Tuesday: Effective Advocating

Self-Advocacy and Self-determination. 

I am impressed with this:

 Florida’s Project 10  focuses on transition education and has a great definition of these terms:

Self-Advocacy is defined as the ability to speak and act on behalf of one’s self and is an important skill for students in school settings, including IEP meetings, and in post-school adult life.

Self-determination is the process of taking control and making decisions that affect one’s life. A study conducted with more than 1,500 successful people from business, science, sports and the arts, revealed that "successful people in any field excel at making decision, self managing their behavior and adapting to changing circumstances." (Garfield 1986)

Self-determination provides students with the skills and abilities to

          - make choices
          - make decisions
          - problem solve
          - set and attain goals
          - self-advocate
          - independently perform

How many adults do you know who have all of these skills?

I’ve discovered on the road of effective advocacy that no matter how much we advocate for our children, if we are not advocating for ourselves we will struggle.  If our “cup” is not full how can we give what we need to our children?