When We Didn’t Get 100 Trials

You know you should be shooting for at least 100-150 trials during articulation therapy sessions to make it worthwhile. It’s in the back of my mind whenever I do artic sessions. I give my kids tally counters, chipper chat chips, ANYTHING that will motivate them to give me more trials. There are times when it’s ok not to get that many though. I had one of those sessions a couple weeks ago.

I had a couple 3rd graders (male and female), I’ll call them Jack and Jill. Usually, Jill is happy and eager to do whatever I have planned. But for some reason, that day she wasn’t her usual self. I gave out the tally counters and we got started. A few minutes later, I noticed that Jill  looked upset. So I inquired about the cause. She replied that she was “mad.” When I asked why, she said she didn’t want to talk about it. I said, “ok,” and let her know that if she told me why she was upset, that I might be able to help. This comment opened up the conversation for Jack. Jack stated that sometimes he gets mad too. I stopped worrying about getting enough trials at that point. We talked for a little bit about what makes us mad and what we can do about it.

By the end of the session, both kids were happy and we were back to our usual drill and kill. After the session, I realized that sometimes we need to really listen to our students. If we don’t get enough trials here and there, it’s ok. The more important thing is to remember that our students/clients/patients are people first and “goals” later. Take some time to really listen the next time the opportunity arises!