What is Self Determination

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What is Self Determination?

• Wehmeyer describes self-determination as acting
  as the primary causal agent in ones life and
  making choices and decisions regarding the
  quality of life free from external influence or
  interference.

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What are the characteristics of self-determined
people?
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Do you exercise a high degree of
self-determination in your life?

• Evaluate yourself.
• Do you have an accurate perception of your
  strengths and weaknesses?
• Do you effectively set goals and problem-solve?
• Do you have effective self-advocacy skills?

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Self Determination Skills

• Students know who they are
• They know their strengths and weaknesses
• They can set goals and make decisions.
• They can participate in their IEP meeting.
• They can act on their own behalf--self advocacy.
• They can make good choices and act on those
  choices.
• They can act as their own agent.

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Do you think the special education system does
much to empower students?

• Why or why not?

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What are some strategies teaching students their
strengths and weaknesses?
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Self-Management

• The essential components are goal-setting and
  self-evaluation. These skills cannot be taught
  in isolation and must be infused into the
  curriculum

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Self Management is an important component of self
determination

• Students who engage in self-monitoring observe
  their behavior and discriminate when they have
  performed the target response.

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Self-Management Example Mia needs to remember
to keep her head up and give eye contact when
talking to people

• Her prompt was a picture of a person smiling and
  waving with the words head up and eye contact
  printed above. She was taught to look at the card
  before speaking.
• (Hughes et al., 2002)

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Example 2 Vondre needed to learn to say thank
you to customers in the school store

• A naturally occurring event--money placed in her
  hand--was used as the cue to teach her to say
  thank you to the customers.
• (Hughes et al., 2002)

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Jamal is in an auto mechanics class. He is
failing--He cannot complete the worksheets.

• He was taught a three-step process for completing
  the sheets. He was taught to place a check in a
  box each time he used each prompt in the process.
  Prompts were find the picture, find the picture
  caption, and write the name of the tool.
• (Hughes et al., 2002)

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What is a self-management strategy for Susie who
drools frequently?

• She does have the motor control to close her
  lips.
• Develop a strategy that helps remind her not to
  do this.
• Develop another for her to check her own
  behavior.
• Develop a third for her to keep track of her
  progress.

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A social story is a short story that is written
for a child with autism and is designed to teach
him/her how to self-manage his/her behavior in a
social situation.
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Parts of the Story

• Description information on the situation--what
  occurs and why.
• Perspective of others--describes the
  reactions/feelings of others in the situation.
• Directives that describe in positive terms what
  the child should say or do. Positive consequences
  should be included.
• (Gray, 1998)

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April has Autism. She says food or restaurant
names (Kentucky Fried Chicken) often,
particularly when she is happy.

• Write two storiesone for an elementary aged
  student and one for an adolescent.

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Goal Setting

• People First is a program to teach adults with
  mental retardation self-advocacy skills. One
  skill is how to participate in their program
  planning.

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Making Choices is an Important Aspect of
Self-Advocacy

• The students chooses his favorite recipe, makes a
  picture shopping list, and goes to the store.
• The student chooses a book for a peer to read to
  him.
• The student chooses community places for class
  trips.
• The student chooses a classroom job.

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Brainstorm 5 opportunities for choices during the
day for your class