Ms. Jones wanted Arturo to generalize the skills he learned in VOISS across school settings and activities. Specifically, Ms. Jones wanted Arturo to greet peers during passing periods and at lunch time.

Ms. Jones operationally defined two outcomes that indicated her generalization lessons were effective:

• When a preferred peer is walking toward Arturo and looking at him, Arturo will look toward the peer and say, “Hey [peer name],” or wave to the peer on 9/10 opportunities.
• When a peer says “Bye” or “See you later” (or equivalent) at the end of a social interaction, Arturo will say “See ya” or “Bye” while facing the peer on 9/10 opportunities.

Next, Ms. Jones chose a setting for the lesson. She knew Arturo had an hour of weekly social skills instruction and received 60 minutes a day of pull-out instruction to target skills across classroom settings. Ms. Jones decided to prepare video models of greetings across settings and deliver this instruction in a 1-1 setting.

• Instructional Setting: 1-1
• Instructional Method: Video modeling

Ms. Jones noted that Arturo’s paraprofessional, Mr. Katz, provided support for him throughout his day. Ms. Jones trained Mr. Katz to prompt Arturo to say, “Hey” or “See ya” by lightly tapping him on his shoulder and pointing to the peer. Mr. Katz would also utilize Arturo’s token reinforcement system. Additionally, Ms. Jones knew she needed to train specific peers to create opportunities for Arturo to greet them in the hallway. These support strategies (prompting and peer coaching) would promote generalization and could be faded to reduce dependence on adults.

• Generalization Tactic: Train others to prompt and reinforce
• Support Strategy: Prompting (gestural), peer coaching, reinforcement

Ms. Jones’ Lesson on “Greeting Others”

Creating Video Models

Prior to the lesson, Ms. Jones prepared video models (VM) of greetings occurring in school hallways and cafeteria. She recruited six preferred peers for these videos and recorded them walking in the hallway or engaging in conversations.

She also recruited a peer, Danny, to play the role of Arturo in the videos. The peers acted out several instances of walking toward “Arturo” in the hallway and cafeteria and looking toward him. In these videos, Danny said, “Hey [peer name],” or waved to the peer. The students also acted out conversations in the cafeteria and modeled various conclusions to conversations. Danny modeled saying “See ya” or “Bye” at an appropriate volume, while oriented toward the group. Danny walked away after saying goodbye.

Using the VM with Arturo

Ms. Jones finalized the video edits and created a voice-over for each video. In the voiceover, she described aspects of his peers’ behavior that indicated it would be appropriate to greet them or say “Bye” / “See ya.” She also described specific features of Danny’s behavior (e.g., appropriate volume, body oriented toward peer).

Ms. Jones chose not to create voice-overs for several of the videos so Arturo could practice describing features of the peers’ and Danny’s behavior. She began her 1-1 lesson with Arturo by stating the instructional objectives. Arturo watched several voiced-over videos independently. Then, Ms. Jones and Arturo watched the videos without voice-overs. She paused the videos at opportune moments and asked Arturo to describe peers’ and Danny’s behaviors. She explained that he would encounter these situations throughout his school day.

Recruiting peer support

Ms. Jones also wanted peers to create opportunities for Arturo to initiate greetings. This would give Arturo the opportunity to use these skills in relevant and authentic ways. She trained the same peers to make eye contact and smile. To give Arturo lengthier opportunities to respond, the peers would walk by slowly or pause. They also modeled how to interact by consistently greeting Arturo after he said hello.

Recruiting Support from the Paraprofessional

Ms. Jones met with Arturo’s paraprofessional, Mr. Katz, to share what Arturo had learned and to train him to support these newly-learned skills. Ms. Jones gave Mr. Katz a list of names of peers who were trained to help Arturo verbally express greetings and farewells. Mr. Katz agreed to gently tap Arturo on the shoulder and / or point to his peers to prompt Arturo to use the new skills.

Ms. Jones asked Mr. Katz to prompt Arturo to face his peers when he said “Bye”/ “See ya.” Following an opportunity to greet or say farewell to a peer, Mr. Katz would explain specifically what Arturo did correctly or incorrectly, and would reinforce correct responses with a token.