TED Talks Tuesday: The Power of Believing That You Can Improve

Welcome to Week 8 of TED Talks Tuesday! This Talk has some inspiring information about how the brain can grow and learn with challenges–could be a valuable 10 minutes for the patient that is feeling down about therapy! Although this video is about kids’ brains, I’m stealing the “growth mindset” to use in my therapy room!

Thanks for joining in for the past 8 weeks for a variety of TED Talks + therapy and documentation ideas. If you’re new to TED talks or want some new ideas for how to use them in therapy, read on!

Today’s Feature: The Power of Believing That You Can Improve by Carol Dweck

[ted id=2156]

Video Length: 10:20

For YOU: I’ve been really interested in the research over the past few years about positive thinking being helpful in progress and recovery for brain injury (and many other medical situations! See here or here or here for a start if you too want to read more.) This was my motivation behind making the Positive Thinking Cards. Instead of an outline this week, here are some questions you could use to apply the “Growth Mindset” to the therapy experience:

*With the information from the Talk, what is actually happening in the brain when something is difficult to think through?

*Where do you find it easy to have a “growth mindset”–celebrating effort and knowing your brain is making new connections in that moment? Where do you find it difficult to have a “growth mindset”?

*Knowing that effort and difficulty will be good for making new connections in your brain, how can we work together to have a “growth mindset” in therapy? What does having a “growth mindset” look like to you?

Therapy Task Ideas: I love TED Talks because they are interesting, relevant topics created for adults, so it never seems school-ish or childish to use with adults in therapy.

If you like these ideas, be sure to check out my Home Sweet Home Series. Here are some ways I have incorporated TED Talks into therapy:

To Target Strategies or Skills in This Area:	The Patient Could Do This:
*Verbal Expression*	Summarize 4+ main points and supporting details. Give a critique of the Talk (higher level language and formulation). Use Talk information to give a persuasive report. *Use word-finding strategies to retell story to family member.
Written Expression	Write 4 main points to summarize the information. Create an outline to practice written organizational strategies. Write a summary or evaluation of the topic/speaker . Write a persuasive essay or position statement in response to the topic.
Auditory Comprehension	Challenge comprehension across lengthier tasks (up to 18 min.). Use my outline to help ask comprehension questions. Practice using strategies such as note-taking to enhance comprehension.
Reading Comprehension	(Nope).
Motor Speech	*Challenge ability to carry-over motor speech strategy or skill while summarizing or giving a presentation about the topic.
Attention	Sustain attention for listening up to 18 min. Alternate / divide attention for note-taking during Talk.
Memory	*Short-term recall for Talk info (immediate or delayed up to 1 week).
Thought Organization	*Organize an outline of the main points and supporting ideas during the Talk.
Problem-Solving / Reasoning	*Choose to use the right strategy, at the right time.
Executive Function	*Evaluate strategy success during task or planning how to adapt strategies for new situation.
Pragmatics	Use appropriate social language for a verbal task (Practice adjusting to situation: peers vs professional). Use appropriate eye contact, facial expression, gestures for presentation.