Probably the most rewarding part of about being involved with Video Voice is hearing stories about how it helps people. We get lots of positive feedback from users, and I thought I’d share a few with you.
A year or so ago, a therapist told us about using the Voice-A-Sketch game with one of her students with fluency problems. She had him try to reveal an entire hidden picture with by sustaining vocalization of a sentence, and he’d been practicing diligently. A teaching aide who was in the room with them as he successfully completed the task spun around in surprise - it was the first time she'd heard him form a complete sentence without stuttering!
A therapist who uses Video Voice with autistic students told us that it really motivates them to participate in speech therapy. In fact, sometimes it's the ONLY thing they will respond to! (Obviously, that’s not the ultimate goal, but at least it’s a start.)
Pitch awareness and control is a common problem for hearing-impaired students, and that was the case with a profoundly deaf third grader. Her voice was shrill and squeaky, so her therapist used the Pitch Painting game to help her learn to lower her pitch. That game represents, pitch as colors in a spectrum, with high pitch appearing as light colors such as yellow and white. The child’s goal was to keep her colors "under pink," and she was able to achieve that goal regularly while using the display. Carry-over is always a challenge, though, so the therapist came up with a creative idea for times when they were not at the computer. She began to sign "under pink" when her pitch was too high, and the child would respond by lowering it. They taught teachers in her other classes to use that sign, too, and all were impressed at how she responded appropriately.
Especially rewarding are the stories come from those who improved their speech skills with the visual feedback.
One of our favorite, long-time Video Voice users shared a story that had made her smile. While she was out shopping one day, a young woman approached her and said "I don't know if you remember me, but you were my speech therapist when I was in school. We used a computer program that helped me learn to say my R's correctly!" This was at least 10 years after the fact, but when she learned her name, she did recall her and their therapy goals. So pleased to be remembered and know she’d made a real difference in that young woman’s life, that she made sure to share the story with us.
Not long ago we received an email from a hearing-impaired woman who had run across the Video Voice website and thought it might be the same program she'd used in therapy about a decade earlier. She said she'd often thought about how Video Voice helped her understand what she needed to do with her voice, and wondered if it was still around. She was pleased to find that it was. Her therapist was the one who suggested the "train game" (Chat-N-U-Go Choo-Choo) to us, and offered guidance in the development of that activity. It was fun to hear that she remembered Video Voice fondly, particularly that activity, and felt she had benefitted from the feedback it provided.
These are just a few of the stories we’ve heard over the years. If you’ve had successes with people in your caseload either while using the Free Trial or full Video Voice program, we’d love to hear from you, too!
Video Voice Support Team
1-800-537-2182
mv@videovoice.com
Visual feedback that motivates and enhances the speech therapy process
