The learner becomes upset when it is time to move to the next activity

The situation

A preferred activity is ending and a less preferred one is next. The learner cries, protests or refuses to move. Nobody is at risk and nothing is being damaged. The learner's plan includes transition strategies.

What the plan usually asks for

1. Use the transition supports the plan specifies — a timer, a visual schedule, a warning — every time, not only when trouble is expected. Antecedent supports work by being predictable. Used inconsistently, they become a signal that something unpleasant is about to happen.
2. Keep your instruction short, deliver it once, and follow the plan's procedure for what happens next. Extra talking at a transition tends to become the attention or the delay that maintains the protest.
3. Follow the plan for reinforcing the transition when it happens, even if it was slow. The transition is the target behavior. What happens after it is what shapes the next one.
4. Record the transition — how long it took, what supports were used, and what happened. Latency to transition is exactly the kind of measure a supervisor uses to judge whether the supports are working.

What not to do

• Do not extend the preferred activity to stop the protest unless the plan allows it; that teaches protesting as a way to keep the activity.
• Do not skip the next activity because the transition was hard.
• Do not add new supports of your own; suggest them to the supervisor instead.

When to tell your supervisor

• Tell your supervisor if transitions are getting longer or harder over several sessions, or if the plan's supports are not being used consistently by others.

Terms used here

• Antecedent Intervention
• Negative Reinforcement
• Latency
• Setting Event