Self-determination has been defined as “acting as the primary causal agent in one’s life and making choices and decisions regarding one’s quality of life, free from undue external influence or interference” (Wehmeyer, 1992).

Many individuals with severe disabilities have little say in basic life events. They don’t get to choose where and who they stay with or what and where they eat. A majority of them are unemployed and poor. They seldom participate in leisure activities. They have few or no friends. They are not part of any social networks. A life of no choices, no friends, no financial stability, no job satisfaction, no fun, and no quality of life. If you think about it, this is one very sad life to live.

And that’s where self-determination comes in. Self-determination is a contemporary best practice in instruction of individuals with severe disabilities because it emphasizes teaching these individuals skills to be self-determined. It involves teaching choice-making, decision-making, and problem-solving skills. It involves supporting the individuals to be as independent as they can be. It involves providing supports so that they can initiate and complete a task without relying on others to do it for them. It doesn’t mean having them do everything on their own, it just means providing them the skills and supports to experience a satisfactory life.

I guess an analogy would be a baby who is learning to walk. A wise parent would hold out a hand and provide just enough support so that the baby can do baby-steps across the room to where s/he wants to go. An unwise parent would carry the baby everywhere and baby does not learn to walk and does not get to go where s/he wants to go. An uncaring parent would leave the baby on the floor. An individual with severe disabilities is like a baby who will never walk on their own.

So like everything else in this world, self-determination does not take place independent of the community. Unfortunately, it is easy to ignore those who are weak.

Hmmmm…what have I done lately to support someone who’s weak?

Best practices in instruction for students with severe disabilities are continually evolving. If you were asked to present to a school board best contemporary practices in instruction for students with severe disabilities what would you say? Present at least 5 themes, giving specific examples and supporting themes with research and the best practices literature.
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In my opinion, the 5 best contemporary practices in instruction for students with severe disabilities are:
1) Inclusion
2) Self-determination
3) Collaborative teaming
4) Person-centered planning
5) Positive behavior support

1) Inclusion

Inclusion is a term used to describe the ideology that each child, to the maximum extent appropriate, should be educated in the school and classroom he or she would otherwise attend. It involves bringing support services to the child (rather than moving the child to the services) and requires only that the child will benefit from being in the class (rather than having to keep up with the other students)(Council of Exceptional Children)

Inclusion is actually not a contemporary practice. For years and years, advocates for children with disabilities have been pushing for inclusion. Although the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act does not specifically say inclusion, it says that children with disabilities should be educated in the least restrictive environment (LRE). For some kids, LRE would mean the general education classroom with normal kids. And for other kids, LRE might mean spending their school day in a combination of general education and special education classrooms. And for some other kids, LRE might mean the whole day in special education classrooms.

That sounds fine and dandy. Unfortunately, even in the “progressive” USA, more and more kids are not being included in general education classrooms. Many kids with disabilities spend their whole day in special education classroom with no social contact with normal kids. I’ve observed emotional support classroom for children with behavior problems, and these kids even spend their lunch-time and recess away from normal kids. This has come to a point where a group of parents in Pennsylvania has filed a class action lawsuit against the Dept of Education for violating the rights of children with disabilities to LRE. So, although inclusion is not new, it has not become a reality for many children with disabilities.

Inclusion is also an idealism that I’ll have to leave behind when I return to Malaysia.

Note: This is not my comprehensive answer. In my complete answer, I’ll have to cite many research articles [e.g., So & So (1998) noted that; Duh & Duh (2006) evaluated etc etc], get my facts right, and if possible cite articles that my professors wrote (for bonus points, maybe).

Stay tune for Part 2: Self-determination.

It seems, from the entries in this blog, my life is all about food and desserts, fussing about my car, an occasional trip somewhere, and an assortment of random stuff.

“Is she really studying over there?”

I am (occasionally), but the need to study comes in waves. And the biggest tidal wave is heading my way very soon. My comprehensive exam is on September 4.

What’s a comprehensive exam? It’s an exam that’s comprehensive, haha. It actually depends on the department or faculty where the student is in. The comprehensive exam of the dept of special ed consist of:
a) 6 long questions (I got mine beginning of June)
b) 3 months to prepare (June, July, August)
c) 3 questions presented to us on that fine September day (our respective advisors will choose whichever 3 questions they like best)
d) 4-hour written exam (no books or reference materials allowed)
e) 2 research articles to critique (articles given to us a week after the written exam)
f) 2 weeks to complete the critiques and hand it in.

I spent June in Malaysia, hardly looked at the questions. I spent July acclimating to Bethlehem again. For the month of August, no more fooling around. I spent the last 2 weeks trying to find the ideal studying routine (morning or afternoon or night) and the ideal place to work (linderman library or fairmart library or computer room or home). But now that the exam is almost here, the ideal environment goes out the window, I just hang out in my room and work the whole day. I guess that’s the ideal condition – an approaching deadline.

I plan to get all the answers to the 6 questions done by this weekend, and then spend the next 2 weeks M-E-M-O-R-I-Z-I-N-G the answers. And on September 4, I’ll have to regurgitate out the answers. This may be the toughest exercise my brain has been subjected to since STPM, or may be not, Biochemistry exams in UPM were pretty bad.

So, yeah, I’m really studying over here

My advisor is on her sabbathical. I got permission from her to go through her collection of journals in her office. She even lets me keep the duplicate copies of her journals.

New camera, Canon A570 IS, is here but now there is nothing much to take pictures of.

During the summer, the area behind Duh is usually planted with corn. This year however something else has been planted, I’m guessing this may be peanut or some type of legume that will nourish the ground for next summer. If you know what plant this is, let me know.

I went for a walk yesterday to walk away my back-in-bethlehem blues, and found 2 lost golf balls at the practice driving range. Maybe I can start a collection. Well, I’ve been back 2 weeks but I still find it hard to settle down to some sort of Duh routine again. Spent the past few days clearing away all the travelling stuff.

Starting this Monday, I’ll have to hit the library for several hours a day to prepare for my upcoming comprehensive exam in September. Eessshhh….1 1/2 months to the big exam, it’s like my nightmare coming true. I would occasionally dream that a big exam (SPM or STPM) is one month away and I haven’t started studying yet! I cannot believe the Dept of Special Ed is doing this to me, after telling me the past few years that this type of “memorize and regurgitate” type of testing is ineffective and does not test real learning, they are subjecting me to the same type of testing. Oh well, at least I have years of experience doing this.

Update July 23 2007: The plant could be soybean.

This whole stack of books will be travelling with me soon. And I only bought one of them, the others belong to my book-hunter brother.

By the way, being assertive works

About two weeks ago, a group of us, desperate doc students, brought up the issue of our stagnanted stipend to the faculty. I’ve never felt such unity and determination among our group. We came together and worked on a letter and a table of hard data, and submitted it to the chair of the department. Then the day came for our research forum where we met with the faculty. We were anxious to hear their responses, but when my own beloved advisor strongly stated that the stipend was not meant to cover all our living expenses and that we should find our own additional sources of funding (e.g., family, loan), that basically shot down all our hopes. So we left the meeting, a little crushed but life goes on.

Today, my advisor brought in my 2007/2008 funding letter, I needed to sign it before I leave so that I’ll get paid in the summer. However, in the letter was an unexpected surprise…I got a $100 raise!! It feels good that our concerns were not brushed aside. It feels even better that our efforts were not in vain.

Now that I’ve read and wrote about the accomplishments of others – what about me? What do I hope to accomplish?

Since I won’t be driving by Duh in the month of June, I’ll be taking a one-month sabbathical from this blog. Aside from attacking my makan list, I plan to focus on my special education blog. I started it about a year ago but have not consistently updated it. In the midst of my other academic assignments, updating the special education blog was just more work. Writing it required more of me – deeper reflections and definitely more fact checking. I couldn’t simply spew out definitions of special ed buzzwords without double checking it. It’s also harder to write – organizing, reorganizing, making sure it flows, and also filtering (how many of my mistakes should I reveal?!)

My goals for that blog:
1. A portfolio of my reflections of special education, especially in the Malaysian context. It is also something that I hope will reflect my values, knowledge, and application ideas. And I plan to use it when it’s time for me to interview for jobs.
2. A resource site for parents, teachers, and anyone else who is interested. To do this, I need to revamp the site and include teaching strategies with concrete examples, and also include layman definitions of all the academic and special education law words.

But at the same time, I don’t want that blog to become one of those all-facts-no-life site. I think the trick is to make the content accessible and relate-able to everyone.

So, that’s what I hope to accomplish in June! Nah….Victor says it takes two years to establish a blog. I hope to add two updates per week in June, and start the ball rolling from there.

crunch time mess

There’s a rock that doesn’t move
It hasn’t moved
It’ll never move
Even though the waves come crashing down.
~ Solid Rock by Delirious?

This song is great crunch time music.

I finally completed the working draft of my dissertation proposal. The first edition but with many editions to come in the months to come. At least, I met the deadline to hand it up as a class assignment. I’ll have to reread it again tomorrow just to make sure the things I wrote at 2am still makes sense at 2pm. There will be a 15-minute mock proposal presentation this Thursday, then Spring semester is officially over.

Proposal (1st ed.)
31 pages without references (7393 words)
40 pages with references

Visual prompt

I need to churn out a working draft of my dissertation proposal by April 26. I estimate that the working draft would have to be at least 50 pages long. Just the thought of that freaks me out. What do I look like? A writing machine?! And it’s not just me, but the rest of the students in the dissertation proposal seminar class as well. Or maybe not the rest of the class, but just those of us who are pro-procrastinators.

I have since changed the 2 to 3 on my sticky-note visual prompt, or maybe I should change it to 4…hmmm…sigh….

I find writing the first draft the hardest, and because it can be so aversive, I tend to put it off, which makes the situation worse because I end up not having time to turn the bad writings to something acceptable before I hand it in.

Self-monitoring of writing behavior (cummulative record):
1023 words (4 pages)