Practice Examples

  What To Do

• Review the steps in the DO IT! strategy. Keep it bookmarked or keep it posted beside your computer as a reminder to ask questions to help your partner use a good problem solving and goal setting strategy.
• Now read each of the 3 examples below and choose the response that would be the best one for the mentor to give to the adolescent or young adult. Remember that the mentor will be most effective if he/she asks questions to encourage his/her partner to use a good problem solving and goal setting strategy — the DO IT! strategy.
• You will be asked to complete 3 examples. As you complete each example, check to see if your answer is correct and read the feedback.

  Example #1

You are the mentor for Anne. Anne started college a few months ago. She is studying English literature and wants to be a writer. She also paints. She has cerebral palsy and uses a wheel chair. She uses an alphabet board or computer with speech synthesis to communicate. She sends you this E-mail message:

"I can’t seem to make any friends. No one in my class will talk to me. They’re all afraid of me. I used to have a lot of friends in high school. But now I don’t have any friends at all."

Which of these answers would be the best one for you to send if you were Anne’s mentor?

	"If you’re patient, one day you’ll meet someone great who wants to be your friend. Just be patient and don’t worry about it."
	"Anne, you sound sort of lonely. I remember I found it really difficult to make new friends when I started high school. I was really depressed. I couldn’t do any work and I couldn’t eat. Everyone was worried about me. But in the end it all worked out. I’ve got tons of friends now."
	"Anne, you sound sort of lonely. I remember I found it really difficult to make new friends when I started college. It can be really hard. Why do you think you are having such a hard time making friends now compared to high school? Try to give me some specific examples. How would things be different if you had more friends? Let's brainstorm about some ways that you could meet new people and make some new friends. "
	"Anne, you sound sort of lonely. You just need to make more of an effort. Just go up to people and say ‘Hi’. If they are afraid of you, then you need to take the lead. You can’t just sit around feeling sorry for yourself."

This research is supported by Grant #H133G8004 from The National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR). The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research and no official endorsement should be inferred.