3rd Grade Level Fiction- Bing AI Mario and Luigi were taking a walk in the Mushroom Kingdom when they saw a strange portal. They had never seen anything like it before. "What do you think it is?" asked Luigi. "I don't know," said Mario. "But let's go find out!" Mario and Luigi jumped into the portal and disappeared. When they opened their eyes, they were in a strange new world. The sky was purple and the trees were blue. Mario and Luigi had never seen anything like it before. "Where are we?" asked Luigi. "I don't know," said Mario. "But it looks like we're going to have an adventure!" Mario and Luigi started walking through the strange new world. They soon came across a group of friendly creatures called Yoshis. The Yoshis told Mario and Luigi that they were in the Land of Yoshi. "Welcome to the Land of Yoshi!" said one of the Yoshis. "We're so glad you're here." T...
Helping Kids Get to Clearer Speech
Syllable deletion is the Lex Luthor to my Superman. The stubbed toe on a walk through a dark room. The extra minute in the microwave that totally toasts my lunch and makes it gross. The really bad cliches to show how much something is unliked- yeah, you get it.
I find that improving syllabification in unintelligible children is a fantastic first step in improving overall intelligibility. Of course, some therapists will disagree with me. Oral-motor concerns, stimulability, and the child’s response to treatment are all valid concerns. However, I find that we talk in long strings of syllables. While the idea of talking in words makes sense, when we are in connected speech, we are in syllable mode. People don’t speak one word at a time, they speak in long groups of words (at least until they run out of breath, but hey, that’s just how we do things in New York!)
Traditional methods of reducing syllable deletion will use pacing and marking of syllables. One of my students has articulation/phonology issues and I am still in love with the Coversation Paceboard from (Aptus). They also make a Turtle Talk which has been helpful with some of my students, but I have found the most success with this one. Turtle Talk is a little more oriented for children, and the ice breaker questions are geared towards kids.
(Tap each button to mark syllables or single words- might be as good as using an egg carton!)
It it is fantastic for helping with slowing rate of speech to help children with overall intelligibility issues. I have found it helpful for “straight” articulation as well because it allows children to slow down and focus on production of their target sounds.
A great part is the open-ended questions that are embedded with the app, it really makes it easy to develop some expressive language while also targeting rate of speech.
(Pull the slider to increase the time per button)
The best part is the ability to slow the time delay. Some of my children like to “play” with it because they like doing using REALLY slow speech for fun.
The adjustable time is also excellent because it allows you to teach the way different rates of speech can affect your intelligibility. By modeling different rates, you can develop the auditory awareness for some children. Even more, you can have children “try” out different ways of speaking to feel some “control” over their speech!
While there are multiple ways to help unintelligible children, I have found focusing on syllables and pacing is the best place to start. Through the use of technology or paper based materials, you can help these students reach their speech goals!
3rd Grade Level Fiction- Bing AI Mario and Luigi were taking a walk in the Mushroom Kingdom when they saw a strange portal. They had never seen anything like it before. "What do you think it is?" asked Luigi. "I don't know," said Mario. "But let's go find out!" Mario and Luigi jumped into the portal and disappeared. When they opened their eyes, they were in a strange new world. The sky was purple and the trees were blue. Mario and Luigi had never seen anything like it before. "Where are we?" asked Luigi. "I don't know," said Mario. "But it looks like we're going to have an adventure!" Mario and Luigi started walking through the strange new world. They soon came across a group of friendly creatures called Yoshis. The Yoshis told Mario and Luigi that they were in the Land of Yoshi. "Welcome to the Land of Yoshi!" said one of the Yoshis. "We're so glad you're here." T...
Every Fall, my school gets some incoming students. One of the tried and true goals goes something like this: "The student will sequence 3 pictures into a cohesive narrative" or "The student will organize 3 pictures and sequence using words like first, next, last." All seriousness aside, I see the value in sequencing goals. After all, a Kindergartner needs to be able to string together a halfway decent story. Granted, not everyone can sequence with all of the transition words and make it work, but it's still important. Here's what I need my students who are sequencing to do: get the student to understand the sequential order (to me, pictures are the only way to do this. Maybe text for an older student, but they would have needed the pictures as a foundation when they were younger) Be able to describe the pictures (without the "meat" of the action in each picture, what's the point?) Use transition words (first, next, last, then, after, before...
Working with children with severely unintelligible children is both a challenge and a blessing. It is pretty clear why it is a challenge, but the blessing is revealed slowly. With every step forward for these children, you can see how the world of communication opens up. “Communication is the essence of human life”- Janice Light As SLPs, we need to help children who are severely unintelligible get closer to a goal of improved communication. While the diagnosis of Childhood Apraxia of Speech (CAS) can get thrown around with these children, there are certainly different roads that bring us to the same destination: significant challenges with unintelligibility as well as a disability in overall communication. ASHA recommends considering augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) for children with CAS (ASHA CAS Treatment, 2017), and I would go further to say that we need to consider AAC for children with less severe diagnoses as CAS, but still with ch...
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