Ms. Rao especially wanted George to respond appropriately to expected and unexpected behaviors at lunch and in P.E. class. These were the settings where expected and unexpected behaviors were most likely to occur. Because Ms. Rao wanted to teach George to respond appropriately in different settings, she focused on response generalization. She operationally defined two objectives to measure the effect of his generalization lessons:

• When a peer engages in an expected behavior, George will continue with the activity he was engaged in prior to the behavior and he will not stare at the peer on 9/10 opportunities.
• When a peer engages in an unexpected behavior, George will ask a teacher for help on 9/10 opportunities.

• Instructional Setting: Small group
• Instructional Method: Role play

To ensure George generalized the targeted skills, Ms. Rao also needed a support strategy and generalization tactic. She knew that George still had some trouble distinguishing between expected and unexpected behavior. She decided she would teach multiple examples of expected and unexpected behavior to promote generalization. Ms. Rao also knew that she would not always be there to support George when an unexpected (or expected) behavior occurred. Adult prompting would be unnatural in these situations. She decided that through training them to be peer coaches, peers would be best able to redirect George when someone engaged in an expected or unexpected behavior.

• Generalization Tactic: Teach multiple examples
• Support Strategy: Peer coaching

Ms. Rao’s Lesson on “Using Observation to Identify Expected and Unexpected Behaviors”

Recruiting Peer Support

Prior to the role play lesson, Ms. Rao met with a group of three peers to discuss the purpose of the role play lesson and train them to be peer coaches. She explained what George had been learning and told them they could help him learn to respond appropriately to expected and unexpected behaviors. Together, they created 16 short scripts, so Ms. Rao could teach the skill through multiple examples. Each script took place in a school setting and involved a behavior that was either expected or unexpected. 

Ms. Rao told the peers that even with teaching, George might need some help responding to both unexpected and generally expected behaviors. She told the peers that if another person was engaging in an expected behavior and George looked upset or distracted, they could help by reengaging George in the activity. For example, if they were eating lunch with George and George became upset because he overheard a student at another table say a curse word, the peers could ask George a question about his weekend plans. Alternatively, if George looked uncomfortable because someone else was engaging in an unexpected behavior, the peers could help by validating George’s feelings (e.g., “I see [peer’s name] is acting kinda strange”) and prompting George to ask a teacher about the situation. Ms. Rao and the peer group acted out different situations, and the peers practiced helping George respond to different types of behaviors.

Carrying Out the Role Play Lesson

Ms. Rao began the small group role play lesson by reviewing the definitions of expected and unexpected behaviors and reminding the group of the appropriate ways to respond to each type of behavior. Then, she distributed one set of scripts to the peers and described the setting of each script. In each script, George played the role of the person reacting to an expected or unexpected behavior. 

At first, Ms. Rao had George observe three short role plays. She prompted George to describe the behavior as expected or unexpected, and they discussed the appropriate way to respond. Next, George participated in the role play. At the conclusion of each script, Ms. Rao guided the group in a brief discussion. They talked about how they knew the behavior was expected or unexpected and why George’s response was appropriate or inappropriate.