Self-Advocacy Strategy to Teach Student Involvement in the IEP

What is the practice?

The Self-Advocacy Strategy (SAS) is a motivation and self-determination strategy designed to prepare students to participate in education or transition planning conferences. The strategy consists of five steps that are taught over a series of seven acquisition and generalization stages. The five steps are presented using the mnemonic “I PLAN” to help cue students to remember the steps for the strategy (VanReusen & Bos, 1994).

I PLAN represents:

• I - Inventory completed by students listing their strengths, weaknesses, learning needs, goals, and choices to prepare them for their upcoming IEP conference
• P - Provide your inventory involves identifying appropriate time for individual to share information during the conference, speaking clearly and completely, and referring to inventory as needed
• L - Listen & Respond addresses being an active listener and responding to statements made by others in a positive manner
• A - Ask questions focuses on asking appropriate questions to gather needed information
• N - Name your goals to communicate goals and ideas on actions to be taken

The studies used to establish the evidence base for using the Self-Advocacy Strategy to teach student involvement in the individualized education program (IEP) included:

• SAS paired with self-instruction and simulation has been used to teach relevant contributions during the IEP meeting and identifying goals during the IEP meeting (VanReusen et al., 1989)
• SAS paired with modeling and simulation has been used to teach identifying IEP goals prior to the meeting; increase verbal contributions during the IEP meeting; improve ratings of student participation in the IEP meeting according to student, parent(s), and teacher; and increase the length of meetings (VanReusen & Bos, 1994)
• SAS paired with computer-assisted instruction has been used to teach verbal responses to questions during the IEP meeting, student contributed IEP goals during the meeting, and knowledge of the strategy (Lancaster et al., 2002)
• SAS paired with computer-assisted instruction and simulation has been used to increase student participation in IEP meetings (Hammer, 2004)
• SAS has been used to improve student contributions during the IEP meeting (Test & Neale, 2004)
• Used SAS to help students become organized before their IEP meeting and provided techniques to improve students' communication skills during meetings (Cease-Cook et al., 2013).
• Used SAS, which contained five separate sessions that provide instruction related to developing SHARE behaviors (i.e., sit up straight, have a pleasant tone of voice, activate your thinking, relax, and engage in eye communication), completing an inventory of educational needs, and using steps of SAS in IEP meetings (Schelling & Rao, 2013).

Where has it been implemented?

• Special education classroom in a high school (7 studies)

Where is the best place to find out how to do this practice?

• The Self-Advocacy Strategy: Enhancing Student Motivation and Self-Determination. Note. This curriculum is a “pay for” curriculum.

References used to establish this evidence base:

• Cease-Cook, J., Test, D. W., & Scroggins, L. S. (2013). Effects of the CD-ROM version of the "Self-Advocacy Strategy" on quality of contributions in IEP meetings of high school students with intellectual disability. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental, 42(2), 258-268. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23880644
• Hammer, M. R. (2004). Using the self-advocacy strategy to increase student participation in IEP conferences. Intervention in School and Clinic, 39(5), 295–380. https://doi.org/10.1177/10534512040390050601
• Lancaster, P. E., Schumaker, J. B., & Deshler, D. D. (2002). The development and validation of an interactive hypermedia program for teaching a self-advocacy strategy to students with disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, 25(4), 277–302. https://doi.org/10.2307/1511358
• Schelling, A. L., & Rao, S. (2013). Evaluating self-advocacy strategy instruction for students with an intellectual disability using an interactive hypermedia program. International Journal of Business and Social Science, 4(17), 1-10.
• Test, D. W., & Neal, M. (2004). Using the self-advocacy strategy to increase middle graders’ IEP participation. Journal of Behavioral Education, 13(2), 135–145. https://doi.org/10.1023/B:JOBE.0000023660.21195.c2
• Van Reusen, A. K., & Boss, C. S. (1994). Facilitating student participation in individualized education programs through motivation strategy instruction. Exceptional Children, 60(5), 466–475. https://doi.org/10.1177/001440299406000510
• Van Reusen, A. K., Deshler, D. D., & Schumaker, J. B. (1989). Effects of a student participation strategy in facilitating the involvement of adolescents with learning disabilities in individualized education program planning process. Learning Disabilities, 1(2), 23–34.

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