How Can an OT Help Your Child Develop Self-Advocacy Skills?
Self-advocacy is an important life skill that allows kids to understand and communicate their unique needs effectively with others. By using self-advocacy skills, neurodivergent children can more easily access support, accommodations, and services to help them be successful.
This is especially important for autistic children who often need extra support navigating sensory challenges, complex social interactions, and educational environments. However, communication challenges, rejection sensitivity, and difficulty recognizing and understanding needs may be obstacles when building self-advocacy skills.
When this is the case, an occupational therapist (OT) can support your child in developing self-advocacy by teaching them self-awareness, building confidence, communication techniques, and identifying sensory needs and preferences.
This article breaks down the various ways an OT can help children develop self-advocacy skills, provides some sample OT goals, and offers additional self-advocacy resources parents, teachers, and therapists can use to reinforce this crucial life skill.
What is Self-Advocacy?
Self-advocacy is the ability to express your needs, desires, boundaries, and required accommodations clearly and effectively.
Self-advocacy skills allow children to make choices that support their well-being, like asking for a break when overwhelmed or requesting a sensory tool to feel more comfortable.
Self-advocacy has three main components:
- Understanding what your wants and needs are (self-awareness)
- Knowing what kind of supports can help you
- Communicating this information to others
In practice, self-advocacy can be as simple as a child saying, “I need some quiet time,” or using a communication device to express a need for personal space.
You can learn more about what self-advocacy is, why it’s so important for neurodivergent children, and teaching strategies for parents and educators to try here.
You can use this free printable to teach kids about self-advocacy:
This four-page printable helps kids understand what self-advocacy is, why it matters, and how to practice it at home or school.
What Do OTs Even Do?
Occupational therapy focuses on helping people of all ages develop the skills needed to participate in meaningful “occupations”— and no, an occupation doesn’t mean a job. In OT, an occupation is anything that occupies your time.
For kids, occupations include activities like playing, socializing, and learning. OTs support kids in developing the skills they need to fully engage in these activities, improving their confidence, independence, and self-awareness.
An OT might help kids build skills in a range of areas, from sensory integration to motor skills and communication. For autistic children, an OT’s role often includes teaching self-advocacy by addressing challenges related to sensory processing, communication, and social-emotional skills.
OTs help children build skills that enable them to express their needs, set personal boundaries, and make choices— all key aspects of self-advocacy.
How Can an OT Help Your Child Develop Self-Advocacy Skills?
Occupational therapists use a variety of strategies to help children build self-advocacy skills.
Here are some of the ways they do this:
Identifying Sensory Needs
OTs help kids recognize and understand their sensory needs and preferences, such as if they’re sensitive to noise or prefer certain textures.
This involves building self-awareness skills, which are a foundational skill for self-advocacy because they help kids understand what they need to feel comfortable.
For example, if your child finds loud noises distressing, an OT can help them learn to identify when noise levels are getting too high and teach them how to request or access earplugs or noise-canceling headphones to help them feel more comfortable.
Using Sensory Tools
An OT can introduce your child to various sensory tools and help them find the right tools for meeting their unique sensory needs.
This may include tools like fidget toys, weighted blankets, ear protection, sensory swings, or movement breaks to help them manage sensory overload or under-stimulation.
An OT can also teach your child how to request these tools independently when needed, either verbally or by using picture exchange, hand signals, or an AAC device.
Building Communication Skills
Children need to have a way to communicate their needs and preferences to others. An OT can help your child learn to communicate and use self-advocacy successfully through various teaching methods.
Social Scripts:
OTs work on pre-prepared scripts that kids can use in specific scenarios. By practicing with a script, kids learn what to say, so they feel more confident communicating in real-life situations.
These scripts can be very simple, such as “I need a break” or “Can we turn down the volume, please?”.
If your child struggles with verbal communication, you can also use pictures and phrases on printed cards as an alternative way of communicating these needs.
These self-advocacy communication cards are designed to help kids express their needs and feelings in a clear, respectful way. Ideal for both home and school environments, these cards offer simple, non-verbal ways for kids to communicate important messages.
Role-Playing:
An OT can role-play with kids, allowing them to practice common scenarios like asking the teacher to take a break.
This can help your child gain confidence using their social scripts and reduce anxiety when they do face these real-life situations.
Alternative Communication Methods:
If your child isn’t able to communicate their needs verbally, an OT may introduce hand signals, AAC devices, or picture exchange communication systems.
These alternative communication methods provide your child with a way to communicate their needs without words.
If your child finds it difficult to communicate verbally, an OT can teach them to use an AAC device with pre-programmed phrases like “I need space” so they can advocate for their needs more easily.
Teaching Boundaries and Assertiveness
Some kids need help communicating more assertively rather than communicating aggressively or passively.
OTs can teach kids how to express their boundaries in a way that respects others yet still ensures their own comfort by building these assertive communication skills.
For example, if your child dislikes physical touch, an OT can help them express this using phrases like “I don’t like hugs,” allowing them to express their preferences and communicate personal boundaries politely.
When kids have the skills to communicate clearly and assertively, they’re less likely to engage in aggressive communication or behavior like pushing someone away or yelling when someone crosses their boundaries.
Similarly, if your child is more passive, they may go along with what’s happening even if it makes them uncomfortable or unhappy. In that case, assertive communication can help them feel more in control of their choices. An OT could help them with respectful phrases like ” I’d like to play something else.”
You can find some assertive communication activities for kids here.
Developing Problem-Solving Skills
Problem-solving skills are often challenging for neurodivergent children, and they commonly need extra practice building this skill.
An OT can help kids recognize common challenges (like sensory overload in busy settings) and find solutions that work for them.
For example, if your child finds recess too chaotic but doesn’t know how to solve that problem, an OT might help them come up with possible solutions, like asking for a quieter spot to play or inviting a friend to join a more structured, calm activity.
Encouraging Choice-Making and Decision-Making
Self-advocacy also means having control over decisions that impact your life. Having the opportunity to make choices and decisions, both big and small, helps kids practice advocating for their preferences.
Making small, everyday decisions helps children feel comfortable expressing their preferences. For example, if your child has strong preferences for certain types of clothing, letting them choose what to wear reinforces their ability to make independent choices that make them feel comfortable.
OTs help children to make choices about their activities during therapy sessions, giving them a sense of control and practice in decision-making.
For example, if your child is working on sensory exercises, an OT might let them choose between different activities, helping them see that their choices matter.
Supporting Social-Emotional Learning
Emotional Recognition:
In order to self-advocate, kids need the self-awareness and the vocabulary to identify and share their emotions.
An OT may use a social-emotional learning program, such as the Zones of Regulation, to teach children to identify and communicate emotions, to teach self-regulation strategies, and to use self-advocacy like asking for a break when they’re frustrated before their emotions escalate to a point they can’t control.
Self-Regulation:
Self-regulation is a complex skill that we use to manage our emotions, behaviors, and thoughts safely and appropriately. Self-regulation allows us to manage our responses to intense negative emotions, calm down when necessary, and positively interact with others.
OTs teach techniques like deep breathing or sensory activities to help children manage feelings and advocate for breaks or calm-down time.
For example, if your child tends to feel anxious in loud spaces, their OT might work with them on deep breathing techniques or visualization strategies they can use to get back to baseline after they ask for a quiet break.
Sample OT Goals Related to Self-Advocacy
When learning new skills, OTs set goals to track and measure a child’s progress toward specific milestones.
If your child is working on self-advocacy skills, an OT might create goals that challenge them to use those skills in controlled environments, gradually building their abilities and confidence.
Here are some examples of OT goals relating to self-advocacy.
Goal: Verbally Request Sensory Breaks in Overwhelming Situations
Objective: Within 1 month, [child’s name] will be able to verbally request a sensory break when feeling overwhelmed in 3 out of 5 scenarios. This will be documented by the OT or teacher during classroom activities and other structured environments.
Goal: Use AAC Device for Requesting Personal Space in Crowded Situations
Objective: Within 4 weeks, [child’s name] will use an AAC device to communicate a need for personal space during at least 2 out of 5 crowded situations. This behavior will be recorded in sessions with the OT and during monitored social interactions.
Goal: Label and Express Emotions Using Visual Supports
Objective: In 3 months, [child’s name] will identify and label their emotions using an emotion wheel or similar visual support, effectively expressing a need for calming tools in 4 out of 5 sessions as recorded by the OT or teacher.
Goal: Independently Request Preferred Activities During Group Play
Objective: By the end of the school term, [child’s name] will independently request a preferred activity during 2 out of 3 group play scenarios with peers. This behavior will be observed by the OT or teacher and documented as part of ongoing social skills development.
Goal: Set Personal Boundaries Using Assertive Communication
Objective: Within 2 months, [child’s name] will use assertive language (e.g., “I need space”) to set boundaries during monitored social interactions in 4 out of 5 opportunities. The OT or teacher will record successful interactions where this behavior is demonstrated.
Goal: Identify and Communicate Sensory Needs to Adults Independently
Objective: In 4 months, [child’s name] will identify their sensory needs and communicate them to a teacher or caregiver in 4 out of 5 monitored settings, such as classrooms or social spaces, as recorded by the OT.
Goal: Use Nonverbal Cues to Indicate Overstimulation in Busy Environments
Objective: Within 3 months, [child’s name] will develop and use a nonverbal cue (such as a hand signal or visual card) to indicate feelings of overstimulation in 4 out of 5 monitored high-stress situations, such as assemblies or crowded areas, as documented by the OT or teacher.
Goal: Express Need for Help During Challenging Tasks
Objective: Within 6 weeks, [child’s name] will verbally ask for help during challenging tasks in 3 out of 4 instances, as recorded during OT sessions or class activities. This will be tracked as part of their skill-building in seeking support and managing frustration.
Goal: Use Preferred Calming Strategy to Self-Regulate Emotions
Objective: Within 2 months, [child’s name] will independently use a chosen calming strategy (such as deep breathing or a fidget tool) in 4 out of 5 stressful situations, such as during transitions or unexpected changes, with success tracked by the OT or teacher.
Goal: Make Choices Between Two Activities to Support Self-Advocacy
Objective: In 8 weeks, [child’s name] will make an independent choice between two given activity options in 4 out of 5 instances during OT or classroom sessions, as documented by the OT or teacher. This skill will reinforce decision-making as part of self-advocacy.
Goal: Politely Decline Unwanted Interactions Using a Pre-Taught Phrase
Objective: Within 3 months, [child’s name] will use a pre-taught polite phrase (e.g., “No, thank you” or “I don’t want that”) to decline an unwanted interaction in 3 out of 5 monitored scenarios. The OT or teacher will document successful use of this phrase in social interactions.
Goal: Initiate Request for Preferred Sensory Tool in Overstimulating Settings
Objective: In 6 weeks, [child’s name] will initiate a request for their preferred sensory tool (such as noise-canceling headphones or a weighted lap pad) in 4 out of 5 instances when they feel overstimulated, as documented by the OT or caregiver.
Goal: Use Assertive Language to Express Discomfort with Activities
Objective: Within 3 months, [child’s name] will use assertive language to express discomfort with an activity, using phrases like “I don’t feel comfortable” or “This is too hard,” in 3 out of 5 opportunities as recorded by the OT or teacher during monitored sessions.
Self-advocacy skills are life-changing for children, enabling them to express their needs, make choices, and feel more in control of their experiences.
Working with an OT allows your child to build these skills gradually and confidently. An OT can empower your child to advocate for themselves, build independence, and help them thrive in various situations.
Collaborating with an OT can be a positive step toward equipping your child with the tools to navigate life with confidence and self-assurance.
