It’s Time to Prepare for Choice-Making Opportunities!

Before teaching choice-making, it is important to prepare for how choice opportunities will be presented. This process involves the following four steps.

Step 1: Select choice options based on "learner likes." Do this by identifying two or three pairs of items taken from daily routines that the learner enjoys. Mealtimes, leisure, or self-care activities are great starting places!

• Sometimes it is difficult to determine learner likes if choice-making skills are not present. So try to find out what the learner prefers by observing his or her reactions to everyday events.
  
  Example: Maggie gets excited when we have pizza for dinner, but she never willingly eats when we have hamburgers.
  
  

• Reaching for an item, looking at an item or even smiling may indicate a preferred object or activity. Conversely, movement away from an object, resistance to an activity, or a facial grimace may signal a dislike of certain materials or activities.
  
  Example: Maggie goes directly to her books when she enters her playroom. She runs away when I try to do puzzles with her.
  
  
  
• Now that you know the learner’s likes and dislikes, you need to form two or three choice pairs. Choice pairs consist of one option that the learner likes well and another enjoyable option related to that same activity or routine.
  
  Example: Maggie really likes to play with makeup and she likes to brush her hair too. These items would make up one choice pair.
  
  
  
  
• Choice pairs should be as visually and textually different as possible to ensure that the learner can tell them apart.
  
  Example: Milk and orange juice would be good choice pairs because they are both related to mealtimes but look very different, and therefore are easily distinguishable.

Step 2: Identify and define how the learner will signal her choice. Make sure you consistently teach the learner to use the same choice response across all choices.

• Choice responses should always be:
  • Under voluntary control
  • Easily performed
    
  • Readily recognizable to others
    
  • Capable of being physically prompted if necessary
    
    

  Example: "When presented with two choices, Maggie will indicate her choice by pointing to one of the items."
  
  
  

Step 3: In this step you choose routine activities during which you can present the choice pairs. Typically, the types of activities chosen are determined by the nature of the choice pairs.

Example: Good times to present Maggie with choices at home would be during dinner and her bedtime routine. Food-related choices should be presented during mealtimes or snacktime and grooming-related choices should be presented before bed.

Step 4: In the last step of preparation you plan how to present choice opportunities. Remember, the same choice pair is presented several times within one routine. With this in mind, the following two options are suggested:

• Present small portions of an option at a time. When the item is used up, present an opportunity for choice.
  
  Example: We presented Maggie with really small pieces of graham crackers. That way she got to practice choosing graham cracker a lot. When each piece was gone, she could ask for more.
  
  
  
• Start an activity, then stop it. Before restarting the activity, present a choice opportunity.
  
  Example: My mom brushes Maggie’s hair for three strokes and then stops. Then Maggie chooses her brush and my mom brushes three more strokes.