Purpose, Satisfaction and Joy

in the Lives of Students with Deafblindness and the People Who Care

February 12-14, 2009 - Austin, TExas

Sponsored by

Texas School for the Blind & Visually Impaired

Texas Deafblind Outreach

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN ROUTINES:

The Framework For Communication

Kathleen Stremel

Western Oregon University

Teaching Research

345 N Monmouth Avenue

Monmouth, OR 97361

503-838-8096

SOCIAL INTERACTIONS IN ROUTINES:

The Framework For Communication

Recommended Practices for Young Children with Severe Disabilities/Deafblindness

  • Individualizing and adapting practices for children
  • Use of the natural environment (Part C)
  • Utilizing turn-taking social interactions
  • Increasing opportunities for responses/initiations
  • Embedding skills into routines/activities
  • Using systematic procedures

Core Components of Social Interactions in the Natural Environment

  • Social relationships with the child
  • Assessment of the child’s strengths, interests, needs in natural environments, daily routines, and pre-academics
  • Identification and use of locations, settings, routines
  • Outcome-based decisions
  • Environmental arrangements and adaptations & AT
  • Child individualized intervention strategies
  • Progress monitoring and fidelity of implementation
  • Generalization of skill to new persons & settings

The Need For Individualization

Potential Outcomes

  • Increasing “access” to locations, settings, activities
  • Increasing “participation or engagement”
  • Increasing child’s enjoyment of an activity or routine
  • Promoting maintenance of newly learned skills
  • Decreasing behavior that interferes with participation
  • Building relationships/or skills to develop relationships
  • Promoting learning of targeted skills
  • Promoting generalization of new skill across new family members, settings, new routines

Stages of Learning

  • Acquisition
  • Fluency
  • Maintenance
  • Generalization

Routines and Activities

Social routines

1. Play with objects/constructive

2. Pretend Play

3. Physical play

4. Social games

Caregiver routines

1. Comfort related

2. Dressing related

3. Hygiene related

4. Food related

Community activities

1. Library

2. YMCA

3. Park

4. Going to Grandparents

5. Fishing with Granddad

Pre-academic routines

1. Reading books-shared reading

2. Songs and rhymes

3. Computer, TV, video

4. Art play

5. Early numeracy

What To Teach

Routine/Activity

Group* Physical may be motor or sensory skill

Individualized Skills
- Objectives -
Communication / Social / Cognitive / Daily Life / Motor* / Sensory*

Interactions Across Routines

Prepare child for activity.

Announce what and what will happen

Place materials appropriately

Use special adaptations

Provide opportunities to communicate

Provide opportunities for use of movement strategies

Encourage sibling and peer interaction

Provide opportunities for participation

Provide consistent prompts/cues

Provide appropriate feedback

Wait for child to respond

Let the child know the activity is finished

A Systematic Behavioral Paradigm

Antecedents

Antecedents

Antecedents include adaptations to the visual, auditory, and positioning aspect of the physical environment.

Antecedents also include the level of support that you need to provide for the child to be successful.

The natural occurring steps in a routine or activity serve as a powerful antecedent.

The antecedent conditions should increase the probability that the targeted behavior occurs.

The antecedent conditions should a natural part of the activity if possible.

All aspects of the antecedent should be considered for the individual your child in terms of:

~Visual field

~Reduction of glare

~Special lighting

~Amplification

~Reduced background noise

~Positioning for the optimal response

~Supports or prompts

The supports or prompts should be gradually faded

Determine whether to use paired modes or to lead with one modality and then support with another (CI)

Behaviors

  • Determine the child’s behavior that is being targeted.
  • Break the behavior down into small sequential steps if the student is not successful.
  • The specific form being targeted may need to be “shaped” into the final, targeted form.
  • The child may need supportive accommodations.
  • Determine the “appropriate” time-delay for each individual child.

Behavior Examples

The communication behavior being targeted will include a combination of:

  • A Form
  • A specific Communication Intent
  • A limited number of Content items

Teach a new “form” to an old “function”

Teach a new “function” to an old “form”

Communication Map

Receptive Forms

Expressive Forms

Expressive Functions

  • Attached

Consequences

  • The consequences should be directly related to the antecedent and the behavior.
  • Select highly motivating toys, interactions, food initially
  • Different potential motivators should be continuously assessed to avoid satiation.
  • Generalized consequences may need to be considered for older children.
  • The consequences for challenging behaviors need to be assessed to determine the function the behavior is serving.

Teaching in Social Interactions

Critical behaviors are learned in familiar, repetitive routines and activities

  • Build in beginnings, middles, and ends to each routine/activity.
  • Embbed multiple opportunities to learn in each routine.
  • Don’t hurry through functional routines & activities.
  • Provide maximum consequences for positive behavior.
  • Build more action steps into routine gradually
  • Wait for responses!

Turn-Taking Activities

  • Build in turn-taking whenever possible
  • Take an active role in each activity
  • Take advantage of modeling new behaviors
  • Bring peers into the interaction
  • Use anticipation
  • Wait your turn
  • Wait for the child to indicate his/her turn!

Zone of Proximal Development
Use of Scaffolding (Vygotsky, 1978)

  • Use less intense prompts whenever possible
  • Set the child up to succeed, not to fail
  • Reinforce successive approximations
  • Use partial participation strategies
  • Up the “ante” gradually
  • Pair the old behavior with the new behavior
  • Gradually withdraw your support


Activity
Developing A Routine

CHILD IFSP OBJECTIVES
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ROUTINE: / ROUTINE: / ROUTINE:
BEGINNING / MIDDLE / END
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Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired Outreach

1100 West 45th Street

Austin, TX 78756