The Employment Specialist’s Toolkit:

1. The Employment Specialist’s Toolkit: Natural Supports, Job Site Support and Training Strategies, and Facilitation Presented by Tammara Geary Dale DiLeo Lewis Persons

2. Welcome! and Good Morning! Griffin - Hammis Associates, LLC

3. Historically Services to People with Disabilities have focused on: • Caretaking • Fixing • Becoming “Normal” • Getting Ready • Segregation • Proving Themselves • Professional or Expert Control

4. Historically Services to People with Disabilities have focused on: People live and work where they are placed. In this situation there is little ownership or control.

5. The Plan – Start to Finish Maximize Self-Direction and Independence

6. Guiding Principles • We Do Not Allow People to Look Incompetent • We seek Abundance • We seek Adventure • We Write it Down • We Focus on Contribution • We Seek Ecological Not Predictive Validity Griffin

7. Guiding Principles When Teaching • Teach with a Minimum of Conversation • Save Verbals for Reward • The Task is the Reward • Teachers Use Powerful Informing Strategies • Mistakes indicate a Teaching Error • Try Another Way Griffin

8. Natural Supports • Make the Connection and Get Out of the Way • Role of Facilitator of Natural Connections That Occur in the Workplace • Use Typical Hiring, Orientation, Training, Evaluation Procedures • Modification and Support is Supplemental

9. The Seven Phase Sequence • Communicate Natural Ways (Methods) • Promote Natural Means (Supports) • Utilize Natural People (Co-Workers) • Facilitate Successful Performance (Natural & Rehabilitation supports) If these don’t Work… • Support, Assist, Substitute for Natural People • Reconsider Natural Means of Teaching & Support • Adapt, Modify, Change Natural Ways Callahan

10. Job Analysis • Observe the Job • Observe the Environment • Observe the Work Culture • Ask for Explanation/Clarification • Do It Yourself • Confirm Expectations

11. Job Analysis • Core Routines • Episodic Routines • Work-Related Routines • Work Culture

12. Making a Match • Compare the Factors of the Job Analysis with the Person-Centered Plan • The Closer They Align, the Better the Match

13. Planning Training • Remember the “public” nature of the workplace and training space • Focus on supporting the person to be competent • Focus on assisting person to become a valuable member of the team • Establish a training schedule • Build data collection time into the plan

14. Planning Training • Consider natural cues, reinforcers, and other supports within the workplace • Set up training consistent with the work culture • Be mindful of and plan for fading from Day One!

15. Different Intelligences • Linguistic • Logical/Mathematical • Spatial • Musical • Kinesthetic • Interpersonal • Intrapersonal

16. People Learn 10% of what we see 20% of what we hear 50% of what we see and hear 70% of what we discuss with others 80% of what we experiencepersonally 95% of what we teach somebody else

17. Determining Who Does What • Self-Determination and Ownership are Key • Worker Directs • Independence Wherever Possible • Support/Training as Needed • Supplement Everywhere Else

18. Training The Role of the Trainer is to: • Organize the information with the employee. • Support in a respectful manner. • Provide enough information for the employee to learn the job. • Foster independence of the employee. • Ensure that the employee’s performance meets the employer’s standards so they are seen as competent and valued.

19. Training Training should: • Lead to the independent performance of the learner. • Be effective for the person. • Be compatible with the work environment.

20. Training When the employer is training, the employment consultant’s role is to: • Observe the training. • Provide Feedback to the Trainer. • Evaluate the learning of the employee. • Model interactions with the employee for the coworkers. • Present the values of Naturalness. • Stand back and resist the urge to do it yourself!

21. Systematic Instruction: Method, Content, Criterion • Method: How a Task is typically Performed in a Natural Setting • Content: The Steps into Which the Method is divided (TASK ANALYSIS) Consider: How many steps; Alternative methods • Criterion: When the task is performed correctly Griffin

22. Systematic Instruction: Method, Content, Criterion • What is the Method for Washing A Car? • What are the Alternative Methods? • What are the Content Steps for Washing a Car? • What is the Criterion for Success? Griffin

23. Systematic Instruction: Method, Content, Criterion • What is the Method for Cooking an Egg? • What are the Alternative Methods? • What are the Content Steps for Cooking an Egg? • What is the Criterion for Success? Griffin

24. Systematic Instruction: Method, Content, Criterion • What is the Method for Getting Dressed? • What are the Alternative Methods? • What are the Content Steps for Getting Dressed? • What is the Criterion for Success? Callahan

25. Systematic Instruction: Method, Content, Criterion • What’s the Best Method? The One that: • Is the Most Natural & Typical • Meets the Needs of the Learner (How did you learn: Your Job; to Drive; to Fish….)

26. Fading Hazard:Learning Incorrectly Don’t let people make errors. Interrupt errors immediately and make sure the worker performs correctly before moving on with the task. It is much harder to teach someone to do something correctly once they have learned to do it incorrectly.

27. Task Analysis • Organize the steps of the task for teaching. • Remind the trainer of the correct way to complete the task. • Promote consistency in training. • Serve as a data collection method. • Are used to teach Core Routines.

28. Task Analysis • Step by step • Teachable, measurable steps • Break down only as far as necessary for worker success • Break down further if person needs • Consistent language • Observe a coworker to get in right • Focus on performance in that environment • Set up for efficiency

29. Task Analysis • Modify from customary process only if essential • Focus on individual learning style • Focus on enhancing competence

30. Discrepancy Analysis • Organize the steps of the task for teaching. • Includes information about natural cues and consequences. • Assists the trainer in deciding which steps to teach and for which to provide adaptations. • Used with Job Related Duties and Episodic Routines (tasks that occur infrequently).

31. Discrepancy Analysis • A particularly useful tool when stuck on fading. • Helps identify not only steps that the worker does not perform independently, but also: • what he does instead • what natural cues are present • what natural consequences are present • Information can be used to make decisions about training, modifications, tools, accommodations, etc.

32. Systematic Instruction: Practice Teaching • Before Beginning, Explain the Task and Demonstrate • Use Time Delay • Allow for Self-Correction • Intervene after a decision is made but before the learner acts • Apologize for Mistakes Gold; Callahan, Griffin

33. Systematic Instruction: Practice Teaching • Recognize that Correction may Demotivate the Learner • Start correction by asking the Learner to self-critique performance • Reset the task if the Trainer misses a Mistake • Offer naturally appropriate feedback and explain that the Learner is allowed to self-correct Gold; Callahan, Griffin

34. Systematic Instruction: Practice Teaching • Lay out the work correctly • Allow the Learner to Own more and more of each step • Stand behind; Side by Side to Fade • Use Instructional Assists such as: Written lists, Adaptations, Photos… • Use the Assist most typical for the environment and add power as needed… Gold; Callahan, Griffin

35. Systematic Instruction: Practice Teaching, Reinforcement & Motivation • Motivation: Natural features of an environment that promote desire, initiative, cooperation & other desired behaviors • Reinforcement: the purposeful arrangement of events in order to increase recurrence of desired behavior • No News is Good News!! The Task should be Reinforcing!! Gold; Callahan, Griffin

36. Types of Prompts or Cues • Verbal • Gestures • Modeling or Demonstration • Physical

37. Hierarchy of Prompts or Cues • Gestures • Verbal • Modeling or Demonstration • Physical

38. Fading Intensity ofPrompts or Cues Type of Cue Modeling/Demonstration Cue at beginning of Training Demonstrate task for learner Later Cues Co-work task with learner

39. Fading Intensity ofPrompts or Cues Type of Cue Verbal Cue at beginning of Training Short info packed phrases Later Cues More conversational

40. Fading Intensity ofPrompts or Cues Type of Cue Gestures Cue at beginning of Training Exact simulation or direct point Later Cues Questioning gesture

41. Fading Intensity ofPrompts or Cues Type of Cue Physical Cue at beginning of Training Manipulate learners fingers Later Cues Hand over Hand Elbow Shoulder Nudge or touch learner

42. Fading Hazard Cue Dependency People get “hooked” on the trainer for various reasons. Often the problem is dependency on the verbal and nonverbal cues the trainer provides

43. Foundations of Fading:Avoiding Cue Dependency The trainer must be constantly aware of their own verbal and nonverbal communication. Interactions should be fairly “flat” or neutral. If the worker is not progressing or the support staff cannot fade, one of the first things to look at is cue dependency.

44. Fading Hazard Reinforcement Dependency People get “hooked” on the trainer for various reasons. Often the problem is dependency on the verbal and nonverbal praise or other more tangible reinforcers the trainer provides.

45. Foundations of Fading:Avoiding Reinforcement Dependency Verbal praise should be minimized from the start. Provide only what is necessary to keep the learner engaged in the task. Fade the praise early and definitely once the individual has mastered a step. Avoid use of “artificial” reinforcers… Focus on using “natural” reinforcers. If the worker is not progressing or the support staff cannot fade, one of the first things to look at is reinforcement dependency.

46. Fading Hazard Employer Dependency Employers get “hooked” on the ES staff for various reasons. Most frequently this occurs as a result of: • The Job Development Pitch and initial understanding of the relationship. • The ES staff inadvertently “over-serving” their function.

47. Foundations of Fading:Avoiding Employer Dependency Present the worker as competent. The worker should participate in the “natural” flow of the workplace – orientation, training, breaks, etc. Facilitate supervision…Don’t do it yourself!

48. Foundations of Fading:Data Collection Probe Data Shows what parts of a task the worker performs withoutany form of prompting, feedback, or reinforcement.

49. Foundations of Fading:Data Collection Probe Data • Should be collected at the start of training (baseline) • Should be collected at least once per week

50. Foundations of Fading:Data Collection Collection of Probe Data • Position yourself out of the worker’s way • Let the worker know they will be working without assistance • Provide basic cue to start working • Wait 3-5 seconds for response • Record a + for correct performance or a – for incorrect performance • If incorrect, set up for the next step • Repeat until data collected on entire task