TL;DR:
- Improve transitions by understanding they are a series of steps linked together, watching the warnings, teaching students how to transition, highlighting moments of success, and using visuals.
- Remember that not all transitions are created equal.
- Break down barriers and personalize the techniques to fit the needs of your individual students.
Improve transitions: Not all transitions are created equal.
When it comes to teaching students about transitioning, there is one common error that I see time and time again (and yes, I’m included in that mix). ?? ?????? ???? ??? ??? ??????????? ??? ??????? ?????.
What do I mean? ??? ????? ??????? ???? ???? ????? ?????????? ???????????.
In any given classroom or school building, hundreds of transitions occur, and often, many at the same time! We may find a student transitioning from a non-preferred activity to a preferred activity and another transitioning from preferred activity to another preferred activity.
We might find a student transitioning from a preferred to non-preferred task or even a student transitioning that involves a location change. Those are just a few examples of the types of transitions that can happen throughout a school day. In addition to that, add in other variables such as sights, sounds, smells…no wonder transitions are difficult!
Like so many things related to behavior change, teaching transitions can not use a one size fits all strategy. Personalize your approach to your student in the specific context and build from there! Click To TweetImprove transitions: Where to begin?
Remember that not all transitions are created equal, and therefore as educators, we can break down which specific transitions are most challenging for our students and which are not. Then, this will help in our ability to identify tools and techniques to use to specifically support individual students challenged with specific transitions. Like so many things related to behavior change, teaching transitions can not use a one size fits all strategy. ??????????? ???? ???????? ?? ???? ??????? ?? ??? ???????? ??????? ??? ????? ???? ?????!
Not sure where to start? Here are five tools to help you get started!
1. Understand that transitions are a series of steps linked together.
Instead of looking at the whole transition being challenging, identify what parts are the most challenging, and start there. For example, when leaving a preferred activity to enter into a non-preferred activity, maybe the difficult step is leaving the preferred activity, but once they do, they can enter into the non preferred with less support. Instead of focusing on the whole transition, we can first focus on teaching the student how to leave a preferred activity. When breaking down a transition, here are some key steps to consider:
- Stopping an activity
- Leaving the activity
- Wait time between activities
- Entering into a new activity, starting a new activity
- Location changes
No wonder transitions can be tough! Add preferred and nonpreferred tasks to the mix, and wow! That’s a lot of combinations! To keep it simple and specific to your student, watch for patterns, and start small!
2. Watch the warnings.
Yes – I said it! So often we hear, “give warnings.” However, for some of our students, this will increase anxiety and frustration, especially if what is coming next is a non-preferred activity. For example, imagine you are in the dentist’s office waiting for a root canal. If the dentist told you 15 minutes, 10 minutes, 5 minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute – would this increase or decrease your anxiety for the root canal? For many of us, it would probably increase our anxiety about the upcoming dental work!
Therefore, if you have a student whose anxiety increases during warnings, consider teaching the student how to adapt to warnings, or use a different technique instead!
3. Teach how to transition.
Break the transition down into steps. Teach each step in isolation and provide reinforcement for every step of success along the way! Remember, reinforcement can be a simple thumbs-up, smile, or a fun phrase!
4. Highlight moments of success.
Success leads to confidence which leads to higher levels of success. As educators, we can celebrate the parts of the transition that are successful and highlight those whenever possible. Use the term transition in your celebrations, such as “you transitioned so quickly from math to gym today, that was amazing!” to further highlight the successful moment!
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5. Use visuals to improve transitions.
We can visualize with the student where they are going, what they will be doing, what comes next, and when they will be done. This will naturally reduce the anxiety of the unknowns. In other words, visuals can help students to understand the purpose behind each transition!
Next time you have a student challenged by transitions, give these a try! Remember that not all transitions are equal. It’s time to break down those barriers and personalize the techniques to fit the needs of your individual students!
About Lindsay Titus
Lindsay Titus is a K-12 Behavior Specialist with a license in behavior analyst. As a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Lindsay coaches and trains educators on the study of behavior and how to implement evidence based behavior principles in simple and easy ways! With experience as a classroom special education teacher, and behavior specialist in public schools, residential placement, and private settings, Lindsay enjoys working with all educators looking to reignite their passion for education, connect with all students, and conquer challenging behavior in any classroom setting.
