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From: Judy
Date: 07 Oct 2009
Time: 20:53:46 -0500
Remote Name: 74.104.112.9
Karen, The short answer to your question is that my husband had just purchased an ipod and was using Audacity to transfer his old record albums into digital format at the same time that I was reading the AJSLP article about "Pincipals of Motor Learning..." . I was struck by the concept of feedback presented in that article. I complained to my husband that I needed a wave form feedback program that would work with the Vista. I almost purchased a program for about $100 from a popular educational software company when my husband said, "Oh, I've got just the thing!" The long answer is that I had worked with this student for several months and had some time to learn that: 1. he focused best with visual reinforcement; 2. he wasn't making the same rate of progress I'd observed with other students; 3. here comes the clinician intuition - he didn't seem able to retain an auditory represention of the speech changes he was capable of producing. I tried having him draw symbols for his 3 favorite "speech tools" and we had them in view as a reminder of what he was practicing; he tried DAF which worked for several weeks and then seemed to have no effect at all; we even resorted to using a tape recorder. We just couldn't seem to move beyond the level of 1-3 elicited sentences with good consistency; 4. as I looked through catalogues of published programs for stuttering, I didn't see anything new for him. In other words, it was time to get creative, and his mother said that was ok. So, referring to the AJSLP article as justification, I sought some form of visual feedback. I'm still challenged by this case. I welcome suggestions. He could teach a class on fluency shaping and stuttering modification methods. He can shift quickly in and out of smooth speech in a turn-taking game situation if the utterance is only one sentence. He can use his smoother speech reading aloud and monologue for a paragraph, sometimes up to three paragraphs. We allow time for stuttered speech during which WHAT he says is most important. At this point, I think maybe we've maxed out the executive functioning abilities of a 5th grader. We continue to nurture healthy communication attitudes (He told his 5th grade teacher about his speech the very first day of school without being asked!), and we are building a 'speech maze' game http://sites.google.com/site/speechmaze/ as a way to address cognitive issues. If you are fortunate enough to have a student stay with you for some time, you can get to know one another and develop a cool working relationship of trust and creativity. Thank you for your question.