VIDBE-Q Volume 66 Issue 4
• Ensure students develop appropriate coping strategies.
Students need opportunities to learn and fail in ways similar to
their sighted peers.
• Include the student in decision making and goal
setting. Student involvement encourages a strength-based
approach that promotes overall wellness and increases the
young person's confidence and self-determination skills.
• Ask "Why can't…" instead of "Why won't…" For example,
if a teen is refusing to go a job interview, asking "Why won't
you go to the interview?" implies that the student is choosing to
be noncompliant. Asking instead, "Why can't you go to the
interview?" provides the adult with an opportunity to help the
young person identify the source of their anxiety and determine
strategies to overcome it.
• Provide guidance and instruction. It's important to build self-
confidence by offering a step-by-step approach that leads to a
long-term solution to the anxiety-driven behaviors. Remember
that changing behavior takes time. In much the same way that
students with learning disabilities need incremental
