Week 8 special education discussion: Promoting Self-Determination in Students

Select one of the following vignettes in Chapter 12 of the text Behavior Management: Principles And Practices of Positive Behavior Support:
Vignette 12.2
Vignette 12.3
Vignette 12.4
Vignette 12.5
Review the following resources:
“Increasing Student Success Through Instruction in Self Determination” at https://www(dot)apa(dot)org/research/action/success.aspx (Links to an external site.)
“Promoting Self-Determination: A Practice Guide” at http://ngsd(dot)org/sites/default/files/promoting_self-determination_a_practice_guide.pdf (Links to an external site.)
California Gov. Department of Developmental Services; Self-Determination Program at http://www(dot)dds(dot)ca(dot)gov/SDP/Index.cfm (Links to an external site.)
Discuss how you might include interventions in terms of input, process, output and/or follow-up for developing self-determination for the student(s) described in your selected vignette.
Share how a strategy or information from one of the resources listed above has enabled you to further understand self-determination as a goal, or develop a strategy you might use in your own teaching.
Below is a sample response of my classmate so u can read what one of the vignette is about as I don’t have the book.
— Vignette 12.2
Discusshow you might include interventions in terms of input, process, output and/or follow-up for developing self-determination for the student(s) described in your selected vignette.
Bekah is a 2 ½ year old girl with spina bifida. Bekah faces some developmental challenges. She is working on sharing materials and toys. One action is to provide her with developmentally appropriate toys and materials and encourage her to make a choice among them. For input, I would use a functional assessment to find out why she is does not want to share, as well as using personal appraisal (Wheeler & Richie, 2014). The use of personal appraisal can help to determine how satisfied this child is with sharing. The functional assessment is a way to see “more of a quantifiable, measurable approach and person appraisal and a qualitative and subjective approach” (Wheeler & Richie, 2014).

For process, it is important to include self-determination skills. Although, Brown and Cohen (1996) pointed out that “self-determination is established as an important goal or outcome for children, youth, and adults with disabilities, little attention have been given to self-determination and young children” (Wheeler & Richie, 2014). Since, Bekah is having difficulty with sharing, she could benefit from some different strategies.
Self-awareness
Decision-making
Problem-solving
Student-directed learning
Social approaches
Teacher directed instruction
(Loman, Vatland, Strickland-Cohen, Horner, & Walker, 2010).
In working with the IFSP goals and what the early interventionist and physical therapist recommend. I would help her understand the importance of sharing with peers and when it is appropriate to do so. Bekah needs to work on becoming more self-aware. In doing so, she will have greater opportunities in being able to make decisions in choosing what to play with and to be able to interact with her peers as a shared activity.
For output, I would assess by using a summative assessment to see how if the self-determination skills are being implemented correctly and if they were successful. Since Bekah is still in preschool it is important to determine how her goals are being address by the professionals and teachers involved in her education. I would want to focus on determining whether or not the IFSP goals have been met and if not how far away is she from meeting the goals. This can be continually monitored.
Sharehow a strategy or information from one of the resources listed above has enabled you to further understand self-determination as a goal or develop a strategy you might use in your own teaching.

I found that “the use of teacher-directed instructional strategies to increase self-determination for individuals Teachers can directly teach individuals to: self-manage their behaviors (e.g., goal-setting, self-monitoring, etc.), make meaningful choices and decisions, solve problems, advocate for themselves to affect change in their environment and influence those around them” would be extremely useful in my own teaching practice (Loman, Vatland, Strickland-Cohen, Horner, & Walker, 2010). This is important to note because if teachers can teach students to self-manage their behaviors and make meaningful decisions ad choices, it can help to solve many of the concerns and problems teachers face in the classroom, particularly when it can be started in preschool. I would venture to say this places ownership on students to take responsibility for their actions and how they can address it to solve those problems and advocated for their own needs.