The Importance of Functional Learning
Learning is a process that takes time, but it does not always happen naturally or easily. Learning should be functional to support the development and generalization of skills. The Oxford Dictionary defines 'functional' as "designed to be practical and useful, rather than attractive." By making learning functional and being creative with the activities we choose for play and treatment, we increase purposefulness of learning; moreover, the child is more likely to be engaged and interested in the language development process.
Functional learning allows a child to learn in a way that is relevant to how they will use that skill which strengthens the child’s ability to generalize that skill. Imagine learning to drive a car from books or videos without ever driving on the road before your driver’s test. It is likely that you would fail your driver's test, because you never had the chance to apply that knowledge in a car on the road. Instead, we get in a car, practice the actions and motions, and learn from experience. This same concept should be applied to language development. If we are teaching skills in a way that does not simulate actual use of those skills, then our children are only learning in an isolated, irrelevant context and it will be more difficult for them to apply the skills outside of that isolated context. It is more functional to teach a child the word “ball” by playing with a ball than it would be having them look at a picture of a ball. This also opens up the opportunity to incorporate other concepts, such as action or location. For example, you could say, “The ball is on the chair”, “Roll/throw/bounce the ball”, or “The ball is up/down.”
Almost any activity can be adapted to increase functionality for language development and for helping a child to meet language goals. Playing games with children is a great way to teach skills such as turn-taking, making requests, decision-making, and problem-solving. Incorporating more language into activities can help develop language skills and increase interest in interaction. Asking a lot of questions (e.g. who, what, when, where, why, how) is a great way to encourage expressive output and add more language to an interaction. Another way to add language is to make comments; this could be acknowledging what the child has said, describing something, or labeling an action or location. It is important for parents to recognize opportunities to incorporate these strategies in ordinary interactions and activities.
For both parents and speech-language pathologists (SLPs), it is important that we set goals for children's language development that are realistic and functional, to enhance understanding and promote generalization. Essentially, focusing on functional goals makes learning relevant and follows a more natural pattern of learning. It is important to make sure that the child has the prerequisite skills necessary to understand and acquire a skill, because a natural course of learning builds and expands on skills the child has already mastered. Teaching a child to create a mental image of something to support word-retrieval is fruitless if they have not developed the skills necessary to process and store information about the item in question. Another example of prerequisite skills includes the fact that a child must understand the concepts of "same" and "different" before we can begin to focus on skills such as phonological awareness. If they do not understand how to identify when things are alike or different, then we cannot expect them to be able to identify same and different sounds or sounds that rhyme. Creating functional goals involves following a natural sequence of skill development to challenge children within the zone of what they are capable of achieving. This will allow the child to be encouraged by successes they experience and to learn from mistakes they make.
Being a student at Carol Walck & Associates this summer, I have seen the benefits of incorporating aspects of the Hanen program into therapy that are functional, purposeful, and fun. The Hanen program takes a functional approach to teaching language that incorporates language as often as possible and uses every day experiences as learning opportunities. Carol, LeeAnne, and Theresa let the child lead conversation and use that interaction as an opportunity to practice a skill in a functional context, while addressing and strengthening "pre-requisite" skills, such as problem-solving, reasoning, or sequencing.They take a simple game or activity and make it into something that is functional for developing speech and language skills for that child. I have learned a great deal about recognizing opportunities for functional learning and ways to adapt activities to support more purposeful learning. It is important that parents and SLPs consider how critical it is to use functional activities to support language development and increase generalization. The learning process takes time and can be frustrating, as it does not come easily for everyone. Making learning fun and functional helps children to be more interested in learning and more engaged as they experience successes and promotes generalization of skills.
Play is often talked about as if it were a relief from serious learning. But for children play is serious learning. Play is really the work of childhood.
-Fred Rogers
Sarah Embly, Penn State graduate student intern