Lesson 4

Job Site Training - slide 8

Compensatory Strategies & Self-Management
Labels
Picture Cues
Checklists
Pictorial Job-Duty Booklet
Pre-taped instructions
Tactile cues

We have already talked about most of the items that you see on the laundry list on this slide. All of these things are strategies that an individual could use in order to be successful in self-management of work tasks. I would like to give you some examples to stimulate some thought. If we were all in a room together we could brain storm and probably come up with as many ideas as there were people in the room.

Which brings me to an important point that I haven’t mentioned in this lecture, the power of brainstorming, with your co-workers, your supervisor, the employers, and the customer. It is also important to ask the person whom you are working with for his/her feedback on your ideas. The best-laid plans tend to fail when the customer is not included in the design and implementation of the idea. If you come up with an idea to put pre-taped instructions on an audiocassette, and then attempt to implement it along with music that plays (so every once in a while you would be interrupting the music on the tape with instructions), but the customer doesn’t like it the strategy is doomed to fail. Don’t forget to include all parties involved in the accommodation with whatever you are doing to facilitate the individual learning the task.
Let’s just throw out a couple of ideas. We are all familiar with pictorial job duty booklets, which is simply a small book that the individual can use to remember the sequence of his/her job duties. One of the things to consider when developing a pictorial job duty book would be the size of the book. If you’ve got something that looks like your notebook from college that the person has to carry around with them, it will probably not be effective. However, if you could find a small notebook that the individual could carry in a pocket that may be of assistance. Make sure to consider size. If you are going to use a picture book, don’t put 5,000 pictures in the book if 5 will do. Keeping the book as simple as possible is usually the best rule of thumb.

The next thing we should consider in this example is the age-appropriateness of the material. Is this something that an adult would use? As an example, a customer who was working in a vet was required to stop work when asked to assist the vet with an animal. Every time he was interrupted he would forget where he was and what he was doing. The employment specialist thought it would be an excellent idea to get an etch a sketch erasable board from the dime store, allowing the person to write in the tablet where he was when he returned from helping the vet, and after pulling the film up it would magically disappear!

The issue was that this was an adult male and using a child’s tablet or magic writing pad (not sure of technical term) was not age-appropriate. If the person could write, why not get him a small notebook that can be placed in a coat pocket? In fact, this strategy was implement in a 3x5 size tablet. He was able to note his place in the notebook and put it in his pocket. When he returned he would read it, rip out the page, and throw it away (it still magically disappeared!). We must be conscientious about the stigma that we can place on a person with some of our ideas.

Another thing to think about would be the durability of the material you are putting in place. Will they need to be replaced? Will a co-worker or an employer take that responsibility? Whatever is added, there must be a plan for you to fade, a plan for the addition to fade if necessary, or some on-going monitoring should be put into place so that person continues to be successful with the strategy that you have identified.