What is WhyTry?
WhyTry? is a learning programme, developed in the U.S, that addresses the challenges today’s young people face in their every day lives. In particular, it is highly motivating and successful where an individual of secondary school or college age has been diagnosed with, or displays symptoms of, AD/HD, Autism, Asberger’s, Dyslexia and other learning difficulties. The WhyTry? Programme is used in over 4,000 schools in America, Canada and Australia. It has been demonstrated in a variety of research settings to reduce truancy, improve academic success and develop life skills.
WhyTry? acknowledges the difficulties these young people are facing, and then identifies what they’re gaining - or not gaining - from their current behaviour patterns. It then encourages them to discover what they could be doing by making just a few simple changes, and leads them to explore more positive options. Taken literally, it poses the question, ‘Why try in life?’ - a question asked by many young people today.
How does WhyTry? get its message across?
It provides empowerment by presenting 10 challenges every young person faces in every day life and offering a range of easy-to-follow steps to turn these challenges into opportunities. The challenges – which every young person, parent, teacher, tutor, carer, etc. – will recognise are:
- Motivation
- Making the Right Choices
- Peer pressure
- Discarding personal ‘labels’
- Defence mechanisms
- Seeing the bigger picture
- Relationships
- Understanding the rules
- Focussing effort on the positive
- Overcoming hurdles
WhyTry? uses multiple techniques to get its message across - striking visual images, stimulating discussion, interactive exercises, thought-provoking music and creatively-presented personal workbooks. Used together, these techniques maximise the learning environment and develop a young person’s approach and ability to address the main challenges in life. Sessions are held weekly, over a ten-week period and each topic is addressed individually. Groups consist of no more than five persons.
Why does WhyTry? work?
Firstly, it surrenders the ‘one-up relationship’ between, for example, parent and teenager, teacher and student, by diminishing the role of the authority figure and handing back responsibility to the participants in the group. The goal is fundamentally to tap into individual personal resources rather than simply ‘teach’.
It also focuses on the individual’s strengths, not their weaknesses, generates anticipation for change, whilst encouraging the awareness of personal choice and the understanding that decisions always have consequences.
Ultimately, the WhyTry? Programme understands the importance of self-belief in the face of all adversity, and in the human’s ability to transcend circumstances, create positive change and adapt.
