What Comes Before ____? : The Intro Recorded Session

Pre-Recorded Session . Not a live event. Webinar Recording will be available via your Eventbrite ticket purchase.

Introducing the “What comes before _____” series!

Attempts to teach _____ to students can be ineffectual and, worse yet, can cause harm to the student-teacher relationship. Some learners are averse to ANY teacher interaction, much less to work interactions. The last thing we should do with them is work on a skill that is far too difficult for them! Many students are moderately willing to go along with clear and easy expectations. Extensive work on very difficult expectations can easily undermine this repertoire.

For example, meet “Pete”.

. He has little history with instruction and much less history with success.

· His teachers have a list of goals that they’re supposed to teach this year, like identifying common pictures, touching body parts, requesting items, and doing toothbrushing. As required by his IEP (or by his treatment plan, if working in an ABA clinic), teachers work on each of these goals each day.

Sound familiar?

If so, then you’re probably also familiar with these too common outcomes: with each passing day, Pete is a little slower to come to work, he scans a little less, looks away when teachers call his name, guesses, resists “assistance” and memorizes correction procedures. Loosely speaking, he is developing “baggage”…becoming harder and harder to teach.

His teachers are developing unhealthy tendencies, too!

They try harder to earn his attention, dangling treats in front of him like a carrot on a stick, repeating his name, asking him what he wants to work for, looking for increasingly powerful “reinforcers”, and tapping his chin.

There may not be a single “answer” to these challenges, like finding more effective reinforcers, following through more consistently with expectations, or teaching Pete to communicate “all done”. Frequently, the most relevant answer is not only the least explored, but also the most difficult to understand…finding or inventing instructional targets that meet Pete’s current levels. If he won’t try to do a puzzle…

· Will he try to put a circle into a shape sorter?

· If not, will he try to drop a block into an open box?

· If not, will he reach for a preferred item?

That may be your starting point for him! That may help you begin to establish a student-teacher relationship! That may make it possible to eventually target those IEP or treatment plan objectives more directly.

It takes a long time to learn what behaviors come before _____, especially when these are tool skills or under-recognized learner repertoires.

So, what are those skills and repertoires that come before the targets you’re trying to teach?

Along the way, we are introducing a problem-solving app, R U Teaching (aka, “RUT”). In the late stages of development, participants in the “What comes before ____” series will be afforded free access to the RUT app and will be asked to provide feedback to help inform later versions.

Welcome to the “What comes before _____” series! We’re going to tackle popular targets, like discrete trial training, manding and listening skills.

We welcome your requests for topics.