It’s easy to think a patient is not making progress because they haven't reached our beloved "80% accuracy" therapy goal. However, I encourage you not to sabotage the patient's treatment plan or underestimate the qualitative gains your patient could have made in therapy.
Maybe the patient is already at 80 or 90% accuracy with a task, but it takes them hours to complete the task. Maybe the patient can finish the task but has a headache afterwards. It’s imperative to have different ways to measure progress. It’s also important to have agreement with the patient on how progress will be measured. The age-old questions of “How will I know when I am getting better?" or “Am I getting better?” won’t catch if you off guard if you’re prepared.
Below are different ways to monitor progress in Speech Therapy. Consider which metrics might be useful with patients on your current caseload.
· Increase in % accuracy w/ specific tasks
· Reduction in number of errors per ______ (time) (amount)
· Change in efficiency/speed (doing things faster)
· Better endurance
· Change in level of effort required
· Change in onset of fatigue
· Change in onset of headache
· More independence w/ use of strategies
· More knowledge of helpful tools or aids
· Better insight
· Better self-advocacy
· Increase in confidence of performance
· Increased and/or better social engagement
· Improvement in overall quality of life
You may be thinking--- "well how do I measure this stuff?". That will depend on several factors, but it will need to be agreed on between both you and the patient early in the therapeutic process. When you’re collaborating on therapy goals (which I hope you’re using The Neuro SLP GOAL GUIDE to do), ask the patient/patient family which of the above changes are MOST important to them. Think of a practical way to measure that at specific increments. THAT is your answer. It may be through a questionnaire, it may be through the minutes it takes to complete a task, or it may even be through the report of family or friends. Who knows? A timer or symptom tracker might be involved.
Whatever it may be, BE flexible! You got this!
CLICK HERE to read the blog post "3 Mistakes When Writing Therapy Goals"
CLICK HERE to download "The Neuro SLP Goal Guide"; use Promo Code: GOALS20 for 20% off
Have a great therapy session :)
-Dana (The Neuro SLP)
Comments ()