Friday, October 10, 2008
Plans
It has been pointed out to me that I am not very good about keeping up this blog. I apologize. You're right. So here is a new post!
I originally created this blog to spread the word about the SNAP Curriculum. I am happy to say that the curriculum is now being used in over half of the states and by an agency in Ireland. Plus it has been published in a national catalog. That's very exciting and personally rewarding. If you are new here, the address is www.snapcurriculum.org.
Now I have something new. I have written a guidebook about writing Individual Service Plans. I have cleverly entitled it - Individual Service Plan Guidelines.
It's 58 pages of a basic "how to" for writing Individual Service Plans... or whatever you call your plans. It has step by step explanations for thinking out each component of a plan including Long Range Goals, Objectives, and Criteria.
Long Range Goals are what the person wants for someday in their life. It may be to live in an apartment of their own or to get a job at McDonald's, or as one of our clients said, "I want to live a stress free life." I cover how to arrive at a Long Range Goal.
Objectives are a statement of what specifically we are going to teach the client that will help them on their journey towards their Long Range Goal. Why can't Bob get an apartment of his own now? What skill or skills are preventing him from doing that? Too many times I have seen Objectives stating that "Bob will be able to cross the street safely." Yes, "crossing the street safely" is a skill that will help Bob to live on his own someday, but "crossing the street" is a whole series of tasks. Which one or ones can't Bob do? Can he negotiate across the street before the light turns red in his direction? No? Then let's work on that skill. I cover writing Objectives for a skill that is brand new to the client as well as ones that allow them practice of a skill as well as behavioral skills. How do you write a plan for a behavioral skill such as impulsive intrusion?
Criteria is a statement of how we are going to measure progress on the Objective. We generally measure by speed, quality, frequency or accuracy. If you don't define 'what is success' for the Objective, then you won't know how to measure it. "Following a 3 step plan" is not a measurement.
This book guides you through the thought process for all of this (plus a lot more). I have included lots of specific examples geared towards working with adults with developmental disabilities as well as assessment forms and questionnaires that you might use to gather information before a person's ISP meeting.
I also included an introduction to the basics of some instructional processes such as shaping, chaining and a prompting hierarchy.
I am quick to point out that this book is not the only way to write plans, or even necessarily the "best way" to write them. It is a compilation of what I have learned and personally tried out. We have seen some real success in our program by using these plan principles. I just got tired of plans with Objectives of, "Bob will be able to count change," and we will measure the Objective by, "Bob will count change twice per week." I just made that up, but we used to do things pretty close to that silly.
If you are interested, e-mail me at ispguide@yahoo.com and I will send you a couple of sample pages. Or let me know and I will tell you how to go ahead and order. The price is $20.00 plus $2.00 shipping (plus sales tax if you live in Calif.).
I originally created this blog to spread the word about the SNAP Curriculum. I am happy to say that the curriculum is now being used in over half of the states and by an agency in Ireland. Plus it has been published in a national catalog. That's very exciting and personally rewarding. If you are new here, the address is www.snapcurriculum.org.
Now I have something new. I have written a guidebook about writing Individual Service Plans. I have cleverly entitled it - Individual Service Plan Guidelines.
It's 58 pages of a basic "how to" for writing Individual Service Plans... or whatever you call your plans. It has step by step explanations for thinking out each component of a plan including Long Range Goals, Objectives, and Criteria.
Long Range Goals are what the person wants for someday in their life. It may be to live in an apartment of their own or to get a job at McDonald's, or as one of our clients said, "I want to live a stress free life." I cover how to arrive at a Long Range Goal.
Objectives are a statement of what specifically we are going to teach the client that will help them on their journey towards their Long Range Goal. Why can't Bob get an apartment of his own now? What skill or skills are preventing him from doing that? Too many times I have seen Objectives stating that "Bob will be able to cross the street safely." Yes, "crossing the street safely" is a skill that will help Bob to live on his own someday, but "crossing the street" is a whole series of tasks. Which one or ones can't Bob do? Can he negotiate across the street before the light turns red in his direction? No? Then let's work on that skill. I cover writing Objectives for a skill that is brand new to the client as well as ones that allow them practice of a skill as well as behavioral skills. How do you write a plan for a behavioral skill such as impulsive intrusion?
Criteria is a statement of how we are going to measure progress on the Objective. We generally measure by speed, quality, frequency or accuracy. If you don't define 'what is success' for the Objective, then you won't know how to measure it. "Following a 3 step plan" is not a measurement.
This book guides you through the thought process for all of this (plus a lot more). I have included lots of specific examples geared towards working with adults with developmental disabilities as well as assessment forms and questionnaires that you might use to gather information before a person's ISP meeting.
I also included an introduction to the basics of some instructional processes such as shaping, chaining and a prompting hierarchy.
I am quick to point out that this book is not the only way to write plans, or even necessarily the "best way" to write them. It is a compilation of what I have learned and personally tried out. We have seen some real success in our program by using these plan principles. I just got tired of plans with Objectives of, "Bob will be able to count change," and we will measure the Objective by, "Bob will count change twice per week." I just made that up, but we used to do things pretty close to that silly.
If you are interested, e-mail me at ispguide@yahoo.com and I will send you a couple of sample pages. Or let me know and I will tell you how to go ahead and order. The price is $20.00 plus $2.00 shipping (plus sales tax if you live in Calif.).
