Using Spaced Retrieval/Delayed Imitation to Foster Learning in Pediatric SLP

If you're a geriatric/adults SLP, you're probably familiar with the concept of "spaced retrieval". Even as pediatric SLPs, however, we sometimes use this technique (most often unconsciously) to develop a child's ability to independently respond to questions. Most frequently, it just looks like drill or repetition of a concept:

Ex.:
SLP: "Where is the frog swimming?"
Child: No response.
SLP: "In the water!"
Child: "In the water."
SLP: "Where is he swimming?"
Child: "In the water."

So the child is exposed to the question and then answer, after which they are typically able to answer "independently", although the truth is they are answering in delayed imitation. Which is fine, totally great! I wanted to explain how I used the technique of spaced retrieval/delayed imitation for a 3-year old today who has been unable to name objects on command for quite awhile, despite the fact that she responds appropriately to directions to interact with said items and her imitation skills are intact. It's almost as if her short-term memory or retrieval abilities are somewhat delayed. Typically, or previously, our verbal interactions looked like this:

Me: "What's this?"
Child: "What's this?"
Me: "Cow."
Child: "Cow."
Me: "What's this?"
Child: "What's this?"

Working on vocabulary development with animal friends.

As you can see, this interaction is different from above in that she was not able to hold onto the semantic content long enough to respond appropriately to my question. I should note I'm making this assumption based on the fact that she is not "echolalic" in the true sense or in any other context as well as the fact that I know her comprehension skills are much higher than her expressive language abilities. Today, I utilized the technique of spaced retrieval/delayed imitation. Essentially, we repeat the question/answer format 2-3 times, quickly. Any significant pausing will impact her ability to respond correctly in delayed imitation.

Me: "What's this? (quickly) Cow (stressed). What's this?"
Child: "What's this?"
Me: "Cow."
Me: (quickly) "What's this?"
Child: *thinking* "Cow!"
Me: "Cow!" (pat on the back, visual excitement/verbal reinforcement).

We did this exchange for the majority of our noun targets today. I found that as time went on, we only had to go through the question/answer sequence about 2 times, and at this point, I started using more spaced retrieval to encourage her to hold the word longer in her short term memory. It looked like this:

Me: "Cow. (stressed) What's this? (quickly)"
Child: "Cow."
Me: pause 1-2 seconds..."What's this?"
Child: *thinking* "Cow!"
Me: "Cow!" (pat on the back, visual excitement/verbal reinforcement).

My hope is that the longer we continue using this spaced retrieval format, I will not have to go through the question/answers more than 1X (as in the example at the top) and can gradually add time to my second prompt to increase her semantic memory until finally she *learns* the name of the object and is able to label independently or following a WH- question.

Tell me: do you see delayed imitation skills as part of the learning hierachy for vocabulary? Have you used "spaced retrieval" with kids on your caseload recently? Chime in in the comments below.

Until next time,
L.L.

K.I.S.S. + {Flower Power Superlatives freebie!}

We've all been there. Planned an amazing activity while playing out the session in our minds- the light bulb finally clicking and you beaming with the pride of a job well done.

However, that's not the way the universe always works. Instead its more like, "LOL." - The Speech Pathology Universe.

That's what happened yesterday. I brought two of my newest activities to therapy today, along with a new one I'm putting together- my Spring Grammar Scenes and Information Detective Game.

Oh dear. You know that look on a kid's face where you realize you're losing them? Eyes glancing side to side, trying to find an exit out of this activity that you've incorrectly assumed is appropriate for their skill level. Even after you trying to simplify the activity, they're still stressing and you feel like a big, fat failure.

Well, I'm not a failure. And neither is anyone else in my position. I just got a little too excited and tried to make something work that was not meant to work. Or just needed some modifying.

Now that I've implemented these activities, let me just say- I love them both. But in all honesty, here's what I learned:

"Information Detective" should be used with kids first grade and older and ideally with children who have basic reading skills. My pre-kindergardener had a hard time without visuals for the "clues" in the game, and has a difficult time with auditory memory which made the activity that much more difficult.

In using the "Spring Grammar Scenes", it may be helpful to separate the preposition visuals from the visual sentence structure. My kiddos had a little bit of difficulty finding the object on one page, then identifying the preposition visual and then plugging it into the sentence structure. Slight modification needed.

Moral of the story is, it is okay if your kid got more excited to color in a picture of a flower you took two seconds to print off than the extensive arts and crafts project you had such high hopes for. That's the nature of children. They like SIMPLE! They like cut and dry. I need to stop stressing out so much and trying to make things complicated.

In other words, K.I.S.S- Keep It Simple Stupid. :) And have fun!

Here's the activity I used yesterday that actually did hit a home run- I call it "Flower Power Superlatives"! It works great for targeting shapes, superlatives (biggest square, smallest square, etc.) and following directions. I would recommend it for late preschoolers onward.

It's free in my Teachers Pay Teachers store now!





Today I am linking up with Speechie Freebies again, be sure to check them out for more great downloads from awesome speech bloggers!