2001 Conference Proceedings
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The Mentor Project: Using the Internet to Share the Knowledge
of AAC Users
Carole Krezman
Michael Williams
Augmentative Communication News
Janice Light, David McNaughton, Maija Gulens
217 Moore, The Pennsylvania State University
University Park, PA,USA,16802
jcl4@psu.edu
Introduction
There is no limit to the kinds of things a person who
relies on AAC might want a mentor for... Falling in love,
starting a new school, starting a new job, changing communities
or homes, mastering a skill, learning a new piece of assistive
technology - all are easier and more fun if the experience can be
shared with and guided by someone who has ‘been
there’. (Williams, 1996; p.1-2)
Adolescents and young adults who use AAC face many challenges in
their drive to achieve educational / vocational success,
participate in society, and become self-sufficient. In order to
successfully overcome these challenges, adolescents and young
adults require: (a) well developed problem solving strategies;
(b) access to information on disability-related resources,
services, and legislation; and (c) encouragement from relevant
role models (Williams, 1996). Mentoring by adults who have
significant physical and speech disabilities who have
successfully overcome challenges offers tremendous potential
benefits for adolescents and young adults who require AAC. Such
mentoring can provide support in collaborative problem solving,
access to specialized information on assistive technology and
other disability-related resources, and positive social
interactions with appropriate role models. As Bowe, Fay, and
Finch (1980) argued, "Disabled individuals with several years of
disability experience are frequently better aware of the needs of
disabled people and better informed about government benefits
than able-bodied professionals in the rehabilitation delivery
system" (p.285).
Recent pilot research by Light and Cohen (1997) provided a
preliminary investigation of the use of electronic mail as a
medium to deliver a mentoring program to a small group of
adolescents and young adults who use AAC. The study indicated
that electronic mail was used effectively by the adolescents and
young adults to establish regular communication and develop
supportive relationships with mentors who also used AAC. The
adolescents and young adults used the network to interact
socially with their mentors and to work on personal goals related
to education, employment, independent living, personal care
attendants, assistive technology, family issues, communication
difficulties, finances, and disability-related resources.
Currently, there are a limited number of adults who use AAC who
have experience as mentors and have the skills required to
fulfill key mentor roles. There are, however, adults who use AAC
who demonstrate the potential to be effective mentors if they are
provided with support in developing or refining problem solving
strategies, information resources, and communication skills
required (Williams, 1996). This presentation will discuss the
Mentor Project, a project designed to address the need for
trained mentors through the achievement of two major objectives
over a three year period (1998-2001).
The Mentor Project
The Mentor project has two distinct objectives over a three-year
period:
- To develop, implement, and evaluate the outcomes of a
consumer-driven leadership training program conducted via the
Internet to teach adults who use AAC to use effective mentoring
skills;
- To develop, implement, and evaluate the outcomes of a
mentoring program for adolescents and young adults who use AAC,
delivered via the Internet, by adult mentors (trained under
Objective #1).
Leadership training program.
A total of 30 adults will participate under Objective #1: 15
during the investigation in Cycle 1 (1998-99), and 15 in Cycle 2
(2000-2001). All participants will meet the following criteria:
(a) have a significant congenital physical disability; (b) use
augmentative and alternative communication (AAC); (c) demonstrate
functional literacy skills; (d) be over the age of 21; (e) have
successfully attained meaningful educational, vocational, social,
and personal goals in their lives; and (f) have demonstrated
leadership potential as evidenced through nomination by peers and
rehabilitation professionals.
The instruction for the leadership-training program will be
conducted via the Internet using an accessible site on the World
Wide Web and electronic mail during small group and individual
interactions. The leadership-training program will include
instruction in three areas: collaborative problem solving skills;
knowledge of disability-related resources, legislation and
services; and positive communication skills. Case examples based
on actual interactions with adolescents and young adults who use
AAC will be used to prepare the mentors for subsequent
protégé interactions.
Mentor program.
A total of 30 mentor-protégé dyads will participate
in the project: 15 during the investigation in Cycle 1, and 15 in
Cycle 2. The mentors will be the adults who use AAC who
participated in the training program described under Objective
#1. The protégés will be selected based on the
following criteria: (a) have a significant congenital physical
disability; (b) use augmentative and alternative communication
(AAC); (d) demonstrate functional literacy skills such that their
written messages can be understood by others and such that they
can understand written texts; (e) be between the ages of 14 and
29; and (f) be experiencing transitions in their educational/
vocational, social, and/or personal lives.
Each protege-mentor dyad will interact regularly in one-to-one
interactions via electronic mail at least once per week. During
these interactions, the mentors will implement the skills that
they acquired during the leadership training (i.e., collaborative
problem solving, information dissemination, and positive
communication skills).
Each mentor will work with his/her protégé to:
identify problems in educational, vocational, social or personal
domains; define these problems specifically; set priorities;
identify appropriate goals to address the problems; develop
action plans to work on these goals; implement the action plans;
and monitor progress toward attaining the goals. The mentors will
model appropriate problem solving strategies during their
interactions, prompt their protégés to use these
strategies, and check the protégés’ use of
these strategies. Mentoring will occur within the context of real
life problems encountered by the protégés, thus
ensuring the relevance of the intervention.
Additional instruction will be provided for the mentors as
required to ensure their ongoing use of effective mentoring
skills. A listserv of all mentors on the project will be
developed and facilitated by the Mentor Project Facilitators to
provide ongoing support for the mentors.
Summary
A mentor provides a brain to pick, a shoulder to cry on, and
sometimes a kick in the pants.
Josefowitz (1980)
Mentoring by other consumers with disabilities is
critical to give people with disabilities the opportunity to
empower themselves (DeJong, 1979; McAweeney, Forchheimer &
Tate, 1996). This presentation willpresent information on the
first two years of the Mentor Project, including the impact of
the leadership training program and of the mentor program on the
mentor and protege participants in this project.
References
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of GAS to evaluate individual progress of clients with severe and
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DeJong, G. (1979). Independent living: From social movement to
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Josefowitz, N. (1980). Paths to power. Reading, MA:
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Light, J. and Cohen, K. (1997). Use of electronic
communications to develop a mentoring program for individuals who
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Williams, M. (1996). Mentoring, Alternatively Speaking, 2,
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