Comparison of three training procedures for teaching social responses to developmentally disabled adults.
What was the conclusion? The best procedure was: Modeling, Instruction and Feedback. Sounds familiar? I know this is for social responses but this procedure should work for almost everything we do. I should trust that we are getting sound instructions from our teachers and just listen to what they say. I found an news article on a series of CDs and DVDs to talk/guide DD adults through hygiene activities (click here to see product). The developers ran a group home for DD adults and after an accident, the woman was unable to be there personally to help cue her residents through their ADLs. She made tapes and found that the women would follow the tape and actually learned better because the instructions were exactly the same every time. Again, does this not sound familiar? (Consistency, specificity) If it's possible we might want to think of recording instructions. We can be more specific than pictures and would benefit our illiterate or vision impaired clients.
Evidenced based practice!! Who would have thought. Don't you feel better armed that you have research supporting your practice than just "trust in an instructor???" What a great treatment activity of using a recorder for the auditory learners out there. It's always inspiring to see other therapeutic strateties implemented so I don't get in a rut myself. And really, this technique can lend itself into such greater independence vs relying on verbal cues which requires a body. It reminds me of the auditory speaker boxes at places like the museum, instead of a docent, you can press a button and listen at your own pace, repeat something if you want about an item. Of course, then there is the opposite, for those of us who want human contact and want to be dependent on someone else it's----- the cashier over the automated check out line!!! But how cool to see that in a completely different light and perspective now.
ReplyDeleteAlways refreshing to know that what I may be learning can be validated.