Improving Memory Using the Spaced Retrieval Technique

This text-based course is a written transcript of the course, "Improving Memory Using the Spaced Retrieval Technique", presented by Megan Malone and Jennifer Loehr on December 6, 2010.

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>> Amy Natho: Welcome to this expert e-seminar entitled "Improving Memory Using the Spaced Retrieval Technique." At this time it is a pleasure and an honor to introduce both Megan Malone and Jenny Loehr. Megan Malone is a speech language pathologist working for Gentiva Health Services. She previously worked 9 years as a Senior Research Associate and Lead Trainer at Myers Research Institute in Cleveland, Ohio where she oversaw federally/ privately funded grants focused on implementing interventions with older adults with dementia. She has spoken numerous times at the annual conventions of the American Speech and Hearing Association, Gerontological Society of America, American Society on Aging and Alzheimer's Associations along with several state speech and hearing conventions. She has published articles in the Journal of Communications Disorders and Alzheimer's Care Quarterly and Gerontologist and Dementia.

Jenny Loehr is a speech language pathologist also employed by Gentiva Health Services. Her focus of practice in the past 15 years has been adult and geriatric neurology with an emphasis on dementia programming. She currently oversees and implements the rehabilitation program at Arden Courts of Austin, an Alzheimer's assisted living facility. Mrs. Loehr has presented numerous times at the annual convention of the American Speech and Hearing Association.

>> Megan Malone: Thank you everyone for being here today. Jenny and I are happy to be back on SpeechPathology.com and are looking forward to sharing some information with you today on the spaced retrieval technique, which both of us use on a regular basis with our patients. We're hoping to get the information out to you today and review a little bit of the nuts and bolts of what the technique entails and how you can use it in your practice.

We're also going to talk about a screening tool that you can pick up and start using today if you have some patients for whom it would be appropriate.

Acknowledgements

I want to start out by acknowledging several different people and organizations. One is Menorah Park Center for senior living in Beachwood, Ohio. That is where I spent the last 10 years of my practice, working on the research grants and specifically looking at spaced retrieval with many different patients. We would also like to thank the state of New York Department of Aging. We have a grant with them that looked at using spaced retrieval in long term care settings and my friends Ellen and Kelli were pivotal in that role. Hearthstone Alzheimer's Care is doing wonderful work related to this topic. Dr. Cameron Kemp is working with them, and they're a wonderful resource, as is Northern Speech Services. The National Institute on Aging and Retirement Research Foundation did a great job with supporting these procedures through many, many different grants. We would like to thank them as well.

Course Objectives

Today we're going to work on defining spaced retrieval. We're going to talk briefly about a model of memory that supports learning in persons with dementia. We will also talk about developing appropriate goals that can incorporate spaced retrieval using case studies.

Introduction

I always like to start off talking about assumptions we have about persons with dementia, because a lot of people out there have the mistaken idea that persons with dementia cannot learn or remember information. They think the best way to care for them is to make them comfortable, deal with the little idiosyncrasies that they have, and be patient. There is a huge body of research out there that says this is not true.

Persons with dementia can indeed learn, but it is important for us to present the information in a way that allows that learning to happen. Part of our job as speech language pathologists is to educate the family members and staff members at the facilities where we work that this is indeed something we can do. We're more than qualified, and research backs up the idea that persons with dementia should be enrolled in rehab therapies and can benefit from them.

We know exactly what dementia is. I'm sure many of you have been working with it for quite a long time. I would like to review the weaknesses as well as the strengths concerning a patient's abilities.