Why Specific Feedback Matters

Full transcript

Hi, it's Nicole from the NYU Motor Speech Lab, coming in today with a quick tidbit on specificity in feedback in your pediatric motor speech sessions.

We know that speech is a motor act, and we know that we organize our sessions according to the principles of motor learning. When we think about our feedback, we're giving either knowledge of performance feedback or knowledge of results feedback. Knowledge of performance feedback is what we give when we are teaching the child the production.

If you're like me, you're obsessed with all things motor, and you're always thinking about motor learning, even with yourself. So I want to give an example of why specificity matters.

I'm in the gym the other day doing overhead tricep extensions, and I think I'm doing them right. Trainer A is saying to me, "Nicole, you have to lock out your elbows." So I'm doing rep after rep after rep, and Trainer A keeps saying, "You need to lock out your elbows." And quite frankly, I think I'm doing it right. I think I'm locking out my elbows, or whatever it is Trainer A is looking for in the movement. Then Trainer B comes by, sees my form, and says, "Nicole, I want you to think you're pushing your arms up into the air." And all of a sudden, boom, it clicks, and I realize exactly what form I need to be using.

And it got me thinking. First of all, we can't keep giving the same feedback over and over again in a block and expect the child to change if they're not changing from it. That's called negative practice, and we don't want to engage in negative practice, because we don't want to lay down motor plans for a target that is not produced correctly.

And secondly, we need to be switching it up. We might like to use certain types of feedback over and over again because they're successful. But if you're in a block and it's not working, you need to switch it up.