Do you ever let the students that receive therapy services teach other students? Research has shown that the highest retention rate of what you have learned results from teaching others, with practice the skill coming in a close second. During therapy sessions, therapists spend hours working on practicing and learning new skills. When a child does reach a goal and learns a new skill it would be very beneficial for that same child to teach that skill to another child.
Here are the benefits of teaching others:
1. Demonstrates that you have full knowledge of the skill.
2. Forces you to review what you learned.
3. Provides you with a sense of accomplishment that you are helping others.
4. Helps to commit the information to long term memory and a permanent motor plan.
5. By teaching the skill, the child may have to research the skill even further to explain it properly so you are generating new knowledge.
6. The child will be seen as a role model since he/she was able to learn the skill.
Now of course in therapy there are some skills that would be hard for a child to teach but in general most skills could be taught by a child. In addition, the children may be able to offer tips and insights that adults can not.
Why not give it a try?
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