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?
Connecting the expected behavior with the work environments that the student desires is important. By engaging in appropriate work break behaviors, the student is more likely to keep his job and be appreciated by his supervisor.
Helping the student to see when he gets to engage in other preferred activities (i.e., after school or work, or as a result of money earned at work) with a graphic or list that shows ‘work break activities’ vs. ‘after school/work activities’ can help both understanding and motivation.
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 help get agreement that there is a problem, get agreement on the solution, and create the motivation for change?
Priming will be pivotal to your success with many students. There is the student who will say, “I have to say hello to ___ when I see her” when passing her on the way to the break area. You know that saying hello may take 10 minutes and may keep her from her work, leading to problems with this co-worker and with the supervisor. As an instructor, you may want to show a flowchart or decision tree that shows two options:
say hello and talk to ____ at lunch 
make supervisor happy keep my job
VS.
talk to ___ when she is working keep ___ from working make supervisor unhappy lose my job.
Giving this student a time and a place to have the reinforcing contact with this co-worker is important to behavioral change. Finding a satisfactory option that is okay with the co-worker and with the supervisor is crucial to priming and getting behavioral change.
Will you tie what the student wants to the desired behavior? Will you use visual supports to help the student see the solution?
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:
"Organization and Self Direction - Dependability and Responsibility 4"
Before the student encounters a situation where he will need to perform this skill, how do you help the student prepare?
There are few better places to practice break behavior than in a designated break area, with a designated list of possible activities, with a list of conversation topics, or with the visual support that clarifies time and order. For the student in a classroom or other work setting where ‘break’ activities occur in the work area, practice with the visual support or list will need to occur as often as possible. The priming session in which the instructor gets student agreement to use the visual support is the preparation for practice. The instructor must orient the student to the support and assure comprehension by review.