BrainSTARS: Initiation Jeanne E. Dise-Lewis, PhD, Margaret Lohr Calvery, PhD, and Hal C. Lewis, PhD, BrainSTARS

Don’t assume that your student will start an activity independently just because he knows what he is supposed to do or can say what he plans to do.  When a student has trouble putting his thoughts into action he is probably not “unmotivated,” “disinterested,” or “lazy.” 

Use everyday activities to build skills:

1. With younger children, play “Simon Says.”
2. Give a physical prompt to help him get started .
3. Involve your child in structured and supervised groups that meet on a routine basis (clubs, Girl/Boy Scouts, sporting teams, etc.).
4. Assign co-leadership with another peer who can serve as a model in classroom workgroups, games or P.E. activities, or club projects.

Change the environment:

1. Initiation difficulties require adult intervention and planning.  Do not interpret passivity as a lack of interest.
2. Do not give instructions about future behaviors or activities; focus on the immediate situation.
3. As the adult, you need to take the initiative.  For example,  assign  workgroups or pairs  for a classroom project, instead of assuming ability to work independently.

Teach new skills:

1. Teach your child to use cues, such as a watch alarm, timer, picture checklist, or a written schedule to remind himself to get started on an activity.
2. Tape record your student’s morning routine as he goes through it one day, recording specific prompts to go from one activity to the next. Then, allow him to try the routine using only the tape recording, with yourself “standing by” for assistance or to make changes in the tape.
3. Establish “say-do” routines in which you help your child to first state what he is going to do and them immediately do it.
4. Don’t wait for your child to initiate age appropriate social activities. Anticipate and plan events that you know he will enjoy.  Social relationships will develop more easily in small groups.

See other BrainSTARS articles.

From BrainSTARS, Brain Injury: Strategies for Teams And Re-education for Students, © 2002 Jeanne Dise-Lewis, PhD. Used with permission. The manual is available in English and Spanish. For more information or to order copies, call 720.777.5470 or chris.moores@childrenscolorado.org. A short video on how to use the BrainSTARS manual is available at www.youtube.com/BrainSTARSprogram.

Jeanne Dise-Lewis, PhD is a child clinical psychologist, director of the Psychology Program for the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at The Children’s Hospital, and Professor of Psychiatry and Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus. Dr. Dise-Lewis is a Magna cum Laude graduate of St. Joseph’s University in Philadelphia, the University of Pennsylvania (MS in Human Learning and Development), and the University of Denver (PhD in Child Clinical Psychology). A member of the faculty of the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center since 1984, Dr. Dise-Lewis has extensive experience in working with children and families of individuals who have acquired brain injuries. For the past 23 years, she has been the director of the Rehabilitation Psychology Services at The Children’s Hospital, creating several innovative programs of services for children who have medical needs and their families. She has developed workshops and presented papers nationwide in the area of pediatric traumatic brain injury.  She has been the principle investigator of three federal grants and has developed the BrainSTARS Manual, along with other innovative consultation programs regarding acquired brain injuries in children and adolescents. She is the PI of a grant funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention titled “An Investigation of Outcomes associated with Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury” and currently is the co-director of a Personnel Preparation grant funded by the US Department of Education, “Preparing School Psychologists to Meet the Needs of Students who have Acquired Brain Injury.” 

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