Considering Discovery for Yourself?

Become an active part of the process!

Do you need Discovery?

Discovery is a common sense tool for all persons. However, there will be some people that can get direction for employment from their past experiences and/or testing. Others may not perform well on tests; yet have many meaningful work characteristics. Discovery is best for persons that don’t see a clear path for employment or persons that struggle with “fitting” into existing jobs. Anyone offering “niche” type tasks to an employer will likely use Discovery to guide the development of a customized job. Discovery also guides self-employment.

What is Discovery?

Discovery seeks information that demonstrates the “best picture” of you from a work perspective. Some agencies, schools, and providers might use an assessment to learn about you. “Discovery” is an alternative way to learn about you and to focus on what environments you perform best in, what peaks your interest throughout the day, and what tasks you may offer or learn to offer.

Discovery requires the professional to have a relationship with you and your family. This relationship of openness and trust is characterized by the following:

•Balanced, not hierarchical

•Optimistic, not skeptical

•Respectful, not arrogant

•Humble, not presumptuous

•Insightful, not superficial

•Interested, not blasé

•Involved, not removed

Can you fail Discovery?

Absolutely NOT, you cannot fail Discovery. There are no grades or scoring in it. There are no labels or judgements, such as “he is slow”. There are no judgments about the person or family, such as “she appears not to care about working” or the family is a “good support”. Discovery sees all persons as employable.

What is the result of “Discovery”?

Discovery is the activity of learning about you in an intentional way and documenting what is learned in a Profile. A profile has three parts; Part 1 is basically the facts about you, Part II is a rich description of who you are from many perspectives (these perspectives will be shared later in this overview). Part III is the Discovery Facilitator’s translation of “who you are” into a summary of critical employment related information. Information in the summary describes the conditions you will need in a work setting to be successful, the things that interest you enough to motivate you to do them, and the skills, experiences, characteristics that an employer might need.

How long does Discovery take?

The facilitator should spend from 16 to 24 hours with you in different places, usually in 1 – 3 hour blocks of time. These are scheduled with you and should always take into consideration you and your family’s availability. It is best to do these hours within a 4 to 6 week period. Please work with your facilitator to make sure you keep the process to this time period. However, life may impact this to be longer, such as an illness or vacation.

Where does Discovery take place?

Discovery occurs in “your world”----places where you go! You will be asked about your routines for the weekday and weekend. The facilitator may hear you get excited about doing an activity and will ask to go with you to that activity to learn about you at a place you enjoy. Discovery should occur in places where you are the most comfortable and for most folks that is your home. So one of the important places for Discovery to occur is in your home. Below is a listing of the type of places you will be going to share all perspectives of your life.

The home provides opportunities to learn how you get daily activities accomplished, such as cooking, paying bills, maintaining your part of the house. The facilitator would also learn things you do in your “free” time while at home and also learn about the things that interest you. There are things that you might take for granted and don’t talk about that are meaningful for work that we may see in your home. For instance, you may answer all phone calls and keep up with people in the family. That skill is a contribution for work.
“Where you spend your day” is also another place for us to learn about you. This could be at school, a volunteer situation, or hanging out with family or friends. The facilitator will go with you to these places to learn how you “get things done” there.
Some place in the community that you go to often, a familiar place. We learn how you learned to do things in that environment, what you do in that place, and how you do it. Sometimes this can be pace, how long to shop for 5 items, or it can be how you handle purchasing, such as using cash or credit card or does someone do it for you. All of these things are important.
And a new place is visited for the facilitator to learn what you do in new situations or places. Many times, this is to give information on how to support you in a new place so you are seen “at your best”.

What are the strategies to gather the information in Discovery?

Discovery is a common sense approach to learning about you. The following are used in all of the settings described above:

Observation – The facilitator will pay attention to what and how you are doing activities, which will help them, describe things like “how you communicate” or “move around”. This is never a cold observation. Typically the facilitator may give you a chance to do what ever you are doing, observe it, and perhaps ask questions about it. Sometimes the facilitator will do it with you and other times, they may observe you doing it with someone else.
Conversation – There is lots of conversation! We see Discovery conversation as springing from the activities you are doing, such as “how long have you been doing this, why do you do this, where did you learn this.” The facilitator is learning about you.
Interviews – At the beginning, the time with the facilitator will be in an interview format moving toward conversation. Part I of the profile is basic facts and this has to be learned to move into more description of you. Interviews are done with you and your family. After the facilitator has gathered information on your routines and activities of life, they will ask your permission to interview people in your life that might help them describe you from a school, work, or a social fun perspective.
Picture or video – The facilitator will ask permission to take pictures or video to help them better describe you. The picture, with your permission, may be used to describe you. It is felt that a “picture is worth a thousand words”. Many times a video is helpful for later review as you are doing so many critical activities while the facilitator is with you. The information needed to create a robust knowledge of you sometimes is hard to capture if you are doing an activity with the facilitator.
Record reviews - The facilitator will review any records of you that you have given permission for them to do. Reviews are typically done after they have gotten a chance to know you. The review typically offers a traditional approach such as progress notes that talk about how you have learned a targeted objective. All judgments, scores, or determinations (such as employability) are looked at from a Discovery perspective and will not necessarily be included in the Profile.
Time with you – It is important to spend time with you to build a relationship with you. It is this relationship with you and your family that drives much of the information. This relationship allows the facilitator to learn you and your family’s thoughts about work. Concerns, fears, excitement, existing plans for work are important and needed to create the “best picture” of you.

How is this information written up in the Profile?

The profile has the three parts that were described above. However, the information must be written from this perspective.

Respectful: It should be considerate of your feelings and describe you in a manner that you are comfortable.

Comprehensive: It should reflect all parts of your life, past and present. Your social life offers possible connections to employment, your home and neighborhood offers connections and possibly transportation to work or the desired area to work. The various places you go for discovery should represent all parts of your life.

Narrative; it is important that the “best of you” be captured in a document that most professionals will use, such as a narrative profile.

Robust; the robust description creates a real image of you in someone’s mind. Typical information would describe what you are doing, the set up of the task (how long and often you do it), your performance of the task (remember, no judgment so this is description), any supports you receive, such as using your cell phone as a reminder and any connections (person you do the task with or your instructor).Performance typically is your pace in doing the task, quality of the task, and consistency of doing the task.

Optimistic: It should describe you at “your best”, seeking solutions to any challenges that occur in your life.

Descriptive: Description is the key to the profile. It allows us to have a clear understanding of who you are without labels. The facilitator will describe not judge the action. For instance, “when she wants something, she asks for it or says exactly what she has on her mind. Sometimes, the person she is talking to will walk away and not come back.” This is a description of the action without judging.

Non-Competitive: This is probably the hardest feature to embrace as professionals learn Discovery. There is no generalization here; such as he is slow or fast. This compares a person to a norm. Discovery seeks to describe the person in a way that gives us a picture of the person as they do tasks. If we are seeking a sense of pace, it will be described. For example, Ann makes her bed daily taking about 10 minutes to make it and then about 15 minutes checking the edges. Quality is also not judged, such as good or bad. For example, when she finishes her bed, it will be even on all sides, with the spread in the center of the bed. Her Mom will usually tell her it is fine and that it is time to quit making the bed.