How to Start Cueing a Target Word

Full transcript

Hi, everyone. It's Nicole from the NYU Motor Speech Lab. I'm coming in the day after a really great workshop we did for our Practicum I students, who are just starting to learn how to work with clients. The workshop was on CAS diagnosis.

One of the things we spent a long time on, and got some really insightful questions and comments about, was cueing. I think those of us who've been doing this a long time maybe don't even think it through so much. We just know we're going to try a whole bunch of things to get this kid to say the target. One of the students said, "Thank you for giving us permission to be creative." And it's true: it doesn't always have to be so technical.

So I wanted to come in for the newer clinicians who are starting out. The best way to get started is to get started. And the best way to start thinking about how to cue a target is to say the word yourself and think about how it feels to say it.

One of the students asked me, "How do you cue for a word like 'day'? What are you saying to them?" And I said, okay, the first thing you do is say the word "day." What do you notice? Your tongue goes up for that "d" sound. Then you're doing a pretty sophisticated jaw movement for the vowel; for that diphthong, your tongue is tense in your mouth. So think about that, and then say to the child, "Okay, let's do it together. Look at me. Do you see how my tongue goes up in my mouth? Day." Then talk about it: "Do you feel your mouth opening and then closing a little? Day." Have them look at you.

This is where you start. Have them focus on what it feels like to them to say the word, so they can start thinking about that. You can even talk out loud about what it feels like to you.