By Ann Nobis, SLP

   I have had the opportunity to observe many speech/language pathologists over the course of time.  Sometimes, to me, it is not clear if they are teaching or testing the child.  How many more times will they ask a child, “What’s this?”, before giving the child some sort of clue or help so the child can figure out how they are to answer or what they are to answer?      When meeting with your child’s speech language pathologist, an important question to ask is, “How will you teach that?”  If you know the strategy, you can carry over the teaching at home. 

   Let me give you some examples of some strategies that I use often.  If I want to teach a child his or her phone number, I might use something called backward chaining with visual cues.  Picture this.  The phone number is laid out in front of the child using foam numbers or plastic magnetic numbers.  Assuming the child knows numbers, have the child say the phone number with you several times while you both point to the numbers.  After a while, say the numbers in order again, but cover up the last number so the child can’t see it.  Encourage the child to recall that last number from memory.  When the child can recall the last number consistently, cover up the last two, following the same procedure.  Once successful with the last two numbers, cover the last three and so on.  Before you know it, over several weeks, the child will be able to recite the entire phone number from memory. 

   Some children have difficulties retrieving words.  Rather than ask the child eight times, “What’s this?”, I use a technique called delayed modeling.  For example, I may say “Keyboard.  What’s this?” and the child responds “Keyboard.”  The interval between giving the answer and asking the question gradually increases.  Another strategy to aide a child in recalling a word is to give the child the beginning sound or the beginning part of the word.  Some children with Down syndrome have difficulty putting the ending sound on words.  They might say bu for bug; di for dish; or u for up.  One of my strategies for teaching ending sounds is to stretch out simple words like Mom – Mmmoooommm – while driving a toy truck into a block tower.  The tower comes down with the last m sound.     I encourage imitation and use a variety of words as I emphasize the last sound while I am “driving” the truck!  

   When a given skill needs to be learned, there needs to be a strategy for teaching it.  Asking the same question over and over again is not going to elicit the answer miraculously.  Doing the same thing over and over, hoping that the child will learn, is not an effective strategy.  When no progress is seen over a period of time, it may mean the strategy is wrong for teaching that skill and perhaps there are some pre-requisite skills that need to be taught first.