Getting the most out of Practice
Hi, Dan here,
I want to make sure you get the most out of your training.
I’m sure you will enjoy our different trainers, and with time you will learn how to use them most effectively. To get the best out of your practice time, here are some research backed suggestions to rehearsal:
1) therapy is a verbal skill - speak it
We want to make the skills we learn automated. Therapy is a verbal skill, and thus needs to be practiced as it is used, by talking. This is the first item on the list for a reason, it’s impact is huge.
To speak to your trainer you can use your systems Speech-to-Text option. For a quick technical guide on how to talk to your device, click here.
You can approach the verbal practice in a number of ways. You could go straight for it, just speak your response and get feedback. If you find it difficult going straight into verbal practice, you could start by typing your response, and then reading it out loud after getting the feedback. Remember, we want practice rehearsals to be as close to real life as possible, and at the same time, we want it to be challenging, but not too difficult. Play around with it until you find your personal pace.
Another important note: when using speech to text, you will be tempted to correct your response before sending it. If you see typo’s, go for it. But if you are correcting the content or style of your response, wait. We are here to make mistakes and learn. If you send your original response, the feedback you get will be more relevant to your real skill performance.
2) learning is best at your ‘growth edge’
Not too easy and not too hard. Ask your trainer to make things easier if you find yourself stuck or struggling. Ask the trainer to make it harder if the practice gets easy or boring. AI makes mistakes. AI also doesn’t mind you pointing out those mistakes. Make sure to ask for what you need, if it’s for a simpler or more challenging scenario, or perhaps an example of what a good response looks like.
3) hardwire the response
Even when you cognitively know the response, make sure to speak it again. This facilitates the move from short to long term memory, meaning the skill will be more readily available in the future as an actionable verbal unit.
4) Thought of others tips for users? let me know!
