The Magic Formula to Teach a Child Any New Skill (By Fading Supports)

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Speech and Language Kids Podcast 22 min 1 speaker 5 chapters transcribed 15 hours ago

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What inspired the host to create a formula for teaching a child new skills?

Carrie Clark 0:00

Hello, my friends! This is Gary Clark, and you are listening to the Speech and Language Kids Podcast, episode number 27. This is the podcast with activities and resources for parents of children with speech and language delays, as well as the professionals who serve them. Today I am going to be giving you the magic formula for how to teach a child any skill. It is the special education secret that we are all Holding so dear. So I'm going to be sharing that with you today. But first, I kind of want to give you a little heads up. I'm doing my format a little bit differently. This is my first podcast of 2015. Woo-hoo! And I'm trying something a little new this year. I would really like to get this podcast out to you all on a more regular basis than I have been in the past.

Carrie Clark 0:44

So in order to do that, I am going to put blog posts and podcasts. Pass out every week on the same topic. I also think this is gonna help because I have a lot of people that listen to the podcast but don't necessarily go over to the blog or the website. Um and so this way you won't be missing any content. It's going to be the same content getting to all everyone who listens to me, reads me, watches me, however you find me, it's all going to be there um together. So we're gonna give this a try. So if you go over to the website, um For this post, you will see that there is a full written article about this information. So if you are starting to listen here and you don't have time to listen, but you want to skim the article, you can head over there.

Carrie Clark 1:28

Everything's there. You don't have to worry about taking notes. Everything is written out. Plus, I will have a downloadable worksheet on the website so you can get this information in worksheet form. So you again don't have to take notes. So you can just go get the worksheet and it will be super easy for you to use and implement right away. So uh that's the way we're gonna do it. We're gonna see how it goes.

How does the magic formula define the first step – identifying the target skill?

Carrie Clark 1:50

If you would like to go over to that website now, you can do that at speechandlanguage kids.com slash episode two seven. That is how you will find this episode's um written information plus that downloadable worksheet. Okay, so we're gonna go ahead and jump right in. So I have to tell you the inspiration for this post came to me while I was laying in my ten months old ten month olds crib with him. Yeah, I'm that mom. But let me explain. So My baby was a great sleeper until he hit about the six-month mark, and I'm sure there are other moms out in the audience who are listening thinking, yeah, mine too. Um, so we went from, you know, sleeping pretty good at night to all of a sudden he was waking up every hour or two hours, and mama was not getting any sleep.

Carrie Clark 2:37

So I um went to I decided to go ahead and just bed share with him. I had him in the guest bed with me. I promise you I did it very safely and I am not trying to start a discussion or debate on the safety or benefits or dangers of bed sharing, so let's not go there. Just We'll let that one go. But that is what I had to do to try to get through and just to um make it into the office every day and not, you know, fall asleep driving. So the point is I pretty much gave up trying to get my son to teach to sleep in his crib. I was like, you know what, my son's just not a good sleeper, some children just aren't, it's fine. But it wasn't fine because I still wasn't getting as much sleep as I needed. And so um I kind of had an aha moment several months.

Carrie Clark 3:19

Into this, and I realized that what I really want to do is teach my son a new skill. And as a speech therapist, I am a special educator. I'm not saying I'm a special education teacher, but I do special education through speech therapy. So as a speech or as a special educator, I know the formula for teaching a child anything. And that involves using fading prompts or fading supports. So What I decided to do was go about this in um a manner that I would when I if I was teaching a child a new speech and language skill. And as I was doing this and going through this process, I thought, you know, I bet there's a lot of people out there that would like this information.

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Chapters

5 chapters

1 What inspired the host to create a formula for teaching a child new skills? 0:00–1:50 2 How does the magic formula define the first step – identifying the target skill? 1:50–7:24 3 What questions should you ask to assess how the child is currently performing the skill? 7:24–13:28 4 How do you compare the child’s current supports with the desired independent skill? 13:28–19:46 5 What criteria help you decide which support to fade first? 19:46–22:40

Speakers

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Carrie Clark 21 min

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Recorded12 Jan 2015

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The inspiration for this post came to me while I was laying in my 10-month-old’s crib with him. Yeah, I’m that mom. But let me explain! My sweet baby boy was an excellent sleeper until he hit the 6-month mark. Then, suddenly we went from one night waking to like 7…or more. I tried everything I could think of to get him back on track but nothing worked. Finally, I just gave up and started bed-sharing with him in the guest bedroom of our house. With him in the same bed as me, at least I got some sleep while he nursed every 1-2 hours. Now, I’m not trying to start a discussion or debate on the safety or benefits/dangers of bed-sharing so let’s not go there. Let’s stay focused. The point is, I gave up trying to teach my son how to sleep in his crib. But after a few months of this, I had an “Aha!” moment when I realized that what I really wanted to do was to teach my son a new skill (sleeping in his bed), and as a speech therapist, I know a formula for teaching a child anything. (Plus, I really wasn’t getting much sleep with him in the bed with me so that was pretty motivating) The Magic Formula for Teaching a Child a New Skill The concept is easy, though implementing it can be a long process that involves a lot of work, depending on the skill. Here’s the basic idea: To teach a child a new skill, figure out what supports they need to do the skill successfully, and then gradually fade those supports until the child is doing the target skill on his own. I know, easier said that done. That’s why I’m going to show you the formula that will make this process a piece of cake. Here’s the formula: Step One: Identify the Target Skill What is the target skill? What do you want the child to do? The first thing you need to do is figure out exactly what it is you want the child to do. Be as specific as possible. In my case, I wanted my child to sleep in his crib by himself and it sure would be nice if he would sleep through the night, too (but that would just be icing on the cake). Step Two: Identify How the Child is Currently Doing the Skill (or the closest that they can come) What supports (prompts, help, assistance, cues) does the child currently need to do the skill? How much help do you have to give the child before he’s able to do the skill on his own. Or, if he can’t do the skill no matter how much help, what is the closest he can come to the skill? Well, first you may want to make sure that the skill you’re targeting is appropriate for that child. For example, what if the target skill is answering “where” questions but the child is not doing anything close to that? Then, maybe the closest that you can come with the child is saying “Where’s your nose?” and then helping him move his finger to his nose. See what I did there? I came up with the closest approximation that I could to the desired skill and with as much support as necessary. Sometimes the support is you actually doing the skill for them. Other times, the support is just a verbal reminder or a knowing look from Mom. In my example, my child was able to sleep if he was in a separate bed with me nursing him and staying beside him the whole night. Step Three: Compare the Supports to the Target Skill The next thing you want to do is to list out all of the supports that the child needs and then compare each one to how it would look if the child was doing the skill independently. This will help you see what path you need to take to eliminate each support (gradually, of course). Let’s take a look at how my son’s supports compared to his target skill: Sleeping in guest bed à Sleeping in his crib Sleeping with mom beside him à Sleeping independently Nursing to sleep when woken à Putting self back to sleep when woken Step Four: Decide on the First Support To Take Away or Fade What would be the easiest support to take away (or fade slightly) while leaving all other supports the same? Take a look at your list of supports and decide which one will be the easiest to remove or fade slightly. When I say “fade”, I’m referring to gradually taking the support away. Try to decide which support would be the least disruptive to the child. If there is a support that the child relies heavily on, you don’t want that one to be the one you take away first. Instead, take away a less important support. If you can’t entirely eliminate a support in one swoop, try to just gradually decrease it instead. I’ll give you an example of that in a bit. Well, fortunately for us, my son has a very large crib that would accommodate both of us. So in this example, the easiest thing that I could change (without totally throwing him off) was to move both of us into his crib but still lay with him and nurse him when he wakes up. Step Five: Remove or Fade that Support It’s time to start removing or fading the support that you chose. Try to keep everything else the same (all other supports are in place) but just remove the chosen support and ask the child to do the task. If the child falls apart or cannot do the skill, then you will want to gradually fade the skill instead. To fade a support, you will want to slightly decrease the intensity of that support. For example, if the support is moving a child’s hand to touch an object, you could fade that slightly by holding onto just his elbow and pushing his arm in the right direction but not entirely controlling his hand like you were before. Take a look at my example in the “Pro Tip” section for more details. Step Six: Remove Another Support Once the child is comfortable doing the skill without that support, what is the next easiest support to take away (or fade slightly) while leaving all other supports the same? Now that the child is comfortable doing the skill without that first support, take a look at the remaining supports and determine which one would be the next easiest to remove. Keep in mind, you can always just gradually decrease a support instead of taking it away cold turkey, see the next section. Once I had my son sleeping well in his crib, the next support I removed was me laying next to him. I would wait until he was asleep and then quietly and gracefully extricate myself from his crib. Let me tell you, it was a little touch and go when I was half-asleep in the middle of the night, but so far I haven’t fallen face first yet. …knock on wood… Perfect! Two of the three supports removed. But this last support wasn’t going to be so easy to remove. Pro Tip: What to Do When You Can’t Remove a Support Cold Turkey If you can’t completely take away a support in one swoop, either because the child will become upset or won’t be able to do the skill anymore, consider just backing it down slightly. Take my example: The last support to remove was nursing my child to sleep. Well, I tried just not nursing him and he screamed bloody murder. Not good. So I had to figure out a way to scale back a bit and just slightly reduce the amount of support he was getting. I decided to do this by only nursing for 60 seconds, then pulling back to see if he would go to sleep. If he latched on again I nursed for another 60 seconds and then pulled back again. I kept doing this until he was content to be unlatched. We are now at the point where he will only nurse for the first 60 seconds and then happily goes back to sleep unlatched. I’m not all the way there but I would say this is a HUGE improvement over where we were and I will continue to fade this support until he is independently sleeping and putting himself back to sleep in his crib. The key here is that there is no right or wrong way to fade a support. You just have to take a guess at what would be a good way to fade the support and then give it a try. If it doesn’t work, you try something else. If it does, you go with it. Step Seven: Continue Fading and Removing Supports as Necessary Ok, now that you have the hang of it, just keep going! Keep fading or removing supports until the child is performing the target skill without support. Keep in mind that you may be at this for a while. You may have to work on removing one support for a while before the child is comfortable doing the skill without that support. In my example, it has taken a few months to get to the point we’re at now. You may be working on fading a particular support for months! Just be patient and keep working and eventually you will get it. Download the Formula Worksheet! I know this was a lot of information, so I have created a worksheet format that will help you go through this process. Please click the button below and I will send you the worksheet. Click Here to Get the Free WorksheetMore Resources for Speech-Language Pathologists: Looking for more therapy ideas and resources to help you provide the BEST services to your clients? Join us in The SLP Solution, our membership program for speech-language professionals! Inside the membership, you’ll find: Step-By-Step Guides for teaching a variety of speech/language/communication skills Pre-Made Worksheets and Therapy Activities for hundreds of different topics Training Videos for dealing with difficult disorders or problems Answers to Your Questions in our exclusive SLP community Tools and Resources to help you with your paperwork and admin tasks Continuing Education through our monthly webinars and webinar recordings To join us in the full SLP Solution, or to snag a free membership, click on the button below! JOIN THE MEMBERSHIP TODAY! The post The Magic Formula to Teach a Child Any New Skill (By Fading Supports) appeared first on Speech And Language Kids.

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