The 57 skill-building interventions that included modeling of skills or opportunities to practice skills showed greater improvements in self-regulation than those that did not include this content.

The skill-building interventions in our evidence base covered a wide variety of skills, and those that were most effective employed active learning opportunities to practice and hone self-regulation skills. Successful interventions employed multiple and varied instructional techniques such as modeling, rehearsal, and role-playing. Modeling involves watching a trained individual act out or “model” a skill, usually while describing the actions. Rehearsal is a strategy for memorizing and internalizing a new skill and includes techniques such as repeatedly visualizing how one would use a skill or talking oneself through a process or series of steps. With role playing, participants act out a skill or process with each other to practice using a skill. Role playing often involves feedback from other participants or a provider to help improve performance on the skill.

Opportunities to observe skills in action and practice them in a safe place are designed to help youth learn new skills and internalize them. These strategies are intended to support learning by building “muscle memory” for skill use and allow for contemporaneous correction and feedback, so youth are more likely to be employing self-regulation skills consistently and correctly.

Assess Feasibility

Program content.
Document the extent to which your current program uses modeling, practice, rehearsal, and feedback to support skill development. Determine which skills you could reinforce through modeling and/or practice opportunities.
Staff development.
Do staff have the necessary skills to manage classrooms and facilitate role plays effectively? Do they need training on creating safe and supportive environments for youth to feel comfortable participating?
Program structure.
Assess the current session length, dosage, and duration of your program and whether there is room to add modeling and/or practice opportunities to your lesson plans. If needed, can you extend the length of each session or add additional sessions to cover the same content in addition to modeling and practice time?

Take Action

Consider the following courses of action depending on the results of your feasibility assessment:

Revise lesson plans to ensure youth have sufficient time to practice skills during the program sessions.
Develop logs or journals for youth. Encourage youth to report out on challenging situations during sessions to both reflect on how they did or didn’t use their skills and to create in-session practice opportunities that directly relate to youth’s current environments and life experiences.
Involve youth in creating scripts for, acting in, and producing modeling videos that demonstrate key program skills in real life situations
Build feedback processes into your program. Develop strategies for program staff feedback or peer-to-peer feedback on in-session practice efforts. For example, positively reinforce good skill use and provide constructive feedback on areas needing improvement.
Encourage staff to model skills live. Program staff can demonstrate skills during session time, including first demonstrating how a situation might end up without using skills, pausing to point out effective employment of a skill, and answering questions from youth. Staff can make these sessions interactive and receive feedback from youth as well.
Provide appropriate professional development and ongoing support for staff delivering these sessions.Set aside time to ensure staff gain the necessary skills and have peer and supervisory support to troubleshoot challenges.

Breadcrumb

Use modeling and role play

Outcome

Self-Regulation

Intervention Family

Skill-Building Interventions

Use Modeling and Role Play

Evidence

Assess Feasibility

Take Action

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