Considerations for Sequencing PLS

Quick Wins

Some skills in the PLS program may be acquired by children more quickly than other skills. Teaching these skills first is going to provide more opportunities to reinforce each child's successful performance and potentially decrease problem behavior sooner. Child success is also more reinforcing for the teacher instructing the child. These “quick win” skills make up a category of the PLS curriculum - Instruction Following Skills. This is the recommended progression if you want some quick wins in your classroom: 

1. Instruction Following Skills

2. Functional Communication Skills

3. Tolerance Skills

4. Friendship Skills

Communication Needs

Research suggests that increasing communication skills leads to positive social experiences and reductions in problem behaviors. With this in mind, many educators find it valuable to begin by teaching the Functional Communication Skills category of the PLS program first. This provides basic communication skills that can lead into higher level social-communication skills. If you are working with children with limited communication skills, it is recommended that you start teaching communication skills right away. You may teach the PLS communication skills or you may be addressing communication skills through another curriculum or IEP goals. Keep in mind that you can address communication skills at the same time as other PLS skills. This is the recommended progression if you want to target communication needs in your classroom first:

1. Functional Communication Skills

2. Tolerance Skills

3. Instruction Following Skills

4. Friendship Skills

Whole Group

If you are teaching the skills to a whole group, consider the most important needs for the group as a whole and be attentive to the successes and challenges you may experience when teaching each of the skill sets. Consider using the PLS Questionnaire and review the Quick Wins and Communication Needs information above. 

Individual Children

If you are teaching the skills to an individual child, consider what is most important for that child based on the PLS Questionnaire and the considerations above (Quick Wins and Communication Needs). When utilizing the PLS Questionnaire or other assessment tools, you will identify strengths and needs to target your teaching resources in the most logical and efficient way. As an example, if a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) has identified that a primary function of the behavior of the child you are working with is attention, you may want to begin with skills found in Functional Communication Skills. The recommended progression for a specific child will be individualized. 

Highest Success in Implementation

The PLS teaching program helps preschoolers learn critical skills and it can dramatically alter a classroom environment. This can be highly reinforcing for the classroom team to see the children have success. Experiencing Quick Wins early in the teaching process is encouraging and builds momentum to keep going. You may decide to start by teaching a skill that will result in quick successes to get buy-in from the classroom team, students, and families and then move to other skill priorities based on the PLS Questionnaire or other program assessments.