Self-Advocacy: Explaining Your Accommodations
Student-led IEP practice: name and request your own supports without a script in hand.
Session summary (SOAP)
Stays on this screen. Nothing is saved or sent.
Mark a card Correct, Correct with cue or Incorrect and the summary writes itself here.
How to run it
Insist on the no-apology version. Students explain accommodations apologetically by default, which invites negotiation, and a flat one-sentence statement gets a different response. The before-the-test card is the highest-value item — an accommodation requested after a test is an excuse and one requested before is a plan. The what-if-a-teacher-refuses card needs an actual sentence, not a principle. Twenty minutes covers half the board.
Cueing ladder
Start at the top. Add support one step at a time.
- IndependentPresent the item and wait 5 seconds of quiet before helping.Log as correct
- PromptAsk 'What's your first step?' or 'What would you say here?'Log as cued
- Two choicesOffer two responses and talk through which one fits the situation better.Log as cued
- ModelRole-play it yourself first, then the student tries it.Log as cued
Adjust it
Give the student a written script to read from during the role-play.
Drop the script, and play a less helpful partner who asks a follow-up question.
Matching IEP goal
Given a real-life scenario, Student will give a clear, appropriate response in 4 of 5 opportunities across 3 consecutive sessions, given no more than one prompt.
Send it home through the parent portal →About this activity
Eight tasks for a student-led IEP meeting: name your three accommodations without reading them off the paper; explain extended time to a teacher in one sentence, with no apology; ask a teacher privately for your accommodation before the test, not after; what do you say if a teacher says everyone gets the same time; name one accommodation you no longer need, and why. Practical, specific, and rehearsed before the moment rather than during it.
What to listen for
Watch whether the student can name their accommodations at all. A surprising number cannot, which makes every other item impossible and is worth discovering here rather than in a meeting. Notice the no-longer-needed card, which asks the student to give something up — that is a genuine act of self-assessment and often the most mature thing they do all year.
Carrying it home
Families can help by not making the request. When an accommodation is needed, prompting the student to ask rather than emailing the teacher is the practice, even though it is slower.
What's in this activity
- Name your three accommodations without reading them off the paper.
- Explain extended time to a teacher in one sentence, with no apology.
- Ask a teacher privately for your accommodation before the test, not after.
- Explain what speech-language services are to a friend who asked.
- What do you say if a teacher says 'everyone gets the same time'?
- Describe how you learn best in two sentences.
- Name one accommodation you no longer need, and why.
- Practice: 'I have an IEP, and part of it is ___. Can we set that up for Friday's test?'
Questions
- What ages is this for?
- Ninth through twelfth grade, aligned with student-led IEP meetings and transition planning.
- Is it free?
- Yes, all eight tasks are free to use with no account.
- Why practise this rather than let the team explain?
- Because after graduation nobody will. Post-secondary accommodations are requested by the student, and a student who has never named their own supports has no way to start.
Use this board with your caseload
With a free account, every correct, cued and incorrect mark is saved to the student and scored against their IEP goal, with the data written up for you. Assign it as home practice through the parent portal.
Track progress freeFree for SLPs. No card, no trial clock.