Mr. Zamarrón knew Brandy needed to generalize this skill across appropriate settings (i.e., setting generalization). Brandy needed to accept changes in routines during all class periods throughout the school day. Mr. Zamarrón decided to operationalize a single objective to determine setting generalization had occurred:

• When an adult announces a change in routines or expectations, Brandy will comply with the change without verbally protesting or asking to revert to the expected activity on 9/10 opportunities.

Mr. Zamarrón needed to determine an instructional setting and method that were most compatible with the operationally-defined objective. Though he considered small group instruction, he decided that because the skill involved an interaction between an adult and Brandy, 1-1 instruction was most appropriate. Finally, he decided that he could explicitly teach Brandy about different types of changes that might occur using direct instruction.

• Instructional Setting: 1-1
• Instructional Method: Direct instruction

Having defined his objective and determined an instructional method and setting, Mr. Zamarrón needed to select a support strategy and generalization tactic. Many kids follow changes initiated by adults to avoid negative attention and gain positive attention (i.e., praise). Accordingly, Mr. Zamarrón decided he would train Brandy’s teachers to prompt and reinforce the skill. Specifically, he would teach the general education teachers to reinforce Brandy for demonstrating the target skill using Brandy’s token reinforcement system.

• Generalization Tactic: Train others to support to prompt and reinforce
• Support Strategy: Reinforcement

Mr. Zamarrón’s Lesson on “Dealing with Change Initiated by Others”

Carrying Out the Direct Instruction Lesson

Mr. Zamarrón began the 1-1 direct instruction lesson by explaining the purpose of the activity. He reminded Brandy that sometimes her routine would change, but that it’s important to be flexible. Mr. Zamarrón prepared a few examples of situations involving changes in routines / expectations. 

Mr. Zamarrón first read a brief scenario and pretended to be Brandy. He explained what Brandy should (and should not) say and do, and most importantly, why Brandy should say or do these specific things in response to change. Next, they went through situations together and discussed the appropriate course of action. Mr. Zamarrón prompted Brandy to consider the appropriate way to respond to different changes in schedule and provided corrective and reinforcing feedback. Mr. Zamarrón then asked Brandy to read through several scenarios aloud and describe what she should say and do in the specific situation. During this independent practice, Mr. Zamarrón did not prompt Brandy, but he provided immediate corrective and reinforcing feedback. Finally, Mr. Zamarrón and Brandy discussed other changes in routines that might occur, and they described how Brandy should respond.

Recruiting Staff Support

After the lesson, Mr. Zamarrón met with Brandy’s general education teachers to train them to prompt and reinforce the targeted skill. He explained Brandy was working on tolerating changes in her routine. He told them that they could help by rewarding Brandy when a routine changed and Brandy did not ask repeated questions or protest. 

He then explained Brandy’s token reinforcement system: Brandy collected five checkmarks to access her reinforcement menu. When Brandy demonstrated the target skill, her teachers could walk over to Brandy, provide brief behavior-specific praise, and ask to see her token system. Mr. Zamarrón told them Brandy knew where her token system was located and would flip to the appropriate page in her binder. They would then simply mark a check on her token system and initial it.