Speak with ease with … speekeezy
Speech impairment affects 5% of 3–17 year-olds in the US. It can have a significant impact on the lives of these youngsters, given that public perception of people with speech impairment persists to be negative. Indeed, people suffering from speech impairment are considered “dumb” (Pinto et. al. 2004). Inevitably, this is a great concern for parents of children with speech impairment.
When it comes to speech impairment a distinction can be made regarding the age of the child (McCormack et al. 2010). Accordingly younger children are less conscious of their speech inabilities as opposed to older children. As a consequence younger speakers are less inclined to suffer from inhibition, but with age the capacity for meta-cognitive thinking increases, which leads to a more concise self-awareness. And it is during this stage, from the early teenage years onwards, that perception of self, and, in this case, in particular how self is perceived by the general public, will have a lasting impact. Thus being shed in a negative light for disabilities can have a detrimental impact on the personal development of persons suffering from speech impairment and, as a consequence, also on their future life opportunities.
This is why parents are eager to intervene early onwards to correct any impairments. But it appears that, if the wrong approach is taken, such an intervention can be counterproductive. Often such measures merely serve to increase the child’s awareness of its own shortcomings. Parents too readily use their own perception of how to speak as a benchmark and enforce this onto the young speaker. This can have unintended consequences (McComack et al. 2010). Indeed, research has shown that children subjected to such measures resorted to other forms of communication and, in the worst-case scenario, might even refuse to communicate (ibid). Studies found that children with speech impairment believe that the problem lies rather with the listeners as opposed to the speaker. Hence the onus of the parents is to adapt their behaviour to the respective situation.
Another reason for parents to intervene in the communication process is the want to have a channel of communication with the child. Too often parents are left wondering what the emotional state of the child is, if speech impairment hinders any coherent conversation (Pickl 2008). This makes parents particularly unhappy (ibid). One mother stated that her child’s difficulties to communicate becomes so bad that the child gives up on communicating per se, which leaves the mother wondering whether the child does not “want to tell me something or whether she is not able to do so” (p. 102). The above was also corroborated in an interview with a mother of a child with speech impairment. Said mother is often left second-guessing as to the emotional well-being of her child, which leaves her worried and distressed. For parents, who are coping the demanding tasks of daily life, guidance as to how to deal with speech impairment is therefore beneficial.
This is where the therapists come in. Therapies are important to overcome any obstacles of the child’s speech impairment (Melo et al. 2015). Not only do therapist enjoy valuable expertise after years of training, but they also lack the emotional bond with the patient, which allows a more nuanced analysis of the respective case. For young speakers the inclusion of the parents in the therapeutic process is beneficial (ibid). However, the parents need to have a good understanding of the issue at stake and be given guidance as to how to proceed outside the supervised therapy sessions. This is not an easy task given that our interviewee, for example, is only afforded 40 minutes of supervised therapy per week. But during the remainder of the week the parent is left to her own devices. Before therapy was offered twice a week, but this was reduced to one session only per week. In a separate interview with a speech therapist, the therapist revealed that ideally such therapies occur twice a week and may last for more than a year. But in times of a diminishing welfare state following the financial crash in 2008, such services are no longer guaranteed (Sorman 2010). It is then in this context that the app speekeezy has a lot of leverage.
speekeezy is intended for 3–6 year-olds with a view of training the syntactical and phonemic aspects of language cognition. The user is exposed to an animated story and after each chapter is required to engage in syntax structure as well as pronunciation exercises. In order to make the exercise engaging the user has the possibility to customise the main character of the story, which in turn will have an effect on the story itself. The aim is to enhance the learning process in the comforts of the home with the supervision of a parent. Thus, the parent has the option to either supervise the activities or even actively engage by reading out the storyline. Statistical data will be provided to allow the parent to track the outcome of the learning process.
TestFlight link:
Resources
Author unknown, Quick Statistics About Voice, Speech, Language, https://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/statistics/quick-statistics-voice-speech-language (accessed 09/03/2020)
Pinto JA, Corso RJ, Guilherme AC, Pinho SR, Nóbrega Mde O. Dysprosody nonassociated with neurological diseases — a case report. Journal of Voice. 2004;18(1):90–96.
McCormack et a. 2010, My Speech Problem, Your Listening Problem, and My Frustration: The Experience of Living With Childhood Speech Impairment, Language Speech and Hearing Services in Schools
Pickl, G., 2008. Children with complex communication needs. The parents’ perspective. Stockholm University
Interview with parent, 07/02/2020
Melo et al. 2015. Perceptions of parents/guardians of children with phonological disorders about the phonological disorders and the speech therapy, http://www.scielo.br/pdf/rcefac/v17n6/en_1982-0216-rcefac-17-06-01802.pdf (accessed 12/02/20)
Interview with therapist, 12/02/2020
Sorman, G., 2010, The welfare state, RIP, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2010/oct/17/welfare-state-rest-in-peace (accessed 11/03/2020)
