Speechy Life

By Brooke Heinz | Speech-Language Pathologist | Lacking Motivation

It is not without irony that I’m writing a post today on motivation. It’s the middle of summer. I am loving the lazy mornings and weekdays in the backyard and am struggling with the motivation to sit down and type out a blog post. During the school year, I have to ask my students (and kids) to do odd things to improve their speech sounds or language skills. Have you every had to ask a 4 year old to say ‘key’ 5 times? I have. Often. And while some kiddos will comply, most lack the focus and/or motivation to keep saying words over and over again. So, after much trial and error, here are my go to strategies for building motivation during therapy sessions.

For younger kids

1. Build rapport – this is the most essential and challenging part of any therapy relationship. I build rapport through time, consistency, and incorporating students’ interests as much as I can.
2. Make it fun – I like to use board games as much as possible, especially when students are doing speech sound therapy–saying a word over and over again is much more tolerable when you’re doing it as part of a game.
3. Praise, praise, praise – while I do praise accuracy, I like to praise effort as much as possible. Praising effort, rather than outcome, can help build intrinsic motivation and encourage kids to keep trying, even when the task is challenging for them. Check out this youtube video from Alex Huberman, if you’d like to learn more about building resilience in kids. 
4. Keep expectations clear and consistent – Have you ever had a boss or a teacher who kept adding rules or changing requirements on an assignment? It’s frustrating for us and it’s frustrating for kids. In my classroom, I have a list of posted rules so my students know what they are expected to do and how they are expected to behave while they are in my classroom. Click the link below for a free download of my speech therapy rules. We also start each session by reviewing their yearly goal and discussing what activity we are working on that day. 

For older kids

1. Keep standards high – kids, especially older kids, can tell whether or not we think they can achieve a task. Keep the standards high and they will rise to the occasion but only if you….
2. Provide support – You must give adequate support. Scaffold (break a large task into smaller steps). Teach and reteach as necessary. Explain the same concept in different ways. 
3. Let them judge their own work – I will often record students and let them evaluate how they think they are sounding. “Was that an /r/ or a /w/ sound? Okay, let’s try again.”
4. Use non-judgmental language – I use questions like, ‘how do you think that sounded?’ or ‘is there anything you’d like to change about your answer?’ 

If you’re interested in learning more about motivating older students and adolescents, I highly recommend: ‘10 to 25: The Science of Motivating Young People’ by David Yeager, Phd. It’s a fascinating book about the latest research on how to mentor people from the ages of 10 to 25.