Advocacy – the thing we all want for our students (and ourselves) what an intangible concept to describe in real time! Simply put, advocacy is the ability to identify a need, a solution, and then having the means to communicate that solution effectively.  In the earliest of stages, advocacy sounds like the crying of an infant, or looks like the pointing of a toddler.  As we grow and develop, advocacy includes making discrete choices (milk or juice), making specific needs known (I’m ready for a break now) and, ultimately, asserting ourselves in the world of adulthood (I’d like a raise, I’d like a project that is more fitting for my talents).  How do we promote skill progression from infancy to adulthood?  Easy!  Here are 5 simple steps that will take a lifetime to master!

• Saying no, being able to refuse a request: Whether it’s crying (or a massive meltdown), or politely saying “no thank-you” – it is our job as professionals to provide our students with the opportunity to make refusals throughout the day. Clearly state and outline the expectation for what saying “no” looks like in your classroom. For example, I will know that you do not want to do X activity, when you hit the switch, when you sign, when you say “no more.”
• Gaining access to choice: Advocacy means making your wants and needs known. Practice providing your students with preferred choices throughout the day. Would you like water or milk? Do you prefer red or blue? For some students this may be paired with the visual representation, while others it may be a casual question. Providing structured choices promotes early advocacy skills.
• Making a specific request: Next up, we must help our students begin to identify their wants and needs and generate their own solutions. We can do this by moving from a closed choice to an open-ended questions: instead of It’s snack time, would you like an apple or an orange? We state, It’s snack time, what would you like? Ultimately moving toward our goal of our student stating, “I’m hungry; I want a yogurt.”
• Sharing an abstract opinion: The capstone of self-advocacy is talking about things you can’t hold in your hands. Encourage your students to think about and talk about their personal preferences in food, books, music, politics, the list goes on!
• Understanding the bigger picture: Parents and teachers advocate for our students/children all day long, with the ultimate goal that one day, our children will advocate for themselves. Self-advocacy is the bedrock of adulthood. It is necessary that we provide our students with opportunities to advocate and also that we honor their choices. We know adults can hear advocacy in even the subtlest of forms, because we respond to babies when they cry; as our children transform into adults we are simply responding to the ever-shifting voice of maturity. It can be hard to release control, but it is oh-so-important