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AT Consultation Model Stage 1 & 2: Method and Intake
Chris Gibbons
10/14/2019 8:39 PM
Our five stage AT consultation model at PROVAIL includes:
1. Method
2. Intake
3. Planning
4. Implementation
5. Analysis
As promised in my initial post introducing the rationale for a consultative model I'll spill a bit more ink here detailing our first two stages, Method and Intake.
Method refers to the overall approach we will take in engaging the needs of the student, family, classroom, staff, and district. This is not always apparent and/or well delineated when we first begin a consultation.
Frequently, we receive a referral addressing the specific AT needs of a student. The referral and early conversations focus on that student's technology or IEP or classroom goals. It is tempting to jump in and only address those immediate needs, solve the problem, send an invoice, and move on to the next case.
The Method stage of our approach provides a moment of pause to assess the bigger picture and have a few short but targeted conversations to answer some critical questions including:
-What will be the specific role of the consultant? (e.g. Direct service, modeling, planner, provide professional development, all and then some?)
-Role of in-house AT team?
-Where are the target sites?
-Who will be the lead clinician?
-What is the planned frequency of consultation?
-What are the district goals?
-Classroom goals?
-Family goals?
-Where is disagreement and alignment?
-What will be process for collaboration across contexts?
Answers to these questions define the Method our consultative service and shape how we approach stage two, Intake. Answering these questions also allows us to more comprehensively address the longer term needs of the student and system level needs of the district. We have found that engaging with this intent leads to far more productive outcomes for student, staff, and the district over the long haul. It also opens the door to conversations about how to build capacity and lift the knowledge and practice of implementation district wide -- one of our primary goals as regional consultants.
So, with a defined Method we are able to engage in Intake activities. These include a concise but comprehensive environmental assessment including baseline surveys (team and student), physical context evaluation, historical and current technology employed, ID team strengths, areas of need, implementation needs, and ID lead team members and their potential roles.
We use a variety of online tools and surveys as well as in-person interviews. Frequently the Intake process interacts seamlessly with Method as we begin to settle in on an overall approach.
Check out the attached example of a few of the survey questions we ask staff to fill out during Intake. Getting this data upfront allows us to periodically assess our impact throughout consultation and to report changes in staff knowledge over time.
Okay, I'll discuss more stages of our model in future posts. Thanks for reading!
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