Strategies To Overcome Learned Helplessness

My next few posts are going to be switching gears just a little bit and truly focusing on the teacher's crucial role in teaching effective communication skills by integrating augmentative communication into the curriculum and daily classroom routines. This post specifically will focus on what strategies teachers can use to overcome 'learned helplessness'.

Learned helplessness can be defined as a disruption in motivation, affect, and learning following exposure to non-contingent (uncontrollable) outcomes. 

Sometimes just thinking you can is not enough. 

Teachers can use the following different strategies to help students overcome learned helplessness...

• 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. 

Currently, I have one student in my kindergarten classroom who does not like to speak. When I first met her in the beginning of the year she would barely say hello to me. She was fine socially with her peers, however if she needed something she would just cry instead of asking for it. She has already made great progress since September. Originally I would ask her yes/no answers to get a response. Now, I ask her more open ended questions so she will give me longer responses. She now knows that things will not just be given to her, rather she needs to ask for what she needs. 

Amy G. Dell, Deborah A. Newton, Jerry G. Petroff. Assistive Technology in the Classroom: Enhancing the School Experiences of Students with Disabilities. (Chapter 12) 2012. Second Edition.