Identify 

Knowing your student/s means that you can identify social skills required by one or more students within the class. These skills might also be highlighted by parents, specialists, teachers, the speech-language pathologist, occupational therapist or psychologist. These skills could include:

• saying good-morning
• giving/sharing toys or classroom equipment
• taking turns to complete a known puzzle with a peer
• answering to name
• answering a simple question.

You will also need to identify if a student uses or prefers verbal, non-verbal, or technology-based forms of communication.

Check 

Check that the student has the language and abilities they need to carry out the skills you model. For example, it is unlikely that a student will benefit from you modelling:

• conversational turn-taking when that student has limited verbal ability
• using eye-contact when the child becomes overwhelmed by the facial expressions of others
• answering a question when they do not instinctively respond to speech. 

Establish

When using modelling you need to establish:

• the what – the skill you will model
• the why – the rationale for choosing the skill 
• the how – the steps of the skill.   

Plan

Then plan which relevant opportunities you will use to introduce and model the skill. Plan to model the skill as often as possible. Establish when you can structure modelling into your timetable or future lessons.

It works better if:

• the skill being developed is agreed as a priority for that student at that point in time 
• the student is paying attention to the teacher when the skill is being modelled
• the modelled skill will benefit the student within the classroom
• the student enjoys imitating the behaviour being modelled.

It doesn’t work if:

• skills are only modelled once or twice – modelling must be continuous and consistent
• too many skills are modelled at once
• the student does not have the requisite skills.