We’ve Got to Take that Image and Change It!
Three Evidence-Based Strategies to Boost Children's Self-Determination.
One of my favorite television shows is “The Zoo,” a behind the scenes look at the Bronx Zoo. Each episode starts with Jim Breheny, the zoo’s director stating, “If you ask a child to draw a picture of a zoo, chances are they’ll draw an animal behind bars. We’ve got to take that image and change it!”
And with a wave of his hands, he explains that the zoo has taken on a greater purpose – to preserve endangered species and provide animals with the opportunity to live their lives in the most authentic manner. His gesture and words demonstrate a major shift in the purpose of a zoo.
We too have an important purpose that represents a major shift in our thinking. As educators, therapists, and parents, we live in a system that views children as academic beings who need to be taught specific material and skills to succeed in the world. But what if this viewpoint is getting it wrong? Current research suggests we need to head in a different direction.
If you ask someone to describe a classroom, chances are they’ll describe a teacher leading a lesson, while children listen, seated at their desks. Students in schools across the country take part in traditional lessons of reading writing, and arithmetic. Yet so many children are not doing well in the traditional system, exhibiting behavioral, emotional, and social difficulties that interfere with their
ability to learn (Filipello et al., 2019).
When we wave OUR hands to talk about education taking on a greater purpose, what will we say? How are we going to “take that image and change it”? I believe we must reimagine the purpose of education and how it is provided to the children we serve.
We can begin by looking at children as having an internal awareness of their own wants and needs, with educators and therapists providing support to unlock their potential. Instead of feeding children information and skills, we can look to them to guide us. Children can teach us about their ideas, their interests, and their personal goals for the future. Research from the fields of education, occupational
therapy, neuroscience, and psychology support this child-led approach across the board (Wehmeyer et al., 2017). Evidence confirms that children who are given opportunities to build skills of self-determination, such as goal setting and choice making, have better outcomes post-graduation (Shogren et al., 2015).
How can we realistically make this happen in a system that is structured to educate children according to a traditional teacher-led approach? There are MANY things we can do starting right now, as teachers and practitioners, to change our approach on a day-to-day basis. Here are my top three ideas, culled from the research:
1. Ask Children Questions about What Matters to Them
Questions can be posed to help children identify meaningful goals that can be achieved in a relatively short period of time. Goals in the classroom, and goals on a child’s Individualized Education Plan (IEP) are generally created by adults. But here we are talking about a child creating a personally meaningful goal. According to the University of Illinois Teaching and Learning Center (CITL) research, questioning should be used to achieve well-defined goals (Illinois CITL, 2019). Questions should be posed that will require students to use the thinking skills that are being developed.
Questions that can be incorporated into any lesson or therapy session include:
• “What would you like to be able to do?”
• “What is something that’s hard for you to do that we can work on together?”
• “What is your goal for today?”
• “What words do you want to use to write your goal?”
• “How would you like to record your goal? On paper? On the computer?”
2. Use Choice Boards to Promote Choice Making
It’s easy to use choice boards in your lessons/sessions with children. When preparing to work on an activity, ask the child to make a choice about one aspect of that task. Then, have the child partner with you to create a simple Choice Board with the child illustrating their choices using magazine pictures, internet photos, clip art or hand drawn illustrations. After the choice board is complete, they can pick the option that they choose to start working on their task.
Although this may seem like a big investment of time, it’s a worthwhile investment! The child truly “owns” their selection and buys in to the activity when they have made the choice. Instead of an adult telling them what to do, the child decides for themselves what they need in that moment (Wehmeyer et al., 2017).
Choice-making empowers children to take charge of their life and their learning Below is a sample choice board created by a child, using pictures from the internet:
3. Use Self-Talk to Reinforce Concepts
Self-talk is a proven strategy for a child to turn a concept into action. As a mental strategy using self-addressed cues (short phrases or a few words), self-talk can trigger appropriate responses by focusing attention on the skill or behavior, thereby improving performance.
Positive self-talk can help children build self-esteem and confidence. When children learn to give themselves a positive message, they may be more likely to keep trying even when things don’t work out the way they planned the first time — or to try new things that they feel nervous about (Geurts, 2018).
Research indicates that self-talk improves performance. Here are a few ways to incorporate self-talk into your sessions:
As child is performing a task, ask them to say everything they are doing aloud. This helps them become used to the idea of self-talk and reinforces learning.
Have child state aloud their goal and their reason for wanting to achieve that goal.
Ask child to state some of the good things that will happen if they work toward a goal.
Ask child to explain the steps they will take to achieve something they want.
If child says something negative, ask them to think of a way to state the thought in a positive manner. For example, if a child says, “That’s too hard, I can’t do it,” ask them to state it in a positive way: “It’s very hard, and I can’t do it yet. But I will keep trying.”
Model the behavior by stating something positive that you – the practitioner – want to do. For example, you can tell the child, “I had a really hard time learning a song on the piano. Instead of saying, ‘It’s too hard, I can’t do it,’ here’s what I say: ‘It’s so hard to play this song, so I’ll keep practicing a little bit at a time.’”
Takeaway: Combining strategies is powerful!
Any one of the strategies above can make a difference. You can increase the benefit by combining these strategies. To get you started, I’d love to share with you a free lesson on goal setting. Click on the “Try it Free” tab to watch the My Goal lesson and see these strategies put into action!
References
Filippello, P., Buzzai, C., Costa, S., Orecchio, S., & Sorrenti, L. (2020). Teaching style and academic achievement: The mediating role of learned helplessness and mastery orientation. Psychology in the Schools, 57(1), 5-16.
Geurts, B. (2018). Making sense of self talk. Review of Philosophy and Psychology. 9, 271–285. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13164-017-0375-y
Nouri, A. & Pihlgrin, A. (2018). Socratic Seminars for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Journal of Dialogic Pedagogy, 6. https://doi.org/10.5195/dpj.2018.173
Shogren, K. A., Wehmeyer, M. L., Palmer, S. B., Rifenbark, G. G., & Little, T. D. (2015).
Relationships between self-determination and postschool outcomes for youth with disabilities. The Journal of Special Education, 48(4), 256–267. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022466913489733
Illinois CITL (2019). Questioning Strategies. Retrieved from https://citl.illinois.edu/citl-101/teaching-learning/resources/teaching-strategies/questioning-strategies
Wehmeyer, M. L., Shogren, K. A., Little, T. D., & Lopez, S. J. (2017). Development of self-determination through the life-course. Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1042-6_6
