I Can and "I Did" Self-Advocacy for Young Students With Developmental Disabilities

Self-advocacy and self-determination include the abilities to select personal goals, plan steps toward goals, assess one's progress, make choices, and self-monitor and self-evaluate one's behaviors (Wehmeyer, Palmer, Agran, Mithaug, & Martin, 2000; Wehmeyer Sands, 1998). These are important skills in both current and future environments (Hamm & Mirenda, 2006). Unforturuitely, youth with significant intellectual and developmental disabilities often lack the opportunity to participate in the decisions that affect them on a daily basis (Thoma, Rogan, & Baker, 2001). Even when opportunities for self-determined behaviors do arise, youth with significant disabilities often do not display these behaviors in the context of their school and everyday routines (Carter, Owens, Trainor, Sun, Swedeen, 2009). How can their self-advocacy skills be strengthened? What can teachers and administrators do to support this growth? This article describes the step-by-step procedures utilized by the Kentucky Youth Advocacy Project (KYAP) team to train both students with disabilities and school personnel to increase self-advocacy and self-determination-and to support these skills with the development of strong communication systems.