Effects of feedback and self-monitoring on head trauma youths' conversation skills.

The team worked with youths who had traumatic brain injuries. Each youth wanted better back-and-forth talk with peers.

Kids got two tools. One was a small light that blinked when they said something good. The other was a switch they flipped each time they thought they made a nice comment. Staff watched and also gave spoken feedback.

Both the light feedback and the flip-switch self-monitoring raised positive conversation turns. Gains showed up later in free chat with no gadgets.

Self-monitoring alone worked just as well as the external light cue plus adult praise.

Lincoln et al. (1988) later repeated the idea with deaf adults learning feeling words. Again, simple self-monitoring closed the gap to typical peers.

Burack et al. (2004) looked at middle-schoolers with behavior problems. They saw self-monitoring cut disruption only when adults also gave feedback. That seems opposite, but the 2004 kids had no brain injury and the goal was stopping problem acts, not growing new talk skills.

Minard et al. (2026) updated the mix for preschool teachers. Delayed supervisor feedback plus self-monitoring kept teacher praise high even when the boss was gone.

You can let clients track their own good talk with a simple switch or tally. It saves staff time and still builds real social gains that carry over to recess, lunch, or job breaks. Try giving the learner the clicker first before you add extra feedback.