Self-Determination and Choice

Microswitch Technology for Enabling Self-Determined Responding in Children with Profound and Multiple Disabilities: A Systematic Review

“…The present set of studies offers an empirically validated alternative, or supplement, to stimulation programming; an alternative or supplement that is seemingly more consistent with the contemporary philosophy of self-determination , Wehmeyer, 1992Wehmeyer & Abery, 2013). By combining microswitch technology with systematic instruction and the free-operant/contingent reinforcement paradigm, the participating children appeared to have learned the cause-effect relations arranged via the microswitch program.…”

“…They also appeared to have demonstrated self-determination in the sense of choosing when to access preferred stimulation, what type of stimulation to access, and when to initiate a social interaction. While self-determination encompasses more than just these three types of responses Wehmeyer, 1992;Wehmeyer & Abery, 2013), enabling children with profound and multiple disabilities to independently perform such responses would nonetheless seem to be highly functional and potentially quite empowering.…”

“…Specifi cally, the self-determination principle highlights the importance of enhancing the autonomy of persons with disabilities Wehmeyer, 1992;Wehmeyer & Abery, 2013). Enabling children with profound and multiple disabilities to exert a greater degree of control over the environment might be one way to enhance their self-determination.…”

“…While a case for the desirability of enhancing selfdetermination has been made in the literature Wehmeyer, 1992;Wehmeyer & Abery, 2013), an important question is whether children with profound and multiple disabilities can learn to (a) control access to preferred stimuli, (b) make choices between stimuli, and (c) recruit attention/initiate social interaction. One potentially effective approach for increasing the impact of an individual on their environment would be to train their communication partners to better recognize and respond appropriately to the person ' s existing prelinguistic communication behavior as suggested by Sigafoos, Arthur-Kelly, and Butterfi eld (2006).…”

Psychometric properties of the AIR Self‐Determination Scale: the Chinese version (AIR SDS‐C) for Chinese people with intellectual disabilities

“…). According to Wehmeyer's functional theory of self‐determination, a self‐determined person possesses specific capacities (behavioural autonomy and self‐regulation) and attitudes (psychological empowerment and self‐realisation) that coexist in the consistent performance of self‐determined actions (Wehmeyer , ; Wehmeyer & Abery ). Wehmeyer and Kelchner developed the Arc's SDS as a tool to collect information about personal characteristics related to self‐determination (i.e.…”