10 Ways to Motivate and Empower Clients to Practice

We all know the importance of consistent home practice to generalize new strategies and promote neuroplasticity. But sometimes, no matter how hard you try to educate clients, your urgency about this just doesn’t seem to carry over. Many variables influence someone’s motivation to work on new skills between sessions. Cognitive impairments, severity of a disorder, family involvement, access to resources, and physical or mental health can all affect at-home practice. Speech-language pathologists can benefit from understanding how people are motivated. People can be motivated intrinsically, extrinsically or only when the feeling is right. Learning about types of motivation gave me a new perspective that changed my practice. I now see many more clients successfully carry over skills we work on in sessions to their home environment. Although strategies vary depending on the person, here are 10 motivational strategies I find particularly effective: Use a planner. I like to spend part of the session with the patient creating a rough weekly plan—we write obligations like appointments and transportation time, for example—then schedule “to-do” list items, such as homework. This exercise also helps patients think critically about what day, time and duration they have available to practice at home. Set realistic goals. Using SMART goals can help your patient evaluate if they can actually complete the homework. For example: “This week, I will work on my SLP homework three...
Source: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Press Releases - Category: Speech-Language Pathology Authors: Tags: Speech-Language Pathology Cognitive Rehabilitation Health Care Language Disorders Traumatic Brain Injury Source Type: blogs