| Do a needs assessment and develop a plan
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| social acceptance skills
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| prime person ahead for what to expect
teach protocols with friendships
teach protocol for continued contact with family
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| Maybe visits to the home first. Then soial stories to support the "what ifs". Clear scheduleing for when she will see parents.
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| Solutions for this Problem Scenario
1. Social Skills and Expectations Training
Implement structured social coaching to help her understand boundaries, shared spaces, and appropriate ways to initiate and maintain friendships with housemates.
Use role-playing and video modeling to help her recognize social cues, personal space, and conflict resolution.
Develop a peer-matching system within the home to facilitate natural connections with housemates.
2. Safety Training for Independent Living Skills
Implement task analysis for higher-risk activities (e.g., cooking) to determine what skills she can safely do independently and where supervision or adaptations are needed.
Teach alternative safe meal preparation methods, such as using a microwave or pre-cut ingredients.
Introduce visual cues and checklists for safety procedures (e.g., “Turn off stove after use,” “Use oven mitts,” etc.).
3. Emotional and Coping Supports for Missing Parents
Establish a structured communication plan so she has predictable calls or visits with her parents.
Introduce self-management strategies for coping with homesickness (e.g., a visual schedule of enjoyable activities, journaling, social stories about transition).
Set up gradual desensitization by scheduling incremental overnight stays before full-time placement.
4. Environmental Adaptations & Reinforcement Systems
Use visual supports (e.g., a personalized home schedule, step-by-step routines) to ease her transition.
Provide reinforcement for safe and appropriate independence (e.g., verbal praise, preferred activities).
Train group home staff in Positive Behavior Support (PBS) to reinforce adaptive behaviors and provide guidance as needed.
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| Program supports are needed
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| More independence with academic tasks
Asking for teacher feedback
Self-monitoring
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| To support a successful transition, structured expectation setting should be introduced to help individuals navigate friendships and independence safely. A social skills program can be implemented, including role-playing and direct instruction on appropriate expectations for friendships with housemates. To address safety concerns, task analysis, and supervised practice should be used to teach safe cooking and household management skills. A gradual independence plan can allow the individual to take on more responsibilities with support before attempting them alone. Emotional support strategies, such as scheduled family visits, video calls, and a familiarization plan (e.g., bringing personal items from home), can ease the transition and reduce feelings of homesickness. Ongoing parent collaboration and periodic behavior analyst check-ins will help monitor progress and adjust support as needed.
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| teaching in peer cues, supports, additional training,
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| Set up interactions with peers. Talk to individual to manage expectations
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| Assess the group home and have expectation made clear to adult; check supports available to prevent accidents ; ensure group home staff are familiar and reassure parents; Start with short visit to familiar the adult to the home perhaps when the home is empty of peers to become comfortable with staff and new home.
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| Social acceptance / making friends
Cooperative learning
Incorporating interests into social opportunities
Social validation of how peers act, what they talk about
The learner’s experience of inclusion is unclear
Ask learner for feedback
Document engagement across various inclusion activities and contexts
Ask parents about changes they have observed
Learning environmental cues and routines
Ecological assessment
Social stories
BST
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| Identify if the group home is the correct inclusion environment where safety is concerned, direct instruction around social skills and peer interactions
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| Review expectations and protocols with learner prior to transition to new environment. Include safety protocols, daily routines, understanding when to cue admin/staff for assistance. Reinforce learned environmental cues, i.e. ecological assessments, social stories, BST to prepare for transition and train staff at program to support implementation.
Review social skills training with learner, encourage initiation/response with models, guided practice and support cooperative interactions
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| The learner needs supports and teaching formats that will allow her to feel comfortable in her new home and learn routines that will help her adapt appropriately to a new style of living without her parents.
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