How might we increase Cassie and Joseph's social interactions, independence, and self-advocacy?

1. Strategies for
Paraeducators to
Encourage Student
Independence and
Facilitate Social
Interaction
Dr. Tiffany Rodriguez
Cal State Fullerton
NRCP Conference 2012

2. Agenda
 Introductions
 The importance of
independence, relationships, and self-
advocacy
 Strategies to increase these factors
 Practice & Problem Solving

3. Discuss
 Why are social interactions and
relationships important?
 Why is independence important?
 Why is self-advocacy important?

4. Envisioning Friendships
 It’s important to recognize that students with
disabilities want and need friends
 It’s also important to recognize that students
with disabilities can be good friends to others
Imagine a solid mutual friendship between a
student with and without a disability. Picture it.
Describe it to someone next to you. Share with
the group.
Rossetti & Goessling (2010)

5. Barriers to Making Friends
 What are some barriers that students with
disabilities might experience in making
friends?

6. How Might We At Times Hinder Social
Interactions & Independence?
 Adults can inadvertently
 create a physical barrier between peers
 reduce social interaction by providing too
much 1:1 assistance
 establish overdependence and learned-
helplessness
 stigmatize a student
 take away opportunities for choice-making
Causton-Theoharis & Malmgren (2005a, 2005b), Giangreco et al.
(1997), Rosetti & Goessling (2010)

7. Strategies to Promote Social
Interaction
 Redirect peers to converse with the student
 Teach others how to interact with the student
 Systematically fade adult proximity and prompting
 Increase student’s physical proximity to peers
 Partner student with peers during academic tasks
 Verbally highlight similarities between student and
peers
 Use interactive technology
 Causton-Theoharis & Malmgren (2005a, 2005b)

8. Using Social Behavioral
Supports
 Shoot baskets with a peer
 Invite a friend to sit with you at lunch
 Select 2 peers to have lunch with the teacher
 Play a math game with other students
 Play computer games with friends
 Pop popcorn with a peer and deliver it to the
class
 Read with a friend in the library
 Play a board game with the principal
 From Causton-Theoharis & Malmgren (2005b)

9. Assigning Socially-Based
Responsibilities
 Return books to the library with a friend
 Straighten books in the library with a friend
 Stuff mailboxes in the office with a friend
 Water plants with a friend
 Pass out papers with a partner
 Collect homework with a partner
 Sharpen pencils with a partner
 Causton-Theorharis & Malmgren (2005b)

10. Tricky Tricks for Increasing
Social Interactions
 Create a “fictional task”
 Pull in non-disabled peers
 Look for any and all social opportunities
 Prompt the student to engage
successfully
 Highlight similarities between student &
peers
 Make a “purposeful error”
 Rossetti & Goessling (2010)

11. Strategies to Increase
Independence
 Thinkfirst: “When MUST the student have
help?”
 Then ask: “Are there times when the
student could do some things without
help?”

12. Increasing Independence
(cont.)
 Systematically fade support
 Give more space
 Leave room for short periods of time and
gradually increase time apart
 Reinforce for working independently
 Work together to create activities and tasks
that student can complete independently
 Use self-monitoring behavioral supports

13. What is Self-Advocacy?
 According
to www.self-
advocate.org, self-advocacy is:
 speaking up for yourself.
 asking for what you need.
 negotiating for yourself.
 knowing your rights and responsibilities.
 using the resources that are available to
you.

14. Strategies to Promote Self-
Advocacy
 Making choices
 Timing – of when to get up, when to go to
bed, when to eat dinner, when to get a
haircut
 Personal choices – choosing what to
wear, what shampoo to buy, what kind of
drink to get in the lunch line, which group to
join

15. Brainstorm
 What else can we do to facilitate
 Social interaction?
 Independence?
 Self-Advocacy?

16. Problem Solving
 Vignette #1: Cassie is a 2nd grader with Down
syndrome. She is at the developmental level
of a 3 year old. She has a 1:1 paraeducator in
a general education classroom. She sits in the
back at a large desk that she shares with her
para. They work together on a separate
curriculum for most of the day, and she has
very little interaction with peers except at P.E.
At lunch, she sits at the end of a table next to
her para. She wanders alone on the
playground and occasionally plays with
students from the special education class.

17. Problem Solving
 Vignette #2: Joseph is a high school
student with autism. His behavior is good
overall in that he follows the rules and
doesn’t get into trouble. However, he
keeps to himself and sort of falls “under
the radar” because he’s so quiet. He is in
a special education setting most of the
day, but has two electives, P.E., and
lunch/break with non-disabled peers.