This work was supported by a grant from Shalem Fund
Beit Berl College and the Shalem Fund conducted a study which examined the contribution of different sources of support, including individualized instruction, to the cognitive autonomy of adolescents with intellectual disabilities from four schools in Central Israel. The study focused on adolescents’ and their teachers’ reports. Several sources of support were related to different cognitive autonomy factors. However, not all the variables were associated with one another, and significant differences were found between adolescents’ perceptions and their teachers’ perceptions. In addition, individualized instruction mainly contributed to adolescents’ self a decline was found in their ability to make decisions.
Key words: autonomy, social support, intellectual disabilities, self-determination, adolescents, teachers