In the July, 2012 issue of Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in the Schools, there was a letter from the editor (Marilyn Nippold) titled, The Power of Negative Findings. This summer, I have been trying to focus my reading toward articles about early communicative development, more specifically gesture development in children with autism. But Nippold’s article caught my attention.
It is not a particularly lengthy article (and even if it was, I would still recommend investing the time in it). You can read it, or not. At first take, it seems as though, Nippold’s main audience is not clinicians, but rather researchers. This makes sense as she forms her argument for the importance of publishing negative findings (e.g., results of an intervention study that imply the particular treatment was not successful). As Nippold suggests, this allows us to further the science that drives our intervention practices.
As I think about it, this idea is also really important for clinicians. I think we consider negative results in the sense that we try a particular therapy technique, obtain data on how successful the kid is, and if it is not working, we know to move on to something else. This seems like one great way to think about an unsuccessful session (or series of sessions). When we find certain techniques or strategies or reinforcers that do not work, I think we are more closely approximating what will be successful. That feels positive to me.
This post reminds me of an earlier post. In it, I thought about the idea that we can use failure to get better at our chosen pursuit. I guess sometimes I need to be reminded that there is something in the negative space and in order to find it, I may have to shift my perspective just a bit. In doing this, I think I am becoming a stronger clinician and learning how to be a better researcher.
