Eliminating Learned Helplessness

When working with students with special needs we need to remember to give students the opportunity to be involved in making their own choices. We need to encourage students to be actively involved in the lesson and in the choices that help them to be successful during the lesson. In order to overcome learned helplessness we should follow these tips:

• Build a daily expectation of communication through specific activities such as choosing the activity during recess, picking a book to read, or identifying where to eat lunch.
• Construct a brief daily report to parents that is communicated by the student.
• Allow natural consequences to occur and provide avenues for repair.  This includes setups that alter the environment to provide less support or sabotage.
• Provide for choice making whenever possible that requires the student to use his or her augmentative communication system.
• Provide powerful phrases on the device for students to reject or protest something.