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For students with deficits in basic skills (such as greeting/introducing self to others, listening, conversing appropriately, etc.) JRC offers a guided training intervention, consisting of staff/teacher-led practice sessions using training videos, student practice of new skills, and staff/peer feedback. The training videos display examples of correct and incorrect displays of a given skill and the student is asked to judge each film clip and say whether the skills executed correctly or not. The film clips may be presented on the JRC Tutor software which presents a film clip, gives the student the opportunity to make a multiple choice answer, gives the student an immediate knowledge of whether he/she was correct or not on that answer, and scores the student in terms of his/her rates correct and incorrect.
For example, many students have difficult handling frustration, criticism or punishment without getting angry, throwing a tantrum, or displaying other unwise, inappropriate behavior. The programmed opportunity scheme is applied to this problem in the following way. Certain selected staff members will, from time to time, deliberately arrange frustrating situations for a student from time to time; for example, the staff member might pinpoint the student for displaying an inappropriate behavior that the student did not, in fact display, and arrange some punishment (e.g., a token fine) for that behavior. If the student handles this situation without displaying inappropriate behavior, he/she is rewarded. If not, the student receives a punishment. All social skills interventions are designed by a student’s team of treatment staff members (clinician, case manager, program designer), and are revised on a regular basis. |
Many students referred to JRC have difficulties
exhibiting appropriate social behavior when interacting with others,
particularly when faced with difficult or frustrating circumstances. JRC
offers a range of interventions for improving students’ social behavior
skills. 
In addition, JRC
gives students intensive practice in displaying appropriate social skills
in real-life situations. To do this, JRC implements “programmed
opportunities,” in which staff members systematically introduce a
challenging social situation to students and students receive
incentives/rewards for correct demonstration of the targeted skill and
corrective consequences if they respond inappropriately. These
interventions can be tailored to target a student’s particular social
skill difficulties (such as anger control, poor attention/focus, etc.). 