Assessment and Selfdetermination

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Transdisciplinary Teams

• Assessment and Self-determination

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Discussion

• What is choice or self-determination for
  individuals with severe disabilities?
• How can you incorporate choice into daily
  curricular activities for students with severe
  disabilities?
• How can you engage a transdisciplinary team in
  promoting choice and self-determination
  throughout the school day?

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Transdisciplinary Teams

• Traditionally individuals with disabilities are
  given little or no choice regarding activities.
• Research indicates that the expression of choice
  leads to greater independence and enhances the
  individual's quality of life.

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Self-Determination

• Use principles of self-determination
• Freedom
• Deciding where to live, how to create income, and
  establish community and personal relationships.
• Authority
• The ability to control (with assistance) a
  targeted amount of long term dollars.
• Support
• Support is built around the individual
  preferences of the person with a disability.
• Responsibility
• Use public resources that are wise and cost
  effective.
• Confirmation
• Recognizing that individuals with disabilities
  and their family members must be a part of policy
  changes.

Nerney, (ND) The system of the future. The Center
for Self-Determination
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Self-Determination in Special Education

• Self-determination is rooted in the principle of
  normalization.
• Normalization means a normal rhythm of day for
  the retarded. It means getting out of bed and
  getting dressed even when you are profoundly
  retarded and physically disabled. It means eating
  under normal circumstances sometimes during the
  span of the day, you may eat in large groups, but
  mostly eating is a family situation which implies
  rest, harmony, and satisfaction. A normal daily
  rhythm also means not having to got to bed
  earlier than your peers because you are mentally
  retarded, not earlier than your sisters and
  brothers, or not to early because of lack of
  personnel.It is wrong when a retarded person,
  for example has his training classes, his
  structured therapies, and his recreation
  activities in the same building that serves also
  as his home.

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Self-Determination

• Self determination is not a model or a program.
• Self-determination is a process that is different
  for each person
• Function of the interaction between an
  individuals skills and opportunities in the
  environment.

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Self-Determination in Special Education

• Self-determination best learned through
  participation in a specific curriculum.
• Teach students to regulate their own behavior by
• Identifying and setting own goals.
• Engaging in independent performance through
  self-monitoring.
• Evaluate their performance in terms of an
  existing standard.
• Learning from mistakes and adjusting goals.

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Self-Determination

• What can you do to promote self-determination?
• Design programs that promote skills needed to
• Set goals
• Solve problems that act as barriers to achieving
  these goals.
• Make appropriate choices based on personal
  preferences.
• Participate in decisions that impact the quality
  of the individuals lives
• Advocate for themselves
• Self-regulate and self-manage day-to-day
  operations.

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Self-Determination
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Self-Determination in Special Education

• What opportunities exist for people to exert
  control and how can we provide more such
  opportunities?
• What skills and capacities do people need to
  take advantage of those opportunities?
• What supports will enable the person to overcome
  barriers and limitations?

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Self-Determination in Special Education

• Promoting Self-determination results in better
  quality of life outcomes.
• Self-instruction
• Self-monitoring
• Self-Evaluation
• Self-reinforcement
• Goal Setting

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Self-determination by infusing choice

• Choice among activities
• Choice on whether or not to engage.
• Choice on when to terminate an activity.
• Choice on alternative means of completing
  activity.
• Choice of partners.

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PBL

• Discuss ways in which you can assess Daniels
  preferences. How can you involve members of the
  transdisciplinary team?
• How can you promote self-determination?
• How can you embed these activities into the
  general curriculum?

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Preference Assessments for Students with
Severe/Profound disabilities

• Why conduct preference assessments?
• Need to find a consistent and reliable
  reinforcement array to use during instruction
  developed by a transdisciplinary team.
• Incorporate preferred stimuli into identified
  activities.
• Easier to implement instructional procedures if
  stimulus array is identified.
• Linked to curriculum development.
• Difficult to design instruction for individuals
  with severe disabilities without determining
  reinforcing stimulus material

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Preferences Assessments

• Often guess about preferred reinforcement
• First step in curriculum development is
  assessment.
• Identify preferred stimulus that can be
  incorporated into activities.
• Motor activities vs. audio stimulation
• Salty vs. sweet foods.

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Preference Assessments

• Steps to Preference assessment.
• Develop a comprehensive list of possible stimulus
  material by primary sensory system.
• Consult with transdisciplinary team to develop
  list.
• Successive choice procedure

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Preference Assessments
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Preferences Assessments

• Use a successive approach procedure
• One item at a time is presented
• Record student reaction
• Sample from all sensory systems in the array.
• Develop data collection
• Record the time it took to approach the items
• Record if the student avoided the item
• Record if the student did respond
• Calculate by added duration and dividing by
  number of items

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Preferences Assessments

• Classify items based on response
• Preferred Neutral
• Disliked
• Social reinforcement is the most powerful.
• Always pair social reinforcement with another
  preferred item.