Parent Perspective
Archie’s parents are currently concerned with Archie’s disorganization, inattention to details, and difficulty transitioning. They explain that Archie does not put items away and often misplaces essential daily items, like his toothbrush and backpack. Archie has trouble transitioning from preferred activities and requires repeated reminders. Archie’s parents report that Archie has trouble taking breaks from preferred activities. For example, Archie will play video games for extended periods of time and refuses to take breaks for essential activities, like going to the bathroom or eating dinner.
Mr. Watkins’ Perspective
Mr. Watkins has observed similar behaviors at school. Additionally, he’s noticed Archie is very disorganized and has trouble proofreading his work. Rather than put papers in appropriate binders, he shoves them in his backpack. Often this disorganization makes it difficult for Archie to find assignments for class. Additionally, Archie rarely proofreads his work and struggles to make corrections. Though he will cursorily look over his work, Archie leaves careless mistakes that cost him points on assignments.
Hear Mr. Watkins share more about Archie:
Supporting Skills
Asking for help
Sometimes, Archie struggles with independent assignments and becomes frustrated. Although his teachers are all willing to help him, Archie does not usually ask for help when he’s stuck. Instead, he simply skips questions / problems he doesn’t understand. Although Mr. Watkins tries to prepare Archie for assignments and ensures assignments are appropriately challenging, Archie inevitably encounters problems he cannot complete independently. Mr. Watkins is concerned Archie will fall behind academically if he continues to skip parts of assignments he finds challenging.
Preparing for class
Additionally, although Archie has kept up with peers on academic tasks, he makes careless mistakes which may impact his progress. For example, Archie will often forget to write his name on his paper or skip simple punctuation marks in written assignments. He doesn’t prepare for class or organize his materials, increasing the possibility of making mistakes.
When teachers ask students to turn in assignments, Archie takes several minutes to locate the assignment in his backpack and sometimes cannot find the assignment at all. He has to borrow writing utensils from his peers or the teacher nearly every class period, even though his parents have purchased new pens and pencils for him several times throughout the school year. Archie cannot find anything to write with because his backpack is so messy.
Dealing with transitions
Archie focuses well on preferred activities at home and school, but struggles to transition from preferred to non-preferred activities. At school, Archie will color and draw for his entire study period and continue until after the bell rings. In general, Archie has trouble leaving activities before the activity has been completed. For example, Archie did not want to leave art class every day for a week when they were working on clay sculptures and was upset that he was not able to mold, bake, and paint his sculpture in one class period.
Archie participated in virtual reality social skills instruction to practice his school, home, and community skills. Mr. Watkins worked to help him generalize the skills he learned in real-life settings. Click on the links below to see how Mr. Watkins developed a lesson for each skill.
Archie’s Lesson Plans
Deals With Transitions
During VOISS lessons, Archie learned to intermittently monitor the clock during his 90-minute classes and anticipate the bell for transitioning at 90 minutes. However, Archie was still arriving late for class. When he did arrive on time, he often did not have...
Able to Make Corrections / Changes When Requested
During VOISS lessons, Archie learned to look over completed assignments twice before submitting them to his teachers. Specifically, he learned to check for capital letters at the beginning of sentences. Mr. Watkins created a lesson to help Archie practice the skill of...
Prepares for Class
During VOISS lessons, Archie learned to sort school materials into appropriate locations. He learned to put papers in school folders and writing utensils into a pencil bag. He also learned to put these materials into a backpack. Though satisfied with Archie’s...
Takes a Break (Both Self-Initiated and Initiated by Others)
During VOISS lessons, Archie learned to set a timer and take a five-minute break during every hour he was engaged in a preferred activity. He also learned to take breaks from activities upon adult request. Mr. Watkins created a lesson to help Archie practice the...
Asks for Help
During VOISS lessons, Archie learned to raise his hand and ask for help when he encountered a problem / question on an in-class assignment that he could not complete independently. Mr. Watkins created a lesson to help Archie practice the skill of asking for help...