Post on 19-Jan-2018
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COACHING: A VERSATILE STRATEGY FOR PROMOTING
EXECUTIVE SKILL DEVELOPMENT
Peg Dawson, Ed.D.dawson.peg@gmail.com
smartbutscatteredkids.com
COACHING An intervention strategy in which a coach (either an adult or a peer) works with a student to set goals (long-term, short-term, or daily) designed to enhance executive skills and lead to improved self-regulation.
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The coaching concept• The concept of a coach is slippery. Coaches are
not teachers, but they teach. They’re not your boss—in professional tennis, golf, and skating, the athlete hires and fires the coach—but they can be bossy. They don’t even have to be good at the sport. The famous Olympic gymnastics coach Bela Karolyi couldn’t do a split if his life depended on it. Mainly, they observe, they judge, and they guide. (Atul Gawande, 2011)
• Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/10/03/111003fa_fact_gawande#ixzz1cj72OpU8
Élite performers, researchers say, must engage in “deliberate practice”—sustained, mindful efforts to develop the full range of abilities that success requires. Expertise, as the formula goes, requires going from unconscious incompetence to conscious incompetence to conscious competence and finally to unconscious competence. The coach provides the outside eyes and ears, and makes you aware of where you’re falling short. This is tricky. Human beings resist exposure and critique; our brains are well defended. So coaches use a variety of approaches—showing what other, respected colleagues do, for instance, or reviewing videos of the subject’s performance. The most common, however, is just conversation.
Key components of coaching
• Correspondence training• Goal-setting • Daily coaching sessions to make daily
plans to achieve goals• Teaching students self-management
strategies
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Correspondence trainingCorrespondence training is based
on the notion (well-documented in research) that when individuals make a verbal commitment to engage in a behavior at some later point, this increases the likelihood that they will actually carry out the behavior.
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Correspondence trainingWhat the research says Guidelines for practice
“Say-Do” is more effective than “Do-Say”
Have the student state what he/she intends to do prior to performing the promised behavior (e.g., “I will raise my hand during circle time;” “I will spend 1 hour studying for my social studies test tonight.”)
Reinforcing the youngster for performing the behavior they’ve promised to do works better than reinforcing them for making the promise.
Praise the student after he/she has performed the target behavior (“I saw you raised your hand 4 times during circle time—you did what you said you would do!”)
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Correspondence trainingWhat the research says Guidelines for practice
For youngsters who lack verbal skills, verbalization of intent can be replaced by rehearsal or demonstration of the desired behavior.
This approach could be used with students with autism—for example, having them point to a picture of sitting with another student in the cafeteria to show that they will initiate social contact.
Correspondence training may be particularly effective when the youngster is allowed to choose the behavior to engage in.
Whenever possible, involve the youngster in selecting the target behavior, either using free choice or providing options to choose from.
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Goal-settingExtensive empirical research has
documented the value of goal-setting in promoting high levels of performance—in both adults and children.
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Goals serve 4 primary purposes
• They direct behavior (toward task-relevant and away from task-irrelevant behavior)
• They energize• They encourage persistence• They motivate people to discover and
use task-relevant knowledge and skills
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In the first stage of coaching, we ask students to set goals
• Goals may be academic, social, or behavioral depending on individual students’ needs.
• We may ask students to set long-term goals, or we may focus on more short-term goals (marking period goals, weekly goals, daily goals).
• Throughout the coaching process, we remind students of the goals they have set—and we help them track their progress toward achieving their goals.
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In the second stage, coaches meet with students to make daily plans
linked to their goals.Basic Format: R.E.A.P.
• Review: go over the plans made at the previous coaching session to determine if the plans were carried out as intended.
• Evaluate: how well did it go? Did the student do what he said he would do? If not, why not?
• Anticipate: Talk about what tasks the student plans to accomplish today--be sure to review upcoming tests, long-term assignments.
• Plan: Have the student identify when he plans to do each task, and, when appropriate, how he plans to do each task.
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Table of Contents
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Who Can Be a Coach?
• A school psychologist• A special education teacher• A favorite teacher• A guidance counselor• An intern• A paraprofessional (classroom or personal aide)• A volunteer who’s been trained• A peer
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Characteristics of Good Coaches
• They like kids and relate to them in a natural way
• They are empathic and good listeners• They’re reliable, organized, and have good
planning skills• They teach more through questions than
lectures• They have training in coaching
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Coaching Ground Rules• Must be voluntary with teenagers (exceptions
apply to younger students)
• Coaching sessions can be brief but must occur daily in the beginning
• Provide lots of support up front; fade gradually with success
• Build in ways to verify student reports
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Coaching Alternatives• Group coaching—use during homeroom
period or in advisor groups• Peer coaching—train honor students to
coach at-risk students• Reciprocal coaching—have students work
in pairs to coach each other• Train older students to coach younger
students
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Daily Coaching SessionsBuild in mini-lessons where appropriate:
• How to study for tests• How to organize a writing assignment• How to break down a long-term
assignments• How to organize notebooks• How to manage time (resist temptations)
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Peer Coaching for Social Skills Development
Target child: Adam, a 5th grade boy with ADHD—lots of energy, poor impulse control, smart but by 5th grade was being excluded by peers. At recess he spent time on the periphery…alone or with younger children.
Goal of coaching: help Adam engage more with classmates at recess.
Peer Coaching for Social Skills Development
Before coaching began, school psychologist:• Asked teacher to nominate a classmate to
be Adam’s coach.• Invited classmate to be the peer coach.• Contacted both Adam’s parents and peer
coach’s parents to get permission for their participation.
• Checked with Adam to see if he thought the peer coach was someone he could work with.
Peer Coaching for Social Skills Development
Before coaching began, school psychologist:• Met with Adam and peer coach to explain
the process. Key points:– Explained that “everybody has something
they need help with” and this was to help Adam play with kids at recess.
– Described coaching as a “partnership” with both boys working together. The coach is “an extra set of eyes and ears” to see when Adam’s being successful.
Peer Coaching for Social Skills Development
Before coaching began, school psychologist:• Met with Adam and peer coach to explain the
process. Key points:– Explained goal-setting (emphasis on reachable
goals, with a menu of possible goals).– Generated menu of reinforcers, with different
values (e.g., reward basket with small things like pencils, stickers, sparkly bracelets, silly putty, as well as activity rewards such as extra computer time or reading time).
Peer Coaching for Social Skills Development
Before coaching began, school psychologist:
– Explained how the coaching sessions would work and how goal sheets would be completed.
Peer Coaching for Social Skills Development
Daily Coaching Process:• Each morning at beginning of school
Adam and his peer coach met and he set a goal, choosing from a menu of options.
• Just before recess, peer coach reminded Adam of his goal.
• Just after recess, Adam and his peer coach met to rate how well he did.
Peer Coaching for Social Skills Development
Weekly sessions with Coach Supervisor (SP):• On Fridays, Coach Supervisor had a lunch
meeting with Adam and his peer coach to review the week.
• Coach Supervisor reviewed daily goal sheets and asked Adam about them (why he’d selected the goals he did, how he thought it went, why a day went well or not well, etc.).
• Coach Supervisor helped Adam and peer coach add weekly points and select appropriate reward.
Does peer coaching work?• Plumer and Stoner (2005) did a study that
combined peer tutoring (working on academic goals) with peer coaching.
• Outcome measure: positive social interactions with peers (interval recording) observed during academic times and during lunch and recess.
Study Findings
• Peer tutoring improved social interactions in academic settings but not in lunch and recess.
• During peer coaching phase, positive social interactions improved in lunch and recess (from 32% to 62% for 1 student, from 47 to 75% for the second student, and from 69 to 90% for the third.
Study Findings• Furthermore, not only were these students
spending much more time positively socially interacting with peers during recess and lunch, but most of the children they were interacting with were NOT their peer coaches. Thus, generalization was achieved!!