Below is a general skill sequence for helping learners understand basic emotions using emoticons.
Hey BCBAs! When diving into the early stages of emotional identification, starting with emoticons can be a game-changer. Their distinct facial features are often less overwhelming and more easily grasped by certain learners. Begin by having learners match these expressive icons, then move on to receptive identification by expression and emotion. Once they're acing those emoticons, transitioning to familiar faces becomes a smoother journey.
Treatment Plan Goal Ideas
This is a list of treatment plan goals. These are different from the goals you will find in the skill sequence below. Your treatment plan goals encompass any number of goals from the skill sequence. Sometime they will include multiple goals from the sequence (”Learner will label 5 toys”) and sometimes the treatment plan goal will be simply consist of a really important goal from the skill sequence (”Will label caregiver”). An analogy I like to use goes as follows: Each skill sequence goal (commonly known as a “target”) represent each stair in a flight of stairs. The treatment plan goal is the flight itself.
Treatment plan goal ideas for this particular skill area are as follows:
- When presented with an emoticon, learner will label the corresponding emotion for five emotions.
- When presented with an emoticon, learner will label the corresponding emotion for ten emotions.
Component Skills
Your learner may need to be fluent in these component skills first before introducing this goal/skill area. Component skills for this skill sequence may include skill areas that are fundamental to other areas. Fluency in the skill areas listed below may increase the likelihood that your learner will succeed in this skill sequence and those afterward.
Intro to Scanning 
Intro to Matching (Visual Perception) 
Following Gestures
Matches Common Items in 2D Array 1.0 (Identical)
Receptively IDs Common Items in 2D Array
Labels Common Items 1.0
Labels Familiar People
Labels Emoticon Expressions in 2D Skill Possibilities
Below is a possible skill sequence for working on increasing your learner’s ability to follow instructions with multi-functional toys. Note that every learner is different and that you likely will need to tweak and vary some programming to their needs. Click the triangle icon to view the full description for each skill in the sequence/area.
Concurrent Skills
Working on these skills at the same time could help with goal mastery. Maybe your learner has mastered these skills already. Perhaps they are already listed as component skills above. That’s okay! Targeting other learning channels might help your learner.
Labels Own BehaviorLabels Emoticon Expressions in 2D 
Labels with Noun-Verb Combos 1.0Composite Skills
These are the possible next steps for learners who have mastered, or are mastering, the skills listed above. Note that new skill areas may require fluency in other component skills not listed above. Also, you can introduce composite skill sequences prematurely to keep your learner progressing, as generativity may occur earlier than expected.
Labels Basic Emotions of Family/Strangers (Facial Expressions)Follow the link below to better understand component-composite analysis.
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