Alex & Lucy: simultaneous parallel role set

One of three posts featuring Lucy with Alex, who, like Jo, has got her guiding underpants on over her trousers in a very short space of time :)

Sharon (our external guiding moderator) has seen Alex successfully co-regulate with Lucy in other role sets, and has asked her to see whether Lucy can step into her co-regulatory role in the 'simultaneous parallel' role set.  We briefly covered why being able to co-regulate in different role sets is important in this blogpost.

The simultaneous parallel role set is where two people do the same thing at the same time - in this case, they are carrying a box together. 

What does co-regulation look like in this role set?  We would expect each partner to tune in to non-verbal signals from the other (facial expression, prosody, body movements, gesture) and adapt their role to co-ordinate with their partner.....so for example, if Alex varies her pace (slower, faster), will Lucy pick up on this and correspondingly alter her own pace to match Alex's?  If Alex stops, will Lucy stop?

Here is Alex's footage and own analysis of how she planned for this interaction and what happened.  Alex is in black, Sharon's feedback is in blue and I am in green with any explanatory notes.

 

Framing Plan for ‘Moving the box’    

What is it about: Working together to complete an activity

 

Limit Setting: For us to work together – 2 person job

Roles and Responsibilities: Holding the box; lifting the box at the same time (role set is simultaneous parallel - same thing same time.)

 

Communication for joint referencing points: When encouraging to partake; to lift at the same time; when walking together – acknowledge weight or when to stop; when box is set down in the correct place: to gain attention if Lucy is distracted

Amplifying/Framing in: Sounds – comments as to what has happened whilst doing the activity; to acknowledge success on completion

 

Framing out: Nothing else in the area other than what we are using; mat set up ready as a goal

Thoroughly thought through 

 

 

 

0.00 - I explain to Lucy that we need to move the box on to the mat so that we can read the ‘Boris’ book. Nice 'authentic reason' here from Alex.

0.05 - I encourage Lucy to help by saying “come on – I need you” and showing Lucy a gesture to encourage her to come over.

0.08 - I scaffold by tapping the box to show Lucy where I want her to be – more scaffolding by saying “ready to lift… 1…2… least direct prompt (only one level down from here) would be to just stand at the box holding your end, possibly making noises to indicate it is heavy

0.13 - Lucy says “3 - then Boris”

0.15 -I try to lift the box showing Lucy my intention – then repeat the above. Indirect prompt

0.21 - I explain to Lucy again what my aim is ‘to lift the box together’

0.25 - Lucy doesn’t appear to understand what I want from her so I added a bigger scaffold and showed Lucy where I wanted her to hold the box.

0.38 - I hold Lucy’s hand and place it onto the box as she seemed unaware of the box most direct prompt – and more interested in the contents

0.41 - As soon as I’d placed Lucy’s hand on the box I showed her my intention by standing and saying “ready”

0.42 - I tried to encourage Lucy by saying “1, 2, 3”

0.43 - Lucy joined in with the counting but was not holding the box – I’m still not entirely sure she knows what I want her to do?

0.46 - Another prompt  Direct prompt

0.49 - Lucy’s hand was resting on the box handle so I took the opportunity to lift the box and she took hold immediately – big “wow” to show her she had done what I wanted slightly less direct prompt

0.55 and onwards - lots of prosody used to try to prompt Lucy to look at me so I could smile   moving together - good 

0.59 - Success!

1.03 - Lucy knows when we are at the mat as she makes a squeal noise and starts putting her end of the box down

1.05 - “Now we can read Boris” indicating that we met the objective.

1.10 - “We did it” just to emphasis a job well done

1.23 - Lucy finds Boris and says “read Boris”

Where to: All that thinking through in your framing plan paid off. You were able to work to your role set by increasingly upping your scaffolding as Lucy really did seem unaware of the role she could take here. 

If you were to do this type of activity again where would you think about starting in terms of prompts?   It would be interesting to try something similar to see what happens, what Lucy has remembered and whether she can engage with the least direct prompt or needs a full-on direct prompt.

What we can see from this footage is that at the moment, Lucy just doesn't 'get' this different role set......possibly because she hasn't had much practice in it to date.  You'll see from subsequent posts that it doesn't take her long to get her own underpants on over her trousers in relation to this role set, thanks to both Jo and Alex who have been giving her plenty of opportunities to practice naturally in activities where there has been an authentic reason to enter this role set together.

More superwoman simultaneous parallel soon!