Transition and Self-determination

Introduction

Transition and self-determination is a particularly important skill set that every single

person needs. It is something that is heavily influenced and fostered by families. Self-

determination is especially difficult for children with disabilities. In this paper it will discuss the

three main components of self-regulation, why self-regulation is important in everyday life, the

roles that the families play, a specific intervention that can be used and lastly some strategies that

can be used to help facilitate and develop self-determination for children with disabilities that

would allow them to have a smoother transition to adult life.

Overview of Transition and Self-Determination

There are three main components of self-regulation. The first one is making choices and

problem solving. This is a skill that can be integrated into the child's life at the early age of one

or two. It could include asking them if they want to play with the ball or blocks and they have to

point to which on they want. By having the child point to which one they want this is facilitating

making choices (Palmer et al.,2013). If the child picks playing with blocks and they are trying to

build a tower and then the tower falls now they have to problem-solve and figure out how to

build that tower again without having it fall. The teacher might facilitate this by helping the child

or giving the child some guidance (Palmer et al.,2013). When having the child make a choice it

helps them build up their language because not only are they pointing but also the adult is

facilitating them to sign or say the word of the item or object that the child wants. Lastly it

allows the child to also see what the consequences would be of their actions (Palmer et al.,2013).
 The second component is self-regulation. This includes the child having control of their

own behavior and emotions, they are cognitive processes and being helpful and nice to others.

Self-regulation could happen as early as infancy, one example of this is when an infant is

calming themselves down after they got upset about something. Self-regulation is something that

is particularly important to have because is linked to academic success in the child’s later life and

it can also really help the child's behavioral patterns in the future (Palmer et al.,2013). The third

component is engagement. This mostly refers to children engaging with caregivers, teachers,

families, and other influential figures in the child's life. The developmental sequence of

engagement can start with non-engaged behavior and casual attention that are not facilitated

engagement. Then after that has progressed then there is more focused attention on symbolic.

This is being able to cipher certain things and being able to be engaged in various levels of

attention (Palmer et al.,2013). For example, an infant will show non-engagement because they

haven't really learned how to be engaged yet, but by the age of five the child should be able to be

engaged in a lesson that the teacher is teaching (Palmer et al.,2013).

It is extremely important for a child to have all these three skills because these are skills

that we all use every single day in our lives whether we realize it or not. These skills determine

how we interact with people, our environment and other things surrounding and objects and

things that we use and interact on a daily (Summers et al., 2014). When the child grows up into

an adult, having these skills will allow them to be able to get a job, have a family one day and so

many other things. It is also important for the teachers, parents, caregivers, and other important

adult figures in children's lives to teach them and show them these skills. Most children will not

learn these skills on their own because they don't have the abilities and maturity to foster these

skills yet (Summers et al., 2014).

Application of Transition and Self-Determination

Parents play an especially significant role when it comes to helping and facilitating a

child's self-determination, especially a child that has a disability. Partnerships between families

and practitioners have become highly recommended practice to help these children (Erwin et

al.,2016). The families have a huge role because they shape the self-determination for that child

because of their cultural and personal beliefs. Given the cultural and personal beliefs that the

families have, the practitioner can sit down with the families and determine what exactly self-

determination is to the families and give them suggestions on how to help with the self-

determination of that child (Erwin et al.,2016).

There is one specific intervention that can be used to help foster these self-determination

skills that a child with disabilities has. This intervention is a four-step intervention, which is

called The Foundations Intervention Strategy (Erwin et al.,2016). This intervention works on the

three components of self-determination. The first step is assessing the child, the assessment is

looking at the child's strengths and using an altered routine-based format. There is also

discussions between the teacher and the parents as to what they think the child needs at home

and at school. The second step is selecting a strategy, this is a strategy that can be used at home

and school (Palmer, Fleming et al.,2019). The strategies are based on the target behaviors that

are identified in step one by the families and the teachers. The teachers and the families produce

a goal for the child to meet and then go from there (Erwin et al.,2016).

Once the strategy is picked then it can be implemented and looked at to see how it

works. During the implementation of the strategy there's constant communication between the

family, the teacher, and the facilitator and how it is working and what ways it can be improved.

The next step is reflecting and discussing how everything is working and what is the next thing
that needs to be done (Erwin et al.,2016). Things that are reviewed during this process are goals

that have or have not been met, video clips that may have been taken of the child and other

documentation tools that could have been used. This intervention can be used early on in the

child’s life so when they are transitioning to being a teenager and being an adult, they have all of

the necessary skills that they need to be successful (Palmer, Fleming et al.,2019).

There are many different strategies and accommodations that adults can use to foster

these foundational skills that the children need. Some specific strategies that the adults and even

families can use at home are simply embedding choice making into the daily routine, whether it's

materials that are used, activities that the child can do, the opportunity for the child to participate

in certain activities, where the location of the activities are and how long the activities are and

when they end (Palmer et al.,2013). These choices can be made at home, during play, it's small

groups with other children and even in class discussions. At home families can also include the

children in simple or complex choices for example supporting the child to select their own

clothes for the day. Strategies that can be used for self-regulation for the child are

communication devices and using rubrics to see how they are feeling. Some specific strategies

for engaging the child are social cues, prompts and increasing the time that the child can focus on

one certain thing. These are only a few of the strategies that families can use at home and

teachers can use in the classroom to help with self-determination (Palmer et al.,2013).

Conclusion

Self-determination plays a particularly key role in a child’s development and carries into

adult life. We may not realize it, but we use self-determination every day in our lives. Whether

it’s making decisions on what to eat for dinner that not or calming ourselves down after an

argument with someone. Most importantly it’s a skill that we use and develop when we are
young and use it for the rest of our lives. There are so many interventions and strategies to help

children develop these skills that they need, especially when a child has a disability.
 References

Erwin, E., Maude, S.P., Palmer, S.B., Summers, J.A., Brotherson, M.J., Haines, S.J., Stroup-

Rentier, V., Zheng, Y., Peck, N.F (2016). Fostering the foundations of self-determination

in early childhood: a process for enhancing child outcomes across home and school.

Early Childhood Education Journal. 44, 325-333.

Palmer, S.B., Fleming, K.K., Summers, J.A., Erwin, E. J., Maude, S. P., Brotherson, M.J.,

Stroup-Rentier, V., Haines, S. J., Zheng, Y. Z., Peck, N. F., & Wu, H. (2019).

Foundations for self-determination in early childhood: Preliminary preschool study.

Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41252-019-

00106-0

Palmer, S., Summers, J. A., Brotherson, M. J., Erwin, E., Maude, S., Stroup-Rentier, V.,

Hsaing-Yi, W., Peck, N., Zheng, Y., Weigel, C., McGrath, G., and Haines, S. (2013).

Building foundations for self-determination in early childhood: An inclusive model for

children with disabilities. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education. 33(1), 38-47.

doi:10.1177/0271121412445288

Summers, J. A., Brotherson, M. J., Erwin, E. E., Maude, S. P., Haines, S. J.,

Stroup-Rentier, V., Wu, H., Peck, N. F., Zheng, Y. Z. (2014). Family reflections on the

foundations of self-determination in early childhood. Inclusion. 2(3), 175-194. Doi:

10.1352/2326-6988-2.03.175