial. Watch the video and freeze it to show and discuss the non-verbal cue that occurs within the conversation or interaction.
Are you arranging frequent practice opportunities to build fluency through repetition?
Using the “freeze” method or video review method above, repetitive practice can offer interpretation of various cues from different actors in an array of scenes. Over time, the “freeze times” become shorter in duration and faded out to promote real-time demonstration of the 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?
This topic focuses on skills that are really a constant in any interpersonal engagement. While this means plenty of natural practice opportunities, it also allows for a lot of confusion due to different people providing different levels of prompting or even having differing levels of expectations of the student. For these reasons, it is important that you educate the family, other instructors, and possibly even peers on how the student is progressing, such as when and how to prompt the student to show interest appropriately.