Promoting self-determination for students with intellectual disability: A Vygotskian perspective

Abstract

Abstract Despite weak correlations between IQ scores and self-determination, research indicates that individuals with intellectual disability (ID) show lower levels of self-determination than their non-disabled peers, and that they experience lower effects of self-determination interventions. From a Vygotskian perspective, self-determination skills can be considered complex cognitive abilities that develop through social interaction with and adequate scaffolding by competent tutors. This approach raises the need to look into how self-determination interventions can be adapted to the cognitive profiles of individuals with ID. In this article, the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction was used with eight adolescents with mild ID over a three-month period. Typical challenges that were encountered are described, and suggestions for how these challenges can be addressed are discussed. Findings from this study illustrate how the development of self-determination skills may be facilitated when there is congruence between the individual's neurobiological development and the social conditions for development.