The Effects of Self-Advocacy Instruction on Eighth Grade Students with Disabilitiesand Their IEP Meeting Participation

Abstract

Students with disabilities often possess limited self-advocacy skills, limitedknowledge of their disabilities, and limited self-determination (Phillips, 1990; Test,Fowler, Wood, Brewer, & Eddy, 2005). Too often, they passively participate in their IEPmeetings because they do not understand their role (Van Dycke, Martin, & Lovett, 2006).The purpose of this study was to emphasize the importance of instruction with studentswith disabilities to improve their self-advocacy skills, their self-determination, and theirIEP meeting participation. This mixed methods study involved 11 eighth grade studentswith disabilities. Students were assigned to an intervention group, who received selfadvocacy instruction, or a control group. All students completed an IEP Survey©and TheArc’s Self-Determination Scale©as pre-test and post-test measures. Students respondedto four weekly journal prompts associated with topics discussed in the four weeklylessons. All students were observed at their IEP meetings and were administered asurvey to assess their feelings and perceptions regarding their IEP meeting participation.Data were analyzed to determine how self-advocacy instruction influenced selfadvocacy knowledge, self-determination skills, and IEP meeting participation. Resultsrevealed that self-advocacy instruction was effective in increasing self-determination,quality of IEP meeting participation, and knowledge of the importance of self-advocacy.Instruction was not effective in increasing students’ knowledge of the IEP, knowledge oftheir accommodations, and knowledge of their rights as students with disabilities. Thisstudy offers insight into self-advocacy instruction that is likely to have a positive impacton students’ self-determination, self-advocacy knowledge and skills, knowledge ofpersonal disabilities, and IEP meeting participation.