Conscious Practice Takes Time: Feedback That Motivates

Full transcript

Hi, it's Nicole from the NYU Motor Speech Lab. Happy Apraxia Awareness Month!

One of our favorite quotes here at the lab, from Dr. Strand, is that if it's not going through the cortex, no learning is happening. We know Dr. Strand is referring to conscious practice. And if we pan out and think about motor learning in general, attention is a must.

The thing about conscious practice in our pediatric motor speech sessions is that we can't force it. We have to lovingly get the child on board with pushing past discomfort and trying speech production. That is hard. So I'm coming in today to say that this takes time, and as therapists, we play a major role in this type of learning.

Something to think about with our feedback is that it's not just instructional; it's also motivational. We're building intrinsic motivation for them to want to come to therapy and really attempt these challenging productions.

So what could feedback look like in the early stages of motor learning? Focus on the behaviors you know will help them be successful in therapy, and start small: "I love the way you're sitting so nicely and looking at my mouth." Or, "I love how you're really thinking about how your mouth feels when we say that word together. I can see you're thinking about what that word feels like." "I know it's really hard for you to sit still and focus on your mouth, but you've got this. You're doing it. Did you see we just said that word together? Isn't that awesome?" It can seem silly, but: "My mouth is helping your mouth say the word."

Good luck, everybody. I hope that's helpful.