What did you say? I didn’t understand you

When someone is not clearly understood, it is left to the listener to ask for clarification. In a one on one conversation, this is not difficult and asking, “What did you say” may be inconvenient, but most are willing. Nothing is lost. However, when speaking in front of a group, relying on the listener request …

Speak up I can’t hear you: Public speaking

Public speaking can be difficult for most of us. Speaking in front of strangers requires good verbal and nonverbal communication. I attended a lecture were the speaker spoke very quickly and mumbled, constantly looked down, and had a thick accent. Needless to say, he was difficult to understand which was too bad because he had …

Motivated by interest

Everyone is good at something. Real life experiences in areas of strength help to balance the feeling of failure. Encouraging and developing other areas of interest offer another way to motivate during difficult tasks or when working in difficult areas. The love of a computer or football, can be used to help make task bearable.

Break it down

Positive comments and small successes can begin to repair motivation, but motivation can not be maintained if the tasks required are not felt to be achievable. For many students with language-based learning disabilities, repeated failures have destroyed motivation and undermined competence. Small encouragements may not be enough, so breaking down challenging task into manageable pieces …