Knowledge of Performance vs. Knowledge of Results

Full transcript

Hi, it's Nicole from the NYU Motor Speech Lab. I'm coming in quickly to talk about knowledge of performance versus knowledge of results feedback, and how we can use them in pediatric motor speech therapy sessions, and even regular speech sound disorder sessions.

So what are they? Knowledge of performance is the very specific feedback we give clients while we're teaching them a new skill, when they're early learners. Knowledge of results feedback is just that: "Yes, you got it," or "No, try again."

Think about ourselves as motor learners. I use this example a lot when I'm teaching it. When I wanted to learn yoga about a decade ago, which I needed because I'm a runner and I'm so tight, I knew it was going to be challenging because I'd never done it before. So I really needed knowledge of performance feedback from the yoga instructor. She would come up and push my shoulder back, move my hip a certain way, turn my toes or my hands, and really align me in space so I could feel what each pose was supposed to feel like. Then, once I started getting the hang of it, she pulled back, and it became more knowledge of results feedback. She'd give me a look and I'd know I had it right, or she'd tell me to fix my toe.

It's the same in therapy. When we first teach a new target in motor speech therapy, we give very specific motor feedback. If the target word is "me": "Do you feel the way your lips come together at the beginning of that word?" If the target word is "open": "Do you feel the way your mouth opens a little, and your lips come out into a circle?" That's the very specific knowledge of performance feedback. And once they start attaining the skill, we pull back, and it's knowledge of results: "Good job!"