The beginning of the school year brings with it baseline measurements for students. These baselines can be trickier to obtain when it comes to measuring social interactions, communication skills, emotional regulation, job preparedness skills, or safety skills. With a few tweaks on the part of the teacher or therapist, Floreo lessons can be adjusted to get a clear picture of where your students are starting in these areas.
For social interactions: Teachers and therapists can strategically edit or omit some of the coaching banner language that appears on the right-hand side of the Coach Web Experience. These banners will typically begin by reading: "You say: ..." or "Help the Learner..." In order to measure a baseline, the Coach might begin a lesson such as Choose Your Greeting, Greetings in Motion: High Traffic or Populated Small Talk in Motion: High Traffic. Instead of providing the Learner with specifics about this situation, the Coach can say to the Learner, "Imagine being in this hallway and seeing this kid. How do you think you might respond?"
For Learners who have very limited spoken language, consider using Safari Survey to see a Learner's ability to respond non-verbally to a variety of stimuli (pointing, looking, movement, sound) in their environment.
For safety skills: For street crossing, consider using Don't Follow the Jaywalker! in which the Learner has to refrain from correcting the jaywalker, and then follow a routine to cross the street. Instead of the Coaching language provided in the banners, a teacher can try instructions such as "All right, try to cross the street now," and, if the Learner gets stuck, the teacher might say, "What's next?" rather than using the more specific language (such as, "How do you get the light to change?" or "Check for cars on the right...")
For other community-based skills: Are your Learners able to locate items in a grocery store? Try picking 3 items that you might see in the Floreo store and then implement Orienting to the Grocery Store. See if your Learners can efficiently find those items on the Floreo shelves.
For Emotional Regulation routines: Your Learners may be able to independently follow some in-VR instructions to support emotional regulation. Before starting, get a gauge of your Learner's status by using a program such as Zones of Regulation or similar resource. Then, ask your Learner to move through Guided Focus for Body Relaxation or Yoga Poses. After the Floreo lesson, ask your Learner to self-evaluate once more to determine if additional support is needed here. Floreo also has a self-evaluation tool built into Peaceful Painting VR experience.
Floreo can be used periodically throughout the year to track a student's progress in this manner. If you would like some other ideas on how to use Floreo as a baseline measure and progress tracker, please reach out to us. We would be happy to discuss specifics about your Learners.