Rohanna Buchanan & JP Davis Oregon Social Learning Center, Eugene, Oregon Making the Skills Trainer an Active Part of the Team

Skills Trainers The Role Community Activities The Clinical Team Meeting and Supervision The Skills Trainer and the Individual Therapist What barriers do you have with making the skills trainers an active part of the team?

The Role They look like they are floating calmly on top of the water… …but underwater they are working like crazy! The skills coach is always focused on what to reinforce, ignore, redirect, pre-teach, etc. to set the youth up to be successful. A good skills coach is like a duck:

The Community Connecting youth to community activities

Clinical Gathering Information Observing the youth in their natural habitat Case Example: Willy Review skills trainer session with Willy What did the skills trainer see? What did the skills trainer reinforce? What did the skills trainer ignore? What did the skills trainer pre-teach? What did the skills trainer model? What could the skills trainer do next week? How do the activities connect to the youth’s goals?

Clinical Communicating Information The clinical team meeting It is critical that the skills trainers attend the clinical meeting, and that they are called upon to share information about their sessions. The skills trainers are in a unique position to bring relevant day-to-day information about the youth to the team Supervision Check-in with the program supervisor before AND after sessions Attend the clinical team meeting 1:1 supervision with the program supervisor

The Skills Trainer and the Individual Therapist Interventions Across Roles Program Supervisor Skills TrainerIndividual Therapist

Example: Manners PS directs the IT and ST to work on manners IT: Role Play please and thank you ST: Model and reinforce using please and thank you in the community

Conclusion Effective skills trainers are like a duck on the water They look calm, but underwater they are paddling like crazy! Use the skills trainers to connect the youth to community activities Use the skills trainers to collect day-to-day information about the youth in the community and have them share that information with the clinical team