Tuesday, May 28, 2013

SLP Q&A's (from my email) Memory Therapy Task Ideas

Hi guys!

I get a lot of email questions from young SLPs.  I thought it might be fun to start posting their questions and my responses.  Feel free to add your own comments!

-Kristin

Hi Kristin,

I just graduated with my Masters in speech in May from the University of (withheld).  I'm now working for a hospital there where I was previously a student.  I mainly see inpatients, however my outpatient caseload is growing.  Ive been seeing one of my outpatients since I was a student and I was wondering if you had any tips for functional working memory therapy tasks that might spice up my therapy sessions.  Thank you for your time!  I am looking forward to any ideas/tips you may have!

Sincerely,
Haley S.

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 Hi Haley,

Do you mind if I post your question on the blog?
Ummm, how about the following:

1)  I'll ask them to imagine a 4x4 matrix and I  name 4 letters and 4 categories.  (this is a high level task).
I'll have them mentally fill in the chart.  They have to remember the letters and categories on their own.  (E.g., for slot 1, they'd name an animal that starts with B)

2)  I'll ask them to listen to 3-5 words, and then repeat them back in alphabetical order

3)  Same task as #2, but repeat them back in reverse order

4)  Mental math problems where they have to remember the problem's elements as they work it out.

That's just a quick list.  I'm trying to be working memory-specific here.  I can think of a lot of other short term memory tasks I like (most of which focus on some aspect of compensatory strategy retraining).  Does this help?

Thanks for reading!

Kristin

***note:  Haley did agree to let me post her question.  :)
Can you add some more memory task ideas?  Also see my 2 other memory task posts!