Stop and Acknowledge the Child's Hard Work

Full transcript

Nicole coming in from the NYU Motor Speech Lab. Your Monday tidbit today: take a moment during your motor speech therapy sessions to stop and acknowledge the hard work the child is putting forth.

The treatment can be challenging, and it can be frustrating. We get so into it, and we're pushing them, and sometimes we have to say, "I see how hard you're working, and I'm so proud of you."

It's especially important for the older kids, or the kids who have more language and a little bit more output. You're only working on five target words in a session, repetitively, in these blocks, and they might be confused as to why they're saying it over and over and over again. They might be internalizing that they're letting you down or not doing it right, and they might be feeling bad about themselves. I'm speaking from experience.

I think the best thing to do there is take a sport they like, maybe basketball, and say, "LeBron James: does he stop practicing his shot? No. He's practicing his dribbling and his shot all the time, because he wants to be a better player. So what we're doing is practicing these words all the time, so that you can say them as best as you can."