I had the pleasure of working with a 7th grade student, with whom I tutor, in a 1:1 working situation in his home to introduce the Socially Wise Program. The student has a learning/language disability and was recently diagnosed with autism. His social skill goals, according to his mother with regards to his IEP, include maintaining a conversation for several turns while staying on the topic, initiating a conversation with peers and adults appropriately, and understanding emotions including facial expressions and body language. The student is still working on basic decoding skills, has difficulty with articulation as well as adding morphological endings consistently. His reading difficulties made handling the speed and level of text during the Blaster activity quite a challenge. We met initially where he completed the Introduction to Socially Wise. We met a second time where he completed the Dealing with Critical Feedback lesson. Due to some modifications I needed to make to assist the student with the literacy components move through the program, it took us an extended amount of time. Although I did not time the lesson, I am going to estimate the time was about 1.5 hours at the minimum.
The student quickly understood how to login to the program, use the returning student code, and maneuver through each lesson component. Since we were in a 1:1 situation, he did not use headphones. The challenge came in the form of how to accommodate for his underlying literacy skills. Although I was certainly able to do that in our 1:1 situation, it makes me wonder how to assist students with a similar level of need in a larger group. Due to the level of reading needed for the flashcards and Blaster, I do wish that the speed of the text could be slowed down in the Blaster activity. During the role playing activity during the Introduction to SW, the student became more focused on seeing his face on the video, which made it a little challenging to match the facial expression to the sound of the voice. For example, when he was supposed to demonstrate an angry voice/expression, he started to smile because he saw himself on the video. When this was discussed, he was able to accurately model both again. (video turned off!) During the role playing scenario during Dealing with Critical Feedback, it was a struggle! His siblings were not home so I had to role play with him. He chose scenario #3-Role playing at a school dance. He had a difficult time "pretending" when he was the learner. Just setting up the scenario, pretending he was with a friend created our initial road block. Coming up with the name of a friend was a challenge. When I suggested using his brother's name as the friend at the dance, he simply said, "Br" isn't here. I had to just name a generic person and move on. Although we had the SEE and TACT steps available to assist as a reminder during the role playing, he did stay calm; he did not acknowledge the feedback or ask for clarification, even though he needed it, nor did he tailor a mature response. He did not have the attention or stamina to reverse the roles, so we stopped here. I know that this student needs to continue to work on these skills and would benefit from going through each scenario to practice receiving and giving feedback.
The student quickly understood how to login to the program, use the returning student code, and maneuver through each lesson component. Since we were in a 1:1 situation, he did not use headphones. The challenge came in the form of how to accommodate for his underlying literacy skills. Although I was certainly able to do that in our 1:1 situation, it makes me wonder how to assist students with a similar level of need in a larger group. Due to the level of reading needed for the flashcards and Blaster, I do wish that the speed of the text could be slowed down in the Blaster activity. During the role playing activity during the Introduction to SW, the student became more focused on seeing his face on the video, which made it a little challenging to match the facial expression to the sound of the voice. For example, when he was supposed to demonstrate an angry voice/expression, he started to smile because he saw himself on the video. When this was discussed, he was able to accurately model both again. (video turned off!) During the role playing scenario during Dealing with Critical Feedback, it was a struggle! His siblings were not home so I had to role play with him. He chose scenario #3-Role playing at a school dance. He had a difficult time "pretending" when he was the learner. Just setting up the scenario, pretending he was with a friend created our initial road block. Coming up with the name of a friend was a challenge. When I suggested using his brother's name as the friend at the dance, he simply said, "Br" isn't here. I had to just name a generic person and move on. Although we had the SEE and TACT steps available to assist as a reminder during the role playing, he did stay calm; he did not acknowledge the feedback or ask for clarification, even though he needed it, nor did he tailor a mature response. He did not have the attention or stamina to reverse the roles, so we stopped here. I know that this student needs to continue to work on these skills and would benefit from going through each scenario to practice receiving and giving feedback.