ADVOCACY

MODEL
Ashley Favors-Daniels
Kennesaw State University
TLED 7785
Dr. Hicks
What is Advocacy?

■ Advocacy, the process of supporting a person, group, or cause, benefits

individual children (case advocacy) and groups of children and families (class
advocacy). More specifically, child advocacy involves sensitizing society—
and even more specifically decision makers, such as political leaders—to the
needs of children and to society’s responsibility to meet those needs. (Grant
& Ray, 2019)
■ Self-advocacy is referred to as the ability to articulate one’s needs and make
informed decisions about the supports necessary to meet those needs (Test,
Fowler, Wood, Brewer, & Eddy, 2005).
■ Self-Advocacy is, ‘[…]one form of advocacy, occurring any time people
speak or act on their own behalf to improve their quality of life, effect
personal change, or correct inequalities’” (Rumrill, Palmer, Roessler, &
Brown, 1999).
Why is self-advocacy important for students?

All students, whether or not they have a disability,

must learn through opportunities and experiences to
explore, take risks, learn from consequences, Self-advocacy skills are needed before commencing
become self-motivated, develop positive self- post-secondary education, which is usually a much
esteem and gradually gain control over their larger, depersonalized setting. (Brown, 1999).
lives. Al lstudents would benefit from being directly
taught these skills at any age level.

Rather than breeding dependency, it is important

Adolescence is the usual period during which
that students with disabilities also be given
students begin to question authority and generally
opportunities to establish personal goals, make
move toward becoming autonomous, self-
choices and become involved with the adults who
determined individuals (Wehmeyer & Schwartz,
have usually been making decisions for them
1995).
(Wehmeyer, & Schwartz, 1995).
Self-Advocacy Framework

Know yourself (assistance from teachers and parents)

Know • Students understanding themselves is the foundation for self-advocacy
• They need to their strengths, disability, and challenges
• They need to read their IEP, evaluations, and feedback They need to examine what has and hasn’t worked for you in the past

Know what you need

Know • Students can’t ask for something if they don’t know what they need
• Accommodations, modifications, interventions, etc.
• Extra help or support academically or socially
• Change in behavior

Know how to get it

Know • Communicate your needs using communication methods
• Clearly describe problem
• Explain reasons why
• Don’t be afraid to be uncomfortable
 Model Model self-advocacy for students

Encourage Encourage self awareness

How Parents
Can Help Openly discuss student’s disabilities and rights
Discuss • Require involvement in IEP, etc.
• Share information

Allow students to help themselves by restraining from doing

Allow everything for them and doing things jointly as an
intermediate step.
 How Can Teachers Help
Programs for teaching self-advocacy skills need to measure if the student is actually implementing the strategies. Since each student
with a disability is different, the list of measurable objectives would vary from student to student (Ylvisaker et al,1998) 1998).

Measurement should be informal but

continuous. For example, if students
Each student needs to set specific goals
have just completed research on their Problem solve with each student to
with measurable outcomes. Goals
respective disabilities, they should be determine the best strategies to use to
should be SMART: specific,
able to state, both orally and in writing, compensate for their learning
measureable, achievable, realistic and
the key points of the disability and five challenges.
time-bound.
common terms associated with the
disability.

Design a personalized chart, so that

each student can record if they are
using the strategies and evaluate the
effectiveness. 
References
■ Grant, K. B. & Ray J. A. (2019). Home, School, and Community Collaboration:
Culturally Responsive Family Engagement. SAGE
■ Rumrill, P., Palmer, C., Roessler, R., & Brown, P. (1999). Self-advocacy and conflict
resolution training: Strategies for the classroom accommodation request. Fayettesville,
AR: Arkansas
■ Test, D. W., Fowler, C. H., Wood, W., Brewer, D. M., & Eddy, S. (2005). A conceptual
framework of selfadvocacy for students with disabilities. Remedial and Special
Education, 26(1) 43-54.
■ Wehmeyer, M.L., & Schwartz, M. (1995). Self-determination and positive adult
outcomes: A follow–up study of youth with mental retardation and learning disabilities.
■ Ylvisaker, M. (1998). Cognitive Rehabilitation: Executive Functions. Traumatic brain
injury rehabilitation: children and adolescents. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann
■ https://teachingselfadvocacy.wordpress.com/description-of-self-advocacy/