Students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) have specific problems in processing information, which affects educational and social-emotional area of functioning. These problems usually affect detecting and processing information, the ability to gain basic school skills and social cognition. Thus the understanding of social situations and relationships, establishing and completing communication and understanding social hints from the environment is hindered. Due to these difficulties in the educational and social-emotional area, students with SLD may experience learning underachievement. For this reason, I have discussed and studied in my master's thesis the importance of learning and developing self-advocacy and other social skills for students with SLD that contribute to a grater self-confidence, self-awareness and acceptance of learning disabilities. It can be seen that an individual's knowledge of one's own strong points, their self-awareness and greater social inclusion represent important protective factors, which reduce school failure and learning powerlessness. These factors also contribute to greater motivation for learning and for involment in their own education. In the theoretical part of my master's thesis, I have highlighted the importance of developing and adapting inclusive environment, which promotes holistic development and social integration of the student. It also promotes their empowerment in the process of acceptance and expression of their own school-based needs. With a view of clarifying the importance of learning and developing self-advocacy skills of the students with SLD, I have presented the training in the empirical part of my master's thesis. The training with which I was developing self-advocacy skills of the three students with SLD attending the 7th grade and included in the education adjustment program with additional expert assistance. The training included activities in the field of cognition itself, assertive communication, problem-solving, introducing the legal bases of elementary and secondary education as well as creating individualised programs. By emphasising strong points of these students, I have worked on the following: understanding and acceptance of their own learning disabilities, learning to make compromises, demanding necessary adjustments and developing personal confidence through public speaking. The training focused on the use of already acquired skills in a concrete situation in which the student explained their educational needs and necessary adjustments to the teacher at the school. During the implementation process of the training of developing self-advocacy skills for students with SLD, I created a material for them and their school workers likewise. The material includes worksheets and illustrations for promoting and developing self-advocacy skills as well as being student-friendly in terms of their school-based needs. The training was successful and it has confirmed the findings already made in the field of self-advocacy. After the implementation of the training, all three students reported having gained a better self-awareness and a better insight in their own strong and weak areas. The training also helped them gain new knowledge of the individualized education program and learn new approaches to problem-solving in conflict situations.
展开▼
