Self-Management Strategies to Support Homework Completion With Students With Developmental Disabilities

Homework completion is a skill that students, regardless of ability, may need to do independently. Homework has several benefits ranging from promoting academic skills to increasing self-confidence. However, students with developmental disabilities often experience difficulties with homework completion due to struggling to maintain attention and motivation and challenges in developing effective study skills. Self-management is one strategy to help students with developmental disabilities to develop independence in completing their homework. Self-management can include components of self-monitoring, self-evaluation, self-instruction, and self-reinforcement that help individuals produce a desired change in behavior. Using these components of self-management, we present four self-management materials (i.e., homework expectations form, homework planning form, homework flow chart, and daily report), describe how to use of the self-management materials, and discuss the role of parents in supporting independent homework completion of their child with developmental disabilities.