Interventions for

Before you start, a few important points:

Interventions:

Reduce the Stress of Transition

• Give cues

  • • Visual timer

    • Drop card on desk that says “time to change classes”, etc.

    • Google Images - For copyright purposes, make sure to click on “Tools”, then “Usage Rights”, then check “labeled for reuse or labeled for noncommercial reuse”

    • Students create their own visual supports

    • They choose visual representations that are most meaningful to them

    • Going through the illustration process helps them comprehend the content of visual support and own it.

• Five-Minute Countdown

  • • 5 Minutes Warning before transition and counting down to provide multiple reminders that the transition is coming.  

    • Verbally

    • Holding up fingers

    • Visual countdown strip with numbers that can be crossed out or removed

• Timers

  • • Visual timers work best to make to make the abstract concept of elapsed time more concrete

      • www.timetimer.com

      • http://www.online-stopwatch.com/

      • Sand timers (large, small, various times) can be purchased off Amazon

      • Kitchen egg timers that count up or down 

      • Be careful of timers that tick as the ticking can trigger stress in some students

      • Stopwatch on student’s desk

• Transition Objects

  • • Students carry a preferred object (stuff animal, music, sensory object, etc.) with them during transitions to make the transition more reinforcing and distract the students form the not-so-reinforcing task that’s coming next

Visual Steps for Planning Transitions

• • Post purpose of tasks

  • Post sequence of tasks

  • Visual agendas

  • To-Do Lists

    • • Start small with 3 items and build. 

      • Have student check off tasks as he/she completes them.

Transfer of Skills to Different Situations and Environments

• • Teach explicitly

    • • Teach when and where the new skill will be useful.

      • Practice the strategy in different settings with different problems.

        • • Example - Same guidelines for partner work in each subject area

      • Poster listing rules of strategy such as working with a partner

        • • Each day discuss 1 rule and how it might need to adjust as various situations arise