Download Techniques to Facilitate Cognitive Processing and Learning in

Techniques to Facilitate Cognitive Processing and Learning in
Individuals with ID
Attention
1. Aid attending by visually or auditorily highlighting stimulus cues. Likewise, gestures used to highlight important information can
enhance the auditory message. Cues should be gradually decreased.
2. Teach child to scan stimuli for relevant cues.
Discrimination
1. Highlight and explain similarities and differences that will aid discrimination. Preschoolers do not understand terms such as same
and different. Teachers must demonstrate likenesses and differences, such as hair/no-hair. Meaningful sorting tasks with real objects
can be helpful. Overall size and shape (not circle, square or triangle), and function are relevant characteristics for preschoolers.
Organization
1. “Pre-organize” information for easier processing and storage. No “winging it” here. Visual and spatial cues may be helpful.
2. Train associative strategies.-- What things go together? Why?
3. Use short-term memory tasks, such as repetition of important information, to aid simultaneous and successive processing.
Repetition and interpretation are helpful.
Memory
1. Train rehearsal strategies, such as physical imitation. Gradually shift to more symbolic rehearsal tasks.
2. Use overlearning and lots of examples.
3. Train both signal (sounds, smells, tastes, sights) and symbol recall of events. Signals, which are easier to recall, can be gradually
reduced.
4. Word associations for new words will improve recall of the words. Likewise sentential and narrative associations will improve
recall.
5. Highlight important information to be remembered, thus enhancing selective attending.
6. Use visual memory to enhance auditory memory.
Transfer
1. Training situations should be very similar or identical to the generalization context. Use real items in training, at least initially.
2. Highlight similarities between situations, especially if training and generalization contexts differ. Help child recall similarities.
3. Help child recall previous tasks when approaching new problems.
4. Use people in child’s everyday contexts for training.
Strategies to Use with Children with LD
Attention
1. Reduce competing stimuli. Gradually reintroduce these stimuli as child becomes better able to tolerate them. Eventually
intervention should move into the classroom with all the competing stimuli.
2. Highlight those aspects of a situation to which the child is to attend.
3. Use visual and physical cues to aid the child in attending to verbal ones.
Perception
1. Train initially with nonspeech enviromental sounds, then speech sounds.
2. Use visual and physical cues to aid the child in interpreting verbal ones.
3. Use meaning-based tasks in which a sound change changes the meaning.
4. Visual or hand signals may be used to aid intonational interpretation and turn-taking.
Organization
1. Help child to see underlying relationships. Use categorizational, associational, and word class sorting tasks. Use “spreading”
model so child realizes many possible associations.
2. Use same/different tasks and match to sample.
3. Be alert that the child’s associations may not be the same as adult ones. Try to understand the relationship that may have validity
for the child.
Memory and Generalization/Transfer
1. Practice serial recall. First visually (locomotive, touch), then auditorily.
2. Control for infrequent words, linguistic complexity, length, intonation, context, and semantic-logical relationship.
3. Use command following. Control for number of elements and steps.
4. Ask questions about things that happened immediately before. Next, ask questions about slightly distant events. Increase the time
lapse. Finally, ask questions concerning what was just said.
5. Teach in the location where you want the feature to be recalled.
Indirect Linguistic Elicitation Techniques
The following are a few suggestions from an infinite number of possibilities. Remember that the goal is to elicit
language conversationally and without a “phony” direct cue and such as “Say the whole thing.”
Indirect Technique
Target
Emperor’s new clothes Negative statements
Example
Adult: What a beautiful red shirt (It’s a green sweater)
Child: Dat not red shirt.
Pass it on
Request information
Adult:
Child:
Adult:
Child:
Silly rabbit!
Violating routine)
Protests, directives,
Adult: Here’s your snack.
imperatives
Child: Empty.
Adult: What should I do?
Child: Put juice in.
Non-blabbermouth
Request information
Adult:
Child:
Adult:
Child:
What I have
Request action
Adult: Oh, I can’t wait to do this. It’s such fun.
Child: Show me.
Guess what I did
Request information
Past tense
Adult:
Child:
Adult
Child:
Mumble
Request clarification
Adult: I was really scared so *&%$#@*.
Child: What? or What did you do?
Ask someone else
Request information
Adult:
Child:
Adult:
Child:
Rule giving
Request for objects
Adult: I have some fun toys you can play with. Just ask.
Child: Want Ninja Turtles.
Request for assistance
Initiating conversation Adult: Kevin, ask Mary to come help me please.
Child: Mary, Mrs. Smith wants you to help.
Meaningful modeling
I want X.
Adult: What color should I use. I want green. How about you?
Child: I want red.
He’s X.
Adult: I colored my puppy. He’s white and black. What can you
tell me about your puppy?
Child: He’s happy.
Mark, do you know where Julie lives?
No.
Why don’t you ask her.
(To Julie) Where live?
(Place interesting item on table) Boy, is the neat.
What it is?
A thing-a-ma-bob and it can do neat things.
What it do?
Guess what I did yesterday at the zoo.
Petted sheep?
No, but you’re close.
Petted goats?
What do you need?
Red paint.
Why don’t you ask Carolyn for some.
Want red paint.
Screw Up #1
Locatives, prepositions Adult: Can I wear this here? (Put in wrong place)
Child: No, on your foots.
Screw up #2
Protests, negative
statement
Adult: Here’s your crayons. (Give child glove)
Child: That not crayon.
Adapted from Owens, R.E. (2014). Language disorders: A functional approach to assessment and intervention.
Boston: Pearson