Where R You?

Got any kids with 'R' problems in your caseload? Yeah, I thought so. From what we hear from speech-language pathologists, most everyone has at least one with that pesky and tough-to-correct speech issue. Video Voice has a number of games and displays that can help, and the one I'm currently excited about is the Formant Multi-Frequency Spectral Display included in the last release (V3.0.127). This new display uses live feedback to help speakers learn about production of 'R' (and other sounds, too). With it they can quickly learn how changes in articulator position make all the difference in what sound they're producing.

Off hand, I can't think of a single, commonly-used word that more simply defines the problem of 'R' and its oft-confused 'OO' than “were.” It's a pure combination of those two sounds, and producing it correctly requires subtle and largely invisible change in tongue position, or “bunching,” to move smoothly between them. The immediate feedback in the Spectral display can be powerful in illustrating when this is, or is not, happening, and it provides a facility for practicing and learning the differences in production of the two.

Let's take a closer look. Now, I'm going to assume that you have either purchased Video Voice or have downloaded the Free Trial (at www.videovoice.com) to explore what it offers for therapy, and do a little follow-along to give you some basis on how this display works. (And if you haven’t downloaded the trial, why not? There’s absolutely no charge or ongoing obligation!)

Start by accessing the Spectral Display from the Formant Menu (Multi-Frequency-Spectral).

First, lets do some practice voicing. Click Start to activate the display, then vocalize. Say “were,” slowly, focusing on the F2 area in particular. You'll see very little blue when you're saying the 'woo' part of the word, but a great deal more when you hit (and sustain) the 'er'.

Also notice that as you speak, you see movement in all three Formant frequency ranges, and also a “trace” line above them. This is Video Voice averaging and smoothing the speech data into a single line as you speak, and it will be important as we go through this exercise.

The feedback is instantaneous! And, like speech, it's also fleeting. When you stop  vocalizing, the visual disappears. So we need a way to freeze a target so the feedback becomes more concrete.

Say “were” slowly again, sustaining the 'r'. As you see the blue F2 region and associated trace line expand upward with that sound, click the Use button. Video Voice will draw and hold a light trace line showing what the frequencies in the F1, F2 and F3 regions were at the point where you captured the sound with Use.  Now you have a “model” of the desired sound.

Now, try saying “were” again with the model trace on the screen. Say it slowly so you can see how the 'woo' and 'r' look, as well as the transition between the sounds. When you reach the 'r' part of the word, the blue F2 area should move up and touch the trace line.

The 'oo' in "were"

The 'r' in "were"

Pretty darned cool, isn't it?  It's a great way to practice sounds that are similar, but differ in important ways.

By the way, there's no scoring in this display, but you can always click the Reward button to activate a graphic animation when the speaker has reached the goal of producing that 'R' sound consistently.

And, if you find having all three frequencies shown at once confusing for this or any other sound, you can restrict the display and show only the most relevant one(s) by clicking the “ON” label(s) below the F1, F2 or F3 ranges. It will change to OFF, and you’ll no longer see that area of the display.

The live nature of this display makes it most useful for sounds that can be sustained, of course. In addition to 'R' and 'OO,' you'll also see big differences between sounds like ‘S’ and ‘SH,’ particularly in the F2 and F3 ranges. Give it a try!

We hope you have fun experimenting with this and other Video Voice displays and games to see how they can assist with your 'R' cases, as well as other speech problems in your caseload.

Yours in good speech,

Video Voice Support Team
mv@videovoice.com
1-800-537-2182
www.videovoice.com

R-D-R-R-R: Gobbling Up Sounds

Almost every therapist who works with children has at least one with this problem - the pesky R sound. This semi-vowel is one of the most difficult to train, because, unlike many other sounds, it can’t easily be illustrated in the mouth. Minor changes in tongue position and "bunching" are the difference between a nice, clear ‘r’ and a sloppy ‘w’ sound, and lots of kids struggle with that.

Video Voice has a number of ways to help them learn how to produce this sound correctly, but for today, we’ll just talk about one of them, the F2/F1 Gobble display. In this Pac-Man-style game, the speaker uses his voice to erase the dots on the screen. The live feedback is very powerful. It lets him "play" with his voice and get instantaneous response while he explores different articulator positions. Being able to find and maintain correct articular position helps ingrain the kinesthetics of production of this sound.

Here’s a simple way to get going. Use the Formant Menu’s Free Form F2/F1 Match mode and produce a sample of the R target in isolation. We always recommend that you do several trials of a sound, looking for consistency in density and location of the dots before defining one as the model. Once you’ve decided to Use one, click the Match Mode control to switch to the Gobble format. Video Voice will prompt "Say ‘rrrr’" using your voice target, and you can have the child try to Gobble it up. If it’s too easy to succeed, just raise the Goal (percent erasure required to win above the default 80%).

Want to get rid of all the other vowels, leaving only the R symbol ? Just double-click on that symbol, and all the others will magically disappear. 

But what if you’d like to get rid of everything except the R and U, so the child can see the similar location of the two sounds on the screen (and in the mouth!). That’s easy, too. Click on one of the vowels, and when the small instructional box appears, click and drag any unwanted symbols off the edge of the screen. Then click Apply to temporarily save that more limited vowel chart for use in the current session. (Using Save will erase the other symbols until you reactivate them all with the Adjust button, so you may not want to take that more permanent action.)

Then, play, play, play! You’ll be amazed at how long the children will stay on task, how entertained and motivated they’ll be as they gobble up the sound dots.

By the way, if you have used New Session to activate a data folder, you can Save any Free Form target for reuse in subsequent sessions, so you won’t have to go through the definition process each time. Just use the Stored Models option from the Formant Menu to retrieve them later on.

This example presents work on the R in isolation, but you can just as easily set up word targets to let the child practice vocabulary words containing the R sound using these same steps.

That’s it for today! We’ll be back later to tell you more ways to use Video Voice for work on R and other sounds.

Video Voice Support Team
1-800-537-2182
mv@videovoice.com