Sensational Social Skills: Building Joint Attention During Instruction

Do you have a student who is hard to engage during instruction? Today's Sensational Social Skills post  will focus on Joint Attention strategies to help your students engage with you so you can teach them new skills. 

If you haven’t already seen our blog on the Foundation for Building Reciprocal Communication, check it out here: 

The Foundation for Building Reciprocal Communication

This blog will talk about the first steps when trying to engage with your student. Before you can expect your student to engage with you for instruction, you need to develop motivation, regulation, and basic self-management.

 

Once you have taken the time to build the foundation, you can determine what you want to teach your student and how to gain joint attention for the lesson. If your student struggles with joint attention, you want to start with something easy to build momentum.

 

One example is a preschool student who was new to the school environment. He struggled to engage with the adults and constantly tried to escape the environment and throw any item placed in his space.

• The first goal was to create a space that provided clear visual and physical boundaries. A wide open space makes joint attention a challenge. Help to narrow the area the student is attending to at the moment using visual screens or strategically placed furniture. A cube chair provided physical boundaries. 

Lisa Turner & Katie Mlod
Mad River ECC, Mad River

• Once this was established, the team focused on teaching the student to take the item placed in front of him, and instead of throwing it across the room, to place it in a bin. 

Denise Campbell
Mad River ECC, Mad River

• Soon the student learned to pull a picture off Velcro and put it in a bin. Only one picture was on the page so it was an errorless task.

• After practicing this basic skills in a structured environment, the student was able to participate during the preschool morning circle using an interactive circle time book.

Miranda Riggs
Mad River ECC, Mad River

Here are some other examples of strategies to support joint attention during instruction:

• Use furniture to create physical boundaries 

Debi Gnau
Mad River ECC, Mad River

• Use a bead box or pillbox to provide small edible treats for task completion. The student can match letters, numbers, or words to get a treat. These small edible reinforcers can allow quick and frequent reinforcement of those challenging or non-preferred tasks.

Debi Gnau
Mad River ECC, Mad River

• Incorporate a fun anticipatory game to gain joint attention during instruction. For example, if using Pop-up Pirate or Jumping Jack (pictured below), the student gets to put in a sword or pull out a carrot for each small task. The anticipation of something popping unexpectedly may keep them engaged. 

Beth Young
Snyder Park Elementary, Springfield

 

• Add personal interest information to assignments such as worksheets, taskboxes, or other activities

Dixie Middle School, New Lebanon

Michelle Barnhart
Bell Creek Intermediate, Bellbrook-Sugarcreek

Michelle Wade
Northridge Elementary, Northridge

Tim Cundiff
Greenville High School, Greenville

• Prior to or during  instruction, gain joint attention through face-to-face physical interaction with  high-fives or these classic hand games: Patty Cake, Say Say Oh Playmate, Hand Slap

 Check out this article with more ideas and video examples:

 Care.com 8 Easy Hand Games for Kids

• During whole group instruction or passive listening, provide instructional visuals for the student to manipulate.  

Rose Jepson
Northridge Elementary, Northridge

Makayla Barbar
Mad River ECC, Mad River

Genevieve Harvey
Walter Shade ECC, West Carrollton

Angie Whip
Northwestern Preschool, Northwestern

Amy Beanblossom
Arcanum-Butler, Arcanum

 

• For non-speaking students, it is important to provide communication supports so that they have needed vocabulary readily available to engage in the activity. 

Emily Ottmar
Stevenson Elementary, Mad River

• During instruction, use a pointer or light to direct the learner’s gaze to the target.

Try some of these strategies with your hard to engage student. It may take multiple tries before a strategy becomes effective. Keep in mind that what works for one learner may not work for all. And finally, always remember your foundation for joint attention: regulation, motivation, and basic self-management.