Self-determination is the concept of reflecting the belief that all individuals have the right to direct their own lives.  Pacer’s National Parent Center on Transition and Employment defines self determination as: believing you can control your own destiny. Self-determination is a combination of attitudes and abilities that lead people to set goals for themselves, and to take the initiative to reach these goals. It is about being in charge, but it is not necessarily the same thing as self-sufficiency or independence. It means making your own choices, learning to effectively solve problems, and taking control and responsibility for one's life. Practicing self-determination also means one experiences the consequences of making choices.  

There are four essential characteristics of self-determined behavior:

• Autonomy

• Self-regulation

• Psychological empowerment

• Self-realization (Shogren, Wehmeyer, Palmer, Rifenbark, Little, 2013)

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In addition to these essential characteristics, there are several other characteristics of self-determined people, such as the following:

• Awareness of, and ability to, make choices based on an individual's strengths, preferences, interests, and needs

• Ability to consider a variety of options and anticipate consequences for their decisions

• Ability to evaluate decisions based on the outcomes of previous decisions and revise future decisions

• Ability to set goals and work towards them

• Have problem solving skills

• Strive for independence while recognizing interdependence with others

• Persistence

• Ability to assume responsibility

• Self confidence

Would you agree, this is the type of person we would like to see our students become?

At the core of self-determination and self-advocacy is empowerment.  Empowerment is the understanding that an individual is truly empowered the moment he or she recognizes the inherent authority he or she possesses to control their own life.  Ultimately, empowerment means to make decisions that affect his or her destiny, to choose the paths that one wishes to traverse (Jones, 2006). Teaching self-determination, self-advocacy and empowerment will:

• Promote choice making

• Promote self advocacy

• Encourage exploration of possibilities

• Facilitate development of self-esteem

• Promote reasonable risk taking

• Encourage problem solving

• Develop goal setting and planning

• Help students with disabilities understand their disability and what it means

With all these benefits and more, why wouldn’t we want to teach self-determination and self-advocacy skills to our students with disabilities?

Soft skills are personal attributes like: people skills, work ethic, attitude, communication skills, emotional intelligence, time management, organizational skills, teamwork, leadership skills and social skills.  Teaching soft skills is often undervalued, and there is far less training provided for them. Employers today are seeking people with good soft skills. They can easily teach the hard skills of the job, but the soft skills are more challenging.  In addition to teaching soft skills, teaching money management is very important. Without strong money management skills it’s more challenging to live independently. We are fortunate that we have technology and apps like Mint where you can manage your money from wherever you are using your cell phone or tablet apps. https://www.mint.com

Personal safety awareness/training and travel training can help students with disabilities feel safe in their environment.  Understood has these tips:

When it comes to personal safety, kids with learning and attention issues may be more vulnerable than other kids. So how can you teach your child about “safe” and “unsafe” people? Start with these 9 tips.

1. Say it early, often and very clearly “Never go with anyone unless you come and ask me.”

2. Talk about uncomfortable feelings.

3. Talk about “tricky people.”  The concept of strangers can be confusing to some kids.

4. Be specific.  Explain to your child some of the uncomfortable things unsafe people may do.

5. Role-play different scenarios.  Make sure your child knows it’s OK to say no to people he knows and doesn’t know.

6. Make him the “boss” of his body.  Tell your child that no one is allowed to touch his body in a way that makes him uncomfortable.

7. Give simple steps for scary situations.

8. Discuss online stranger safety.

9. Keep the safety conversations coming.  It needs to be part of regular, calm discussions.  Start them when kids are very young.

(Wright, n.d.)

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