Workplace Communication Scenarios
Problem-solve real workplace communication demands before the first shift, not after.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Ask for the words and the person. Tell someone is not an answer; call the shift manager and say I'll be twenty minutes late, I'm sorry is. The broke-something card is the one with the largest consequences — reporting it immediately is almost always the right move and almost never the instinctive one, and saying so plainly is worth the time. Twenty minutes covers three or four scenarios properly.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentSet up the situation and wait for the student to respond on their own.Log as correct
- Nonverbal cueUse a look, a gesture or a point to the visual cue card.Log as cued
- Indirect promptAsk 'What could you say now?' or 'How do you think they feel?'Log as cued
- ModelShow what to say or do, then run the moment again so the student can try it.Log as cued
Adjust it
Give a script or two choices of what to say, and practise with you before a peer.
Role-play with a new partner, or add a twist the student has not planned for.
Matching IEP goal
Given school and community scenarios, Student will state a need or a plan clearly to the right person in 4 of 5 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than an indirect prompt.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Eight workplace situations to solve before the first shift: you will be twenty minutes late, what do you say and to whom; a customer asks something you do not know; your manager gives you three tasks at once, how do you check the order; a coworker keeps leaving you the closing work, how do you raise it; you broke something on shift, what do you do first; you didn't hear the instruction over the noise.
What to listen for
Listen for avoidance disguised as a plan. Answering the coworker scenario with I'd just do it is a real answer and it is the one that ends with the student doing every closing shift. Notice the check-the-order scenario, which requires asking a manager a clarifying question — the single most useful workplace communication skill and the one students are most reluctant to use.
Carrying it home
Families can rehearse the calls. A phone call saying you will be late is a real skill, and practising it once at home is more useful than discussing it three times.
What's in this activity
- You'll be twenty minutes late. What do you say, and to whom?
- A customer asks something you don't know. What do you say?
- Your manager gives you three tasks at once. How do you check the order?
- A coworker keeps leaving you the closing work. How do you raise it?
- You broke something on shift. What do you do first?
- You need Thursday off for an appointment. How do you ask?
- You didn't hear the instruction over the noise. What do you say?
- Your shift ends but the work isn't finished. What do you ask?
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Ninth through twelfth grade, under transition and vocational goals.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all eight scenarios play with no account.
- Why rehearse before the first shift?
- Because these moments are fast and consequential. A student who has said the words once has something to reach for; one who has only discussed the principle has to invent a sentence while a manager waits.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.