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LSI 469: Dr. Sabielny

Transition Plan
Participant:
Beyonc Knowles is a 17 year old student at Vaughn Occupational high school. She was
diagnosed with Autism at the age of six. Her reading and comprehension are at the third grade
level. She is able to communicate orally. Beyonc has difficulty completing tasks without the
use of visuals and thrives with the use of visual schedules or task analyses. She has emerging
skills in initiating conversations with others and is currently working on maintaining social
conversations. Her parents have communicated that they have seen Beyonc become more
social over the last year either through talking to peers and or family members. Furthermore,
Beyonc has fully physical mobility.
Job Site:
Ulta beauty is a large, busy store that provides beauty supplies and services. It is located
at 7231 Lake St, River Forest, IL 60305. It has white walls and grey shelving. After entering
through the front doors, a person is confronted with a large selection of perfumes in front of them
to the right of the perfumes is a large selection of make-up products. In the back of the store
resides the salon. The skin care products reside on the left side of store, and body
wash/shampoos reside on the right side. Finally, towards the back left side of the store are where
all the different hair products are located. There is also an esthetician consultation pod in the far
left back corner of the store. There was one cashier on duty, another two associates stocking the
shelves and two working at the beauty bar the evening I went to observe. There were several
customers and upbeat music playing. The staff seemed happy and approachable.
The reason this is an excellent job placement for Beyonc is because she loves all types
of beauty supply products from perfumes, shampoos, hairdryers and more! She also explained in

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LSI 469: Dr. Sabielny

an all about me project at school that she would like to work as a beauty consultant in some
capacity. Furthermore, Beyonc likes to collect beauty products and enjoys making collages
with all her favorite beauty products regularly.
Overview Job Site Analysis and Discrepancy Analysis
The job site analysis survey revealed many different important attributes about applying
for a job as a stock associate. One major finding is that there is a considerable amount of
physical demands in becoming a stock associate such as bending, pushing, twisting, lifting,
standing, walking, reaching with arms and hands. Another major finding was that a stock
associate does not have strict deadlines regarding stocking the merchandise within a specified
time frame. Ulta Beauty schedules the hours of a stock associate based on the volume of the
shipment and staff availability. All tasks assigned during a scheduled shift are explained to the
associate as get what you can get done while you are clocked in. This would reduce the stress
and anxiety of any worker that is stocking for the majority of their shift. Another major finding
was that the stock associates are provided planogram instructions (a visual of all the products
that need to be on the shelf and how they need to be organized) which are beneficial for students
with disabilities. Another major finding was that they had a buddy training system whereby the
stock associate is paired with a mentor that they can direct questions, seek help and work
alongside if need be. In addition, the supervisor at Ulta Beauty mentioned they do not assign
their staff member tasks that they have difficulty completing, which demonstrates that they value
their employees.
The discrepancy analysis also revealed a number of important attributes about how to
complete the different tasks required for a job as a stock associate. One major finding in
comparing the students performance with the peers performance is that the student was heavily

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reliant on co-worker assistance when it required reading directions and or matching UPC codes.
It is important that a stock associate be as independent as possible as its primarily an independent
position therefore another major finding was the importance of visual representations such as
task analyses or planograms for this student as she had difficulty reading and comprehending
some of the written directions. These task analyses and or planograms would help the student
complete the following tasks independently: stocking shelves, operating a flatbed, setting up a
display and assembling shelves.
Individualized Education Plan Goals:
1.

Given a shelf planogram visual representation, Beyonc will stock the shelves with the

correct merchandise with 95% accuracy.

2.

Given a visual representation of the display table set up, Beyonc will set up the display

table with 100% accuracy.

3.

Given training from a coworker, Beyonc will use the assistance to file overstock

merchandise by matching the UPC codes with 90% accuracy.

Daily Living Goal:
4.

Given a morning routine task analysis, Beyonc will use the steps to get ready for the day

with 100% accuracy.

Transportation Goal:
5. Given a task analysis CTA train route to work, Beyonc will follow the steps to get to work
with 90% accuracy.

Reflection:

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Planning a students transition plan is difficult and requires a lot of attention to detail. It
was hard to figure out how to make the tasks of a stock associate reachable and accessible for the
student. Even though there are many tasks that the student can perform with few
accommodations, I was very concerned about her ability to effectively communicate with
customers as Beyonc had difficulty maintaining conversations. The visual representations of the
displays and the planogram for stocking the shelves are already existing work materials that
made the task easily accessible for the student. However, even with the visual representation
supports she still required training and assistance from coworkers in order to complete tasks like
filing the merchandise as that included matching UPC codes with one another. I learned that in
creating a transition plan there are several factors to consider particularly the required skill set of
the position and the supports available within the work environment. This activity was very
useful as it demonstrated that making a transition plan not only involves placing students at job
sites, but also evaluating their skill set against the requirements of the position.

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References
Ulta Beauty located at 7231 Lake St, River Forest, IL 60305 visited on 10/22/2014
Field experience notes on student with Autism