Ms. Rao thought it was important for Rico to have well-rounded self-advocacy skills, and she wanted to make sure he could ask for information and recruit help when necessary. Because this would involve Rico learning different responses, Ms. Rao was focusing on response generalization. She operationally defined two objectives:

• When Rico is stuck on a school assignment or interested in a lecture topic and wants additional information, he will raise his hand and ask for help or more information on 9/10 opportunities.
• When Rico encounters a non-academic problem he cannot resolve independently (e.g., he needs to call his parents for a ride but does not have a cell phone), he will ask for help on 9/10 opportunities.

• Instructional Setting: Small Group
• Instructional Method: Role Play

Although many of the self-awareness and advocacy skills were not naturally reinforcing, Ms. Rao thought that the targeted skills for this lesson had natural reinforcement contingencies. That is, asking for necessary / desired information or for help resulted in reinforcement. Rico would receive assistance or information when he demonstrated the operationally-defined skills. 

During VOISS training, Ms. Rao learned that embedded opportunities involved contriving motivating situations to promote generalization. Ms. Rao considered how some situations in which Rico would need to ask for help or information would be less motivating than others. For example, because Rico reported that science was his least favorite subject, he was unlikely to be motivated to inquire about the anatomy of a cell during biology class. Instead, Rico was more likely to ask for information during class on a preferred topic, like history. She decided she would contrive several situations after the role play to promote generalization. Finally, Ms. Rao would develop a hand signal to prompt Rico to ask for help or more information.

• Generalization Tactic: Embedded Opportunities
• Support Strategy: Prompting

Ms. Rao’s Lesson on “Advocating for Self”

Preparing the Role Play

Having identified the key elements for teaching Rico self-advocacy skills, Ms. Rao thought it might be useful to think through and script some of her instructional delivery. Role play requires specific roles for players, situations, and scripts for players to follow, much like a short play. She decided that two of the role plays would focus on teaching Rico to raise his hand and request information. In these scenarios, peers would play the roles of classmates, but would have limited speaking parts. The other two role plays would involve situations in which Rico had to ask a peer for help. 

Carrying Out the Small Group Instruction Lesson

Ms. Rao planned to have four students (including Rico) participate in the small group instruction. The lesson began with Ms. Rao explaining to the students what the role play entailed. She gave the students the scripts. At first, the students acted out the two scripts related to asking for more information, while Rico watched. One student played the teacher, and another student played Rico’s role. Ms. Rao explained when and why it was appropriate for Rico to raise his hand and request additional information. She also taught Rico her hand signal, a raised hand. She told him she would prompt him this way during class. After watching his peers rehearse a couple of times, Rico participated in the role play and practiced raising his hand and asking for additional information. 

Ms. Rao then repeated the activity with the final two scripts. Scripts for these scenarios focused on asking someone for help. After Rico watched his peers act out these scripts, Ms. Rao explained when and why it was appropriate to ask someone for help. Then he participated in the role plays.

Following the role play, Ms. Rao asked the students to identify other situations where they may desire additional information or require help. She prompted them to think about how these situations might occur throughout the school day and what they could say and do to acquire information or assistance.

Creating Embedded Opportunities

Following the lesson, Ms. Rao met with two of Rico’s teachers to contrive situations where Rico would want more information. For example, Rico’s history teacher was about to cover a unit on Ancient Egypt. Ms. Rao knew Rico was very interested in ancient civilizations and would be especially fascinated by Cleopatra and her history. Thus, she would ask his history teacher to create an embedded opportunity using this motivating topic. She asked the teacher to briefly introduce Cleopatra and pause for a few moments to allow Rico to ask for more information about Cleopatra’s interesting history.