Amira is 15, in Grade 10. She's autistic, communicates with an AAC tablet and some words, and knows everything about bus routes. Her favourite thing is to watch the bus dropping students off at school. Her SSP has goals for communication, food preparation and workplace routines.

Amira's family came to Winnipeg four years ago. Her parents speak some English and work opposite shifts; Amira's younger brother is also autistic, also with high support needs. There is not much money and not much time in her family. Some mornings Amira arrives without breakfast, and some weeks without a shower. Her older sister Amina, in Grade 12 at the same school, makes her lunch when there's something to make it with, walks her to class, and has stopped going to her own spares with friends. Amina would love to play volleyball but she needs to care for her younger siblings before and after school.

Carol has been Amira's EA since September. Monday morning she meets Amira at the door, takes her backpack, hangs it up, sets up her first task, and does all she can to help Amira, including cleaning up her desk, organizing her belongings and writing in her agenda.

DISCUSS, 3 minutes with the person beside you

Thursday is Amira's canteen job. Watch the scene twice.

Carol walks Amira to the counter, hands the cashier Amira's money, takes the change, says "Say thank you, Amira," and zips the coin purse.

Carol shows Amira a picture card of the three steps before they go. At the counter, Carol stands two steps back and counts silently to five. The cashier looks at Carol; Carol looks at Amira. Amira puts her money on the counter. The cashier gives Amira the change. Amira taps "thank you" on her tablet.

The prompt ladder, least to most: natural cue (the goal), visual, gesture, verbal, model, physical (only if in the plan, with consent; avoid hand-over-hand). Give the chance first, wait, then the smallest prompt that works (AFIRM for Paraeducators, Sam et al., 2024 update). Prompting is one of 28 practices identified as evidence based for autistic children, youth and young adults (Hume et al., 2021).

Amira taps 'thank you' on her tablet. Now the question nobody asks: how often do the adults around her touch that tablet? Modelling means the adult uses the student's device or letter board while speaking: point to the words as you say them, pause, and wait. A student learning AAC is learning a language. Imagine learning a language nobody around you ever speaks.

At Amira's school, staff have worries. When Amira is overwhelmed she sometimes shouts phrases about war and weapons, words she repeats from videos. It frightens new staff. And when the resource teacher gently asked her parents how things were going at home, they said everything was fine. Later, Amina told Carol the truth: her parents have heard that if you tell the school too much, CFS can take your child. So they say everything is fine.

When Amira is overwhelmed, her thinking brain is not available. Bruce Perry's order for adults is regulate, then relate, then reason: help the body calm, connect, and only then talk. Reasoning first (lectures, consequences, 'what were you thinking?') starts at the top and skips the two steps that make reasoning possible. And Stuart Ablon's reminder: behaviour like Amira's is a skill gap, not a choice. Kids who struggle this way are often trying harder than anyone else in the room.

In Manitoba, Amira can stay in school until she graduates or until June of the calendar year she turns 21 (Bridging to Adulthood, 2023, p. 12). Her transition timeline has already started: case manager at high school entry, EAPD referral possible at 16, adult-service referrals one to two years before leaving (pp. 7, 9).

Jordan is 20, in his final year. He has an intellectual disability, a great laugh, and a work-experience placement at a grocery store two mornings a week. Pat has been his EA for three years.

Tuesday, 10:40. Jordan finishes his recycling route. Pat says, "Good job, buddy, take a break," and hands Jordan his phone. Jordan watches videos for 20 minutes. Pat and the other EA catch up about their weekends.

Here is the part of Jordan's story that happens in the staff room. At his school, one case manager holds the file of every student with exceptional needs: students who use AAC, students on curriculum modification, students with behaviour plans, students with no-contact orders, students living in group homes. The principal is in the building and supportive, but the case manager's door is mostly closed because the case manager is mostly in crisis.

Pat has questions about Jordan's goals. She emailed three weeks ago. Nothing. The daily plan hasn't changed since October. Pat is starting to wonder whether what she does all day matters to anyone.

So Pat does what is hers to do. She keeps recording Jordan's stocking job, step by step: I = Independent (his own tool counts), V = Visual, G = Gesture, VB = Verbal, M = Model, P = Physical (only if in the plan), R = Refused or not attempted. Week 1, most steps modelled. Week 6, six of eight steps from the picture strip alone. She leaves a one-page summary in the case manager's box and a copy with the teacher. The next daily-plan update is built from her sheet.

March. Jordan's transition meeting. His mom, his teacher, the case manager, and a worker from CLDS, Community Living disABILITY Services; day-service funding was requested two years before his leaving date (Bridging to Adulthood, 2023, pp. 7, 9). Jordan opens the meeting himself, the way Garrett did: photos of the store, and "I stock. I'm fast."

The CLDS worker asks the question adult services always ask: "What can Jordan do, and with how much support?"

"He still needs help at the store."

"Jordan completes a 6-step recycling route and 6 of 8 stocking steps with a picture checklist, asks for help on his device, and is working on reading shelf tags."

One answer gets Jordan a placement that fits. The other gets him a generic one.

Tyler is 16. He's autistic with an intellectual disability, he can tell you the drum pattern of any song he's heard twice, and the wood shop is the only room in the school where his shoulders come down.

Tyler is Indigenous. His parents have never been part of his life; the system has moved him since he was small. Eleven schools so far. He lives in a group home where workers rotate through shifts, and the worker who drove him to school in September is gone by November. When school calls the home, a different voice answers every time. There is no adult in Tyler's life who has known him longer than two years.

At school, his EA, Marcus, is in his second year with Tyler. That makes Marcus the most consistent adult Tyler has.

DISCUSS, 4 minutes with the person beside you

Marcus noticed the wood shop early. This term, Tyler has a job there: he preps the stock for Grade 9 projects. Eight steps on a picture strip taped inside the cupboard door, the same picture strip format Amira and Jordan use, because Marcus borrowed the idea at a PD like this one.

In September Tyler needed Marcus beside him. By November Marcus stands at the bench behind. The strip stays taped in the cupboard whether Marcus is there or not, and the shop teacher knows the codes. If Marcus is away, or if Tyler moves again, school number twelve will get a one-page record of what Tyler can do: by himself, with a picture, with a gesture.

Four students. One question under all of them:

Think of your Amira, your Jordan, your Tyler. One step you could hand back. Which prompt will you start with? How will you fade it? How will you record it?