Why You Should Join in on #WeSpeechies Chats

With the influx of social media use by academics and non-academics throughout the past couple of years there has been an increase in knowledge sharing and discussion. Recently I found out about the @WeSpeechies Twitter handle and the related #WeSpeechies hashtag. They both are responsible for weekly talks that revolve around numerous topics under the speech-language pathology umbrella. These have included discussions based on different disorders (this week's was Aphasia), while others are about topics like Evidence Based Practice (and how to determine good research).

These provide such a good learning opportunity not just for practitioners but students as well. The curator of each chat is an expert in the field and is the leader of the chat. This person poses the main questions of each chat for fellow chatters to discuss. This often leads to more questions and discussion throughout the chat and for the week that follows, which is great for learning whether you can join in on the actual chat or catch up on your own time!

So far I've only been able to join in on a few of the chats as they are typically held in one of the Australian time zones. The chats I have joined led to wonderful learning opportunities and even a few new speechie friends from abroad. (I love that it's gaining international attention. We can learn from the different and similar practices in each country.) As said before, you can catch up on the chats after they've occurred, you just have to look at the #WeSpeechies hashtag (or go to the website to see an archived version of the chat a few days later). You can then join in by adding your own thoughts to the questions or comments that others posed.

If you'd like to see what future chats are about and when they are being held (or seeing archived past chats) be sure to check out the website!

Icebreakers! Speech and Language Style

The school year is upon us, and that brings in some novel faces. It's always good to get to know these newcomers and get reacquainted with the ones you already know. Of course, it's not always easy, and the typical "say your name, age and favorite X" tends to bring on the simultaneous 'ugh'. So, what are we supposed to do? We want to get everyone excited to begin the year and to trust you, but you don't want it to get monotonous. That's where some hands-on, interactive icebreakers come in! Here are some that can help raise the energy level and induce some laughter while promoting speech and language:

-Never Have I Ever- A classic game that can help make inferences and work on receptive and expressive langauge. One person begins saying "Never have I ever...X" (ex. 'Never have I ever gone to the pool'), and whoever in the circle has done this will have to put one finger up. You keep going around the circle until someone has 5 fingers up (one hand). It's a fun way to get to know each other by learning some silly or interesting facts about them. Make the facts as fun as you want (like never kissing a pig or wearing a tutu)! Great for all ages.

-Two Truths and a Lie- Another circle game where you say two truths and one lie about yourself. Everyone else then guesses which statement is a lie. Once all the participants have said their guess, the speaker reveals the lie. Sometimes they can be tricky or silly, so it keeps everyone entertained. Sometimes it's surprising what is the lie vs truth! This game is great for expressive learning, creativity and making guesses.

-Name Game- This is a slight twist on a classic game. Each participant chooses his/her favorite character or well-known person. Then, each person is partnered up (or can be small groups) and they take turns asking each other questions about their fellow partner(s) person. Once the identity is found out they ask each other why it was that they chose this person. What makes that person their favorite? You can then have them all come together and present their partner (or themselves) and why the character/famous person was chosen. If you want, you can even have them draw a picture of the person chosen to show to others when playing the game. These questions, introduction and possible picture are great ways to build questions, receptive/expressive language, memory and descriptive skills.

-My Animal- This game lets the creativity spill out and allows the participant to use expressive language. Each person gets a sheet of paper and draws an animal that describes him/her. It can be a made up creature or a hybrid of real ones and can be as colorful as they please. Whatever the person comes up with can be drawn. Want a cotton candy tail? Sure! A panda-otter hybrid? Yeah! Anything goes, as long as it describes the person. Once complete, each person must describe their animal and why it describes them. "It has a cotton candy tail, because I love cotton candy" or "Blue is my favorite color so I gave it blue hair" are examples. It's a fun way to get to know each other and work on expression!

What games or icebreakers do you use in your therapy for introductions? Please share! :)

It's A Glottal Thing

Today I have an extremely small anecdote to share, but the linguist in me found it rather amusing. Let me take you back to a few days ago...

I had just sat down with my boyfriend on these unique benches in the local airport. They're an odd shape, almost a horizontal cross-section of a boat with a dorsal fin in the middle for back support. My boyfriend had already taken out his laptop and I was in the process of mimicking his motions, as we had an hour to kill.

In the midst of sorting through my rather large tote (brought to be used as a beach tote for towels at our destination) I hear a rather odd noise. Of course, airports are a mecca of odd noises, even a small one like this. Several languages and dialects are being spoken, plates and cups are clanging on the tables, there's pitter-pattering of small and large feet alike... so this shouldn't have been out of what I'd normally expect, especially as I've heard similar utterances before.

All I heard was " Now I thought I told you before..." What caught my attention was the extreme glottal stop usage of the man's dialogue. Or perhaps his accent made it sound harsher and more apparent in speech. I can't quite tell, but he was somewhere from the United Kingdom. Despite hearing British/ Welsh/Irish people talking before, I had never heard this much glottal-age in such a short sentence. (For those who might not be aware of what a glottal stop is, it is the 'noise' you make when saying things like 'uh-oh' or 'button', it's more prominent in British English. It's that quick "stop" you make in the middle of uh-oh. I'll post a video below to help.)  I'll attempt to transcribe it, but forgive me as it's been a year since I've transcribed anything, and vowels aren't my strong-suit. This is what it sounded like to me:

Aj  θɔʔ  aj  toʔd  ju  bifɔʔ

All I know is, I swear I heard that darn glottal stop at least 3 times. I even thought he pronounced it at the end of both 'I's too, but I left that out as it's most likely my mind on sensory overload. Either way, my inner linguist is fairly satisfied right now, despite leaving the Basque country, a linguistic paradise, for the time being. Does anyone find it amusing to hear less-common American English (or your native dialect) IPA sounds? What's your favorite IPA sound?

*Note: I'm not disrespecting British people at all, so i hope it doesn't sound like that! It's just amusing to hear accents. :)

Here's a link to the promised video: http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uS4YZ_a3_ig     I think he does a decent job at explaining how the noise is made and giving examples.

What'd Ya Say? Wednesday: Stroke/ Aphasia Headway!

Stroke affects a cast population of people every year. Sadly, numerous stroke sufferers have long-term effects, including speech and language issues. This holds especially true for those who had a stroke in the left hemisphere, where the majority of our communication abilities originate. When there is damage done to this side of the brain, it can lead to Broca's Aphasia, which is associated with non-fluent speech. In these cases, the person knows what he/she wants to communicate, but doesn't possess the ability to utter out the entire utterance. In turn, only words or short phrases come out. Other related deficiencies include spontaneous speech, reading and writing, and other communication issues.This condition affects the sufferer's entire life, as the ability to communicate is vital to daily interactions, which can render the person incapable of holding a job or conversation. Luckily, there has been a decent amount of research on the matter, and one researcher from the University of South Carolina, Dr. Julius Fridriksson, Ph.D. along with his team have found a technique that may be suitable for those with this condition.



What he has come to find so far in his preliminary studies, is the possible viability of a technique called speech entrainment. Within this technique, the part that relies on audio-visual feedback seems to prove most promising. The process involves the client to watch and listen to a speaker who talks slowly on an iPod and mimic the speaker simultaneously. Over time, the video portion is taken away and the speaker attempts to speak via audio. In his study with 13 patients, they all went through a 3 week period and practiced speech every day. By the end,the ability to produce spontaneous speech increased, which is superb considering this population of patients rarely see that type of success. So this technique seems to provide some hope for Broca's Aphasia patients!



If you would like to read more, here is the article: http://speech-language-pathology-audiology.advanceweb.com/News/In-The-News/New-Technique-Helps-Stroke-Victims-Communicate.aspx

Dr. Fridriksson also gave a talk on TED about his research and gives some background on Broca's Aphasia. It includes video of patients talking with this condition, including one who is a severe case and got better after the therapy. It shows his talking with and without the audio-visual feedback, which is neat to watch. It's only 15 minutes, so here's the link:  http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Cy6S7aMmUYo

Related articles

• Biology Research: Broca's Area (jessieshaw15.wordpress.com)


• Understanding Aphasia for National Aphasia Awareness Month (guardianfiduciaryservices.wordpress.com)


• June is National Aphasia Awareness Month! (thecfydiaries.wordpress.com)

SLP Skills Saturday #4: Innovative/Creative

Guess what day it is?! It's Saturday, and this Saturday is special because today I'll be posting another blurb in the series "SLP Skills Saturday"! So get ready...

One of the biggest draws to this career, for me at least, is the ability to be creative in therapy sessions. Now, some might think... how can you be innovative when you are teaching others how to swallow or speak? Well, each client is different and has their own special needs. This means that not every client with Autism Spectrum Disorders or stuttering or pronunciation difficulties will exhibit their disability in the same fashion. Just as all students learn differently, all clients have their own personal obstacles that have their own rehabilitation techniques to conquer said difficulties. So, although you may be working with a group of students with Autism or a stroke victims group for those with Aphasia, not each person will learn the therapy techniques in the same way or time frame. So you need to be creative in your approaches in order to customize them per client for optimal success.



As I just slightly mentioned, there's also the need for creativity in the therapy plan itself. You need to think of different ways in which to help the client overcome his/her communication or swallowing difficulty. Sometimes several techniques need to be utilized before you find the perfect fit for that person. This is when creativity is vital. Sometimes it's the last idea that proves to be the best.  Not to mention, it's fun to let your mind come up with new ideas and materials for sessions. I know that when I babysit, I enjoy thinking of out-of-the-box ideas for crafts and games with the children, and that may just help with my future career!



This is just a small glimpse into how creativity is a fun and integral part of this occupation. I'm sure there's plenty more ways in which innovation is a good skill to have in this occupation.

Literacy and Therapy

At first I was a bit apprehensive about taking a class about literacy for my "W' (Intensive Writing) credits. As with most people, I have my own concept of what literacy is and I just thought we'd be learning about applying literacy to our lives and writing a lot; after all, the class is called "Uses of Literacy." Maybe we'd just learn how it pertains to reading and writing, I thought... but it's turned out to be much more than that, which I think is valuable for those who want to be Speech-Language Pathologist or just want to work with children or community projects.

 

It is known that there's some amount of literacy building in a SLP's therapy. Some clients has Dyslexia, some are little children still learning how to put the pieces together, some have trouble recognizing the symbols and connecting them with sounds and words. The list can go on. But have you actually thought about the concept of literacy in a broader, more socio-developmental sense? How does the area where one lives affect their literacy and language capabilities? What about identity and literacy. Your literacy can affect who you identify as, and visa versa. There's also different domains of literacy, including technology, which has created a whole literacy type of it's own.

 

If we can formulate an idea about how our client's culture and identity affect language skills, then that could help us understand what approach to take for therapy. Maybe the client is more literate in one domain, like computers, but not as competent  in social "literacy." Or, perhaps the community and culture surrounding this person and that have cultivated this person into his/her being have given way to a literacy that is different than what you are used to but is the "norm" where that person was brought up. This can be dialect, idioms, how they use language/ use it to express their thoughts, social behavior, etc. You have to be sensitive to all of these things in order to find the perfect piece to complete the therapy jigsaw puzzle. If you don't account for these types of literacies and try to treat each client with similar problems in the same way, it might not always click. You need to customize it to their level and type of literacy.

 

Maybe you can ask you client some questions, like:

*What are your favorite memories of reading and writing?

*How did you learn to read and write? Did anyone help?

*What are some of your favorite traditions?

*What re some things you like to do in your town/community?

*How do you normally talk to someone (write, talk, sing, ...etc)?

*What confuses you about language, reading, writing and speaking?

*When is it difficult for you to understand others, or for them to understand you?

 

Basically, just ask them anything to do with literacy. This can expand from just reading and writing; in fact, it includes much more than that. Try to think of  definition of literacy... does yours reference to sign langauges/body language or how culture, society and events maybe shape one's literacy? There's also literacy "events" (like, remembering when you first learned to read a book, or reading/decoding a street sign, eavsdropping and understanding someone's conversation... basically anything can be a literacy event). Another thing is literacy sponsors... who or what has helped lay the foundation of your language and literacy skills? It can be people, places (school, library, home, travel), or things (books, websites, magazines, technology) or even abstract stuff like dreams,languages and age (your literacy changes as you age) .

 

Hope this helps you customize your therapy plans or understand a new way to tackle some speech and languages issues!

SLP Skill Saturday #3:Patience

Patience is not just a necessary skill, it's actually elevated above many... after all, not many desirable characteristics can say they have proverbs written concerning them. Can't think of it? Think of the term 'virtue.' Still not ringing a bell? Well, there's a saying that patience is a virtue.' This holds very true, not only in life, but within the professional world as well.

As with many jobs, especially those working with children or in medicine, patience plays a key role. You need to be able to keep your calm and wait out the rough patches. Maybe the parents of a child are thinking more progress should be made; maybe an adult patient is having a hard time overcoming a pronunciation barrier; or, just maybe the weekend can't come soon enough. You need to be able to understand and find a way to be patient and cost through these, as well as find ways to overcome them in the best way possible. If not, the saying's cousin "haste makes waste" might pay you a visit. Perhaps you fill out some forms too quickly because you just want them to be done with, but later you realize that you marked some things incorrectly due to impatience. Now you have to fill them all out again. Sometimes, it is out of your control as well.

Sometimes, patience comes in the form of waiting for progress. This is a major part of the speech-language pathologist's career. Progress almost certainly never comes instantly. So for those who seek instant gratification from major accomplishments should not seek this career. It takes time to build the concepts and skills for a client to begin to overcome their impediment. Even more time if it is a larger issue to tackle or if it is due to other underlying causes. Let alone, the client may have it "click" while in therapy, but might not actually incorporate the therapy into his/her actual every-day life. This job require lots of patience, as it can take weeks, months or even years to make progress. Don't let that discourage you though, as there are minor victories along the way to help boost morale and show you it is possible.

One way to see this in perspective is illustrated by what my one teacher continually tells us hopeful Audiologists and Speech-Language Pathologists, which goes something along the lines of: "Your role as a Speech-Language Pathologist is not to cure these people; your job is to help them gain a better quality of life." So, if you find your patience wearing low, try not to focus on the big picture and attempting to cure your client. You need to focus on helping him/her and finding hope and joy in the smaller triumphs that lead up to major progress. As long as what you are doing is helping them feel better and have a better quality of life, then you are successful. You just need to enjoy the ride at a pace set for them, and not lose patience in our high-paced, goal-oriented world.

Funny Video!

Soooo... the other day we were learning about typical speech and Autism Spectrum Disorder, especially about gaining friendship and positive association with your clients (particularly the younger crowd) to be placed in their "trusted" circle to promote willingness to participate in therapy. It also helps to get their peers involved too. The guest speaker then showed us this video, which I find pretty hilarious. This demonstrates the outside-in approach to therapy, except in a more abstract way, not necessarily therapy related. But the concept is "shown" when you get further in the video. It may possibly be a stretch, but either way, here's the video. Hope it brightens your day!

Pintrest

If you haven't heard of this wonderful and creativity-inducing website yet, you should probably get on it! Pintrest is such a great website full ideas, websites and blogs ranging from food to travel to education to weddings... basically you name it, someone has made a "pin" on something related to it! And as an (emerging) SLP, this is an excellent thing to have in your arsenal... but I'll get to that in a second.

The gist of Pintrest is that it's a new way to store your "favorites". But visually. Instead of placing a website into your favorites folder or bookmarking it, you "pin it" to one of your pinboards. You can have pinboards for anything. Like quotes? Have a quote board. Planning a wedding? Have a wedding board. Are you a pastry chef looking for inspiration? Have a board for new pastry ideas. Like I said, you name it, you can pin it. Besides being able to store your findings visually, with a caption, there's another great thing. You can search for what you want and it'll load all the pins related to your search. You'll be surprised at what a variety there is in just your search sometimes! You might search "apple pie", and get results for normal apple pie, caramel apple pie and crustless apple pie. Crazyyy. Another great thing is that you can FOLLOW others or SPECIFIC pinboards people have. This way you can see when they post something new in general or on that board to find new ideas and add it to yours!

So, what does this have to do with Speech Pathology? Welllll... similar to the boom of SLP bloggers, there's a burst of SLPs and other therapists, educators, etc on Pintrest as well! Even ASHA and PediaStaff have their own Pintrest.  There's plenty of information on here for professionals and (under)grad students alike! Many have pinboards for therapy ideas, other blogs, tips and tricks, disorders, organization ideas, disorder information, etc. So, if you want to find a new therapy tactic for, say, phonological disorders, just search it and you should find something! It's a great way to connect with others as well, as professionals, organizations and businesses are on Pintrest. So I suggest you get on that!

http://www.pintrest.com

What'd Ya Say? Wednesday: Speech Accent Archive

Hey all, I've found this nifty little ditty while rummaging through the internet the other day, and I think it's great! This will come in handy for anyone working with a bilingual, multilingual or foreign speech therapy client. It's called the Speech Accent Archive, and it has a few forms that you can use to find out more information on foreign languages and pronunciation... it even gives the PHONETIC inventory for each language (and there are lotsss of languages on this site. I probably haven't even 80% of them.) Of course, American Sign Language doesn't have a phonetic (sound) alphabet, but it is listed on this website under the search page.

One of the neat things this website has, is the ability to browse. You can browse by speaker/language, the region of the native language or you can look up the language's native phonetic inventory... which I think is very helpful, especially in accent modification!

Under the search area, you can even put in the onset of the speaker starting English, what language is native to that person, how that person learned English (naturally or academically), how long the client has spoken English, if they have any generalizations, etc.

The resources page also has some 'phonetic generalizations' that would be helpful for Speech-Language Pathologists working with clients of native languages other than English.



Definitely give it a look at. Even if you just want to play around! (The linguist in me is giddy with this new find!)

What'd Ya Say? Wednesdays: Music and Speech Therapy

I recently came across the article "Musical Strategies" that was archived from the magazine Advance. It was published in November 2012 and written by Louise Patrick, PhD , detailing the incorporation of music into children's speech therapy programs. 

Despite the ever-growing reductions in education funding taking out extra programs like music and art, there is a greater need for children to receive therapy within the school system. Without a doubt, this includes speech therapy. But how can SLPs keep children entertained while learning and expanding their speech abilities? One idea, brought up by Dr. Parker, is the possibility of bringing music into it; after all, children love music.

She brings up a good point that children don't necessarily need to know the lyrics; they just need to have a basis of sounds which they can mimic to practice sounds found in language. One such example was that of animal noises. They have different contour patterns and inflections that children can use as a foundation for when they start building morphemes and utterances. So, they don't actually need to learn the words, rather the shapes of the sounds that form the words, which can be facilitated through musical lyrics. But, she also notes that we can use "snippets" from songs to help provide them a repetitive pattern to echo back and build on. This is especially helpful for special needs speech therapy clients.

Another idea is to use songs that pay tribute to a particular sound or phoneme that you want to emphasize. For instance, she mentions using the song Miss Mary Mack, as it includes something physical (clapping) and focuses on "m". Focusing on a phonological aspect and adding other motor or cognitive tasks can help a child flourish and maintain their attention on the activity more. And of course the music just adds more fun!

I think one of the best parts of this job is the ability to be creative with therapy plans. Adding music is an innovative idea that can help speech therapists in their quest of helping others find their voice. This can prove especially helpful with groups of kids, as they all can sing together and support one another. Plus, who doesn't love music and some silly dancing or lyrics! Speech therapists should try to find a way to incorporate this into their program, whether it be at schools or even medical facilities! Just look up "music therapy" images on Google, and you'll find a plethora of hospital and elderly patients utilizing music therapy (whether speech-related or not).

If you'd like more information about her ideas for music and it's role in speech therapy, then check out the article right here.

What'd Ya Say? Wednesdays: Temple Grandin

Hello all!

Well here we are at my first edition of "What'd Ya Say? Wednesday". Basically, I am hoping to enlighten everyone each week with something new and interesting that I find. These will typically have some relation to Speech-Language Pathology or Linguistics and related subjects, such as: Genetics, Audiology, Disorders/Diseases, Technology, etc. I'll provide written or video commentary on articles, videos, websites, journals and feature blogs that deal we these subjects! If I feature any blogs, I'll be sure to put them in the "Feature Blogs" page at the top of my blog.

This week's edition is about an amazing lady, Temple Grandin, who has Autism. At the time, her specific type of Autism was called Asperger's Syndrome, but (I believe) that it is no longer considered a "thing", rather just part of the vast spectrum that encompasses Autism.  Speech-Language Pathologist have many cases with people that have Autism Spectrum Disorder, and I believe that her speech brings light into these fascinating minds.

[ted id=773]

Her speech, titled "The World Needs All Kinds of Minds", details just how the autistic mind works; it relies on detail rather than global attention to a subject.  In turn, they are also very specified in what they do. Once they find a passion, they will often fixate on it and become specialists in what they chose. She also states that there are even different minds within the Autistic population: the photo-realistic-visual thinkers, pattern thinkers, and verbal people. Photo-realistic-visual minds, like her, tend to be great spatial thinkers and use pictures/motion "pictures" to identify objects and ideas. Pattern thinkers are great for abstract and mathematical thinking. Verbal minds are good for expression and memorizing facts. She states that many teachers lack the knowledge and resources to assist these students and facilitate their growth.

If teachers and professionals knew that we not only need 'normal' minds that see the big picture, but we also need these detail-oriented thinkers, then we would be able to figure out many problems. We would also be able to help their growth as well, whether it be through hands-on classes, one-on-one sessions or mentoring a student. She actually states that mentoring is one of the greatest facilitators we have to help students grow. I believe her statement that it doesn't matter if it's an old skill to learn, as long as a skill is learned, it can create a spark to then desire more education in the newer aspects of the skill. She also mentions how those with Autism are very sensory-oriented and sensitive to certain senses. We need to keep that in mind, as with the other information, in order to help provide appropriate and attention-creating therapy ideas.

As Speech-Language Pathologists, teachers, researchers and fellow citizens, we need to understand and attempt to relate to minds like hers. We can get great insight and use this knowledge to further our therapy ideas, research and teaching for not only autistic minds, but for others with and without disabilities! She is a great person to learn from, and has an interesting personal history that you can look further into if you are interested!