Impact student learning and
communication skills
take time to pause
The students we serve in our special education
programs across District 287 have
 a variety of abilities and challenges,
 cultural differences,
 strengths, gifts, talents,
 a wide range of family situations
 diverse educational history,
 variety of needs or identified areas for
continued growth.
 Many of our students have been
diagnosed with multiple disabilities.
In addition, many have co-occurring
mental health issues.
Many variables can impact
the ability to learn and the
ability to communicate
Staff have varied levels of knowledge and
understanding regarding our students’
ability to
 process incoming verbal and nonverbal
information,
 make sense of it and
 respond in a timely and effective
manner
There can be singular or multiple reasons for
our students’ difficulty in processing verbal
or auditory information. Some examples
include
 Auditory Processing Disorder
 Central Auditory Processing Disorder,
 Language Processing Disorder,
 processing challenges related to a
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Traumatic Brain Injury,
Autism,
Fetal Alcohol Syndrome or
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
Medication can also
impact our student’s
ability to perceive, process
and respond to different
stimuli.
Additional variables that can
impact processing ability
 Mental Health
 Physical Health
 Sleep
 Diet
 Stress
 Environmental Noise
 Internal “Noise” ( multi-tasking, and
preoccupation with another situation)
Let’s take some time to explore
wait time
Processing incoming
information refers to how
quickly and accurately we can
react to incoming information,
understand it, think about it,
formulate a response, and
execute that response.
The speed and accuracy of
information processing is not the
same as intelligence.
It is possible to be very bright,
yet process information slowly.
Information processing involves
multiple cognitive tasks that take
time.
Students need uninterrupted
periods of time to process
information; reflect on what has
been said, observed, or done; and
consider what their personal
responses will be.
Why is it important to wait and allow students time
to communicate?
 Students with disabilities are often still learning how
to effectively communicate.
 They may need additional time to understand what is
said to them.
 They may need help knowing when to take a turn.
 They may need additional time to figure out how to
answer a question or make a request.
 They may have vision or motor challenges that delay
their response time or ability to locate and indicate
what they want to say.
Mary Budd Rowe discovered that children's
understanding is greatly affected by the
nature of discourse or verbal interaction.
The type of discourse, she found, was
determined by what she called
wait-time.
The concept of "wait-time“, as an
instructional variable, was invented by Mary
Budd Rowe (1972).
The "wait-time" periods she found -- periods
of silence that followed teacher questions and
students' completed responses -- rarely lasted
more than 1.5 seconds in typical classrooms.
She discovered, however, that when these
periods of silence lasted at least 3 seconds,
many positive things happened to students'
and teachers' behaviors and attitudes.
To attain these benefits, teachers were urged
to "wait" in silence for 3 or more seconds
after their questions, and after students
completed their responses
Rowe discovered that there are
two wait-time intervals:
 The first occurs after taking one’s turn
 The second is the interval after receiving a response from
another and before saying anything.
For the first interval, the average teacher waits 0.9 seconds.
The wait for the second interval is usually much shorter.
 The first wait-time interval is important to allow a student
to consider what has been communicated and to
formulate a response.
 The second wait-time interval is crucial to encouraging
that student to continue and expand his/her response or,
if in a group setting, time for another student to extend
the idea.
Dr. Rowe did her research in hundreds
schools. It has been replicated many
times at all educational levels. The
results have been extraordinarily and
consistently the same.
Dr. Rowe discovered that if wait-times are increased to
three to five seconds some good things happen:
 Responses change from a single word to longer
pieces of information
 The inflection on the end of the response that says,
“Am I right?” disappears. Self-confidence increases.
 Speculative thinking increases.
 Guessing, “I don't know,” and inappropriate /
disrespectful responses decrease.
 Students “piggyback” on each other's ideas.
 The interaction becomes a student-student
discussion, moderated by the teacher, instead of a
teacher-student inquisition.
When staff mindfully wait in silence for 3 or more seconds
at appropriate places, positive changes in their own
interactive behaviors also occur:
 Their interactive strategies tend to be more varied and
flexible.
 They decrease the quantity and increase the quality and
variety of their communicative strategies – LESS
question-asking and more genuine conversation occurs.
 They use communicative strategies that require more
complex information processing and higher-level
thinking on the part of students.
(continued)
 Students ask more questions.
 Students propose more ideas / share more information.
 Student thinking and communication improves.
 Classroom discipline improves.
 Teachers ask fewer questions.
 Teachers ask better questions,
 Staff increase the variety and quality of their
communicative strategies and promote higher-order
thinking skills.
Importantly, the research on pacing
within interactions suggests that
increasing wait time “is easier to
describe than to do.”
“ when teachers wait for three second or
more, especially after a student response,
there are pronounced changes in student
use of language and logic as well as in
student and teacher attitudes and
expectations, (quoted in Cazden, 2001, p. 94).
Let’s review some of the
positive outcomes of
increased use of wait time:
1.Teachers’ responses exhibit greater
flexibility, indicated by the
occurrence of fewer communication
errors and greater continuity in the
development of ideas.
2.Teachers ask fewer questions,
but when they do, they are more
cognitively complex and thoughtful.
3. Teachers become more adept at using
student responses—possibly because
they, too, are benefiting from the
opportunity afforded by the increased
time to listen to what students say.
4. Expectations for the performances of
certain students seem to improve, and
some previously invisible students
become visible.
5. Students are no longer restricted to
responding to teacher questions - they get
to practice a variety of communicative
strategies such as sharing expanded or
related information, expressing ideas and
opinions, clarifying concepts, thinking
aloud reacting, as well as responding,”
Cazden, 2001
“Think-time"
a distinct period of uninterrupted silence by the
teacher and all students so that they both can
complete appropriate information processing
tasks, feelings, oral responses, and actions.
Skillful Use of Think-Time...
There are few instructionally sound reasons for not allowing at
least 3 seconds of silence.
Staff should deliberately and consistently wait in silence for 3-5
seconds or longer.
Staff should ensure that all students also preserve the
disturbance-free silence so that both the students and teacher
can consider and process relevant information and then act
accordingly. The skillful use of think-time contributes
significantly to improved teaching and learning.
Clearly, in making a shift in wait time, staff
are doing far more than simply waiting
longer.
They are rethinking the kinds of questions
and comments they formulate, and their
expectations for student interaction /
participation.
They are promoting the development of
language and communication skills.
 Research suggests that one of the most
effective ways to encourage children to
communicate is to pause and wait. The
use of this strategy . . .
 clearly marks the opportunity for the student to
communicate
 clearly indicates that the student is expected /
invited to communicate
 Provides additional time for the student to
understand what is said
 Provides additional time for the student to
formulate a message
Notice Our Cultural Container
 We live in a fast paced, information-seeking society
 Time expectations for giving and receiving
information have and are drastically changing
 Most people grew up in families, schools, and
communities where wait time in conversation was
uncomfortable
 We use all kinds of fillers – verbal and nonverbal to fill
the “pauses”
 Most people like others who can deliver information
quickly and succinctly
To support our students with
processing challenges staff can
use wait time.
What can our students learn /
do to help themselves?
Strategies for our students
to learn and use . . .
1. Ask for more time (to sort out
and process verbal information),
e.g. ’I need a minute’ and/or use
a generally understood gesture
2. Express the need to have staff
slow down the rate of incoming
information, - staff use
strategically placed pauses to
insure longer time for processing
e.g. ’Wait a minute’, “Could you
slow down please?’, etc.
3. Ask for revisions and clarification
e.g. ’Can you say that in another
way?’,
’I don’t understand’
4. Ask for visual(s) or hands-on
demonstration (to augment
verbal message / instruction)
e.g. “Can you show me”, “Would
you write that down”?, “Is there a
picture, chart or visual
summary?”.
5. Take responsibility for letting
other(s) when a message has not
been understood
e.g. “I didn’t get that, could you
say it differently?”
6. Request need for a physical change in
location when environment is too noisy or
busy or multiple interactions occurring
simultaneously, etc. - the environment
interferes with processing, the ability to
listen / focus.
e.g. “It’s too noisy / busy in here for me to
think - can we find a quieter or calmer
place to talk?”
Because of processing challenges, many
of our students need to continue to
expand and refine their self-advocacy
skills and develop compensatory
strategies to assist them in various
settings. Our work is to help them figure
out what works best for them, encourage
increasing responsibility so they can
become more and more successful and
independent.
Take a moment now . . .
 What was modeled and encouraged in
your family, school etc. growing up
 What are you taking away
As a team . . .
 What are we doing to mindfully
support our students?
 Track your impact overtime
positively impacts student
learning and communication