Teaching Self-determination Skills to Middle School Students with Specific Learning Disabilities

Book excerpt: The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of explicitly teaching self-advocacy skills to three middle school students with mild/moderate disabilities by having them memorize a script and request accommodations in a training and generalization setting. The intervention components included 16 lessons comprising discussion and reflections about their disabilities and educational rights under IDEA, a four-part script and a promoting procedure. The script included (a) greeting teacher and asking if it's a good time to talk, (b) expressing concern with assignment, (c) asking for accommodation, and (d) thanking teacher. The dependent variables were (a) frequency, measured by the number of cumulative requests made over the course of the study, and (b) accuracy, measured by number of steps aligning with the pre-rehearsed script. Results, evaluated between the intervention and the dependent variables. Results suggest that special education teachers can effectively teach self-determination skills, allowing students with disabilities to self-advocate for accommodations in the general education setting. Further research is needed to confirm current findings.