Personalizing Feedback

The latest release of Video Voice, Version 3.0.127, has a new feature sure to be popular among therapists and their caseloads. You now have the ability to personalize operation by recording your own audio prompts for voicing and congratulatory messages specific to those you work with.

Video Voice has two basic prompts for vocalization: "Say" (generally followed by the desired target) and "Speak now."  There are also a number of reward and informational messages, such as "Excellent," "Good job," "Selected model is," "You said").  Pleasant, pre-recorded audios are included, but if you’d rather have your own voice providing these instructions and other feedback, you can easily customize them.

Click for a closer look

The audio adjustment options are located in the Configuration Menu, with the Auditory Feedback button. From that sub-menu choose Record My Audios.  However, to make it even easier to access that function, when you sign in with your Therapist ID, Video Voice checks to see if you've already customized any audios. If you haven't, it offers you the opportunity to do so. You can choose to do the recording immediately, asked to be prompted again later, or tell it to leave you alone and you'll do it when you're good and ready. 

Click for a closer look

When you go to Record My Audios, you'll see the available pre-recorded audios. Click on one to select it, and Video Voice will play the audio for you. You can then record your own version for any or all, and save them for future use.  After you make and save a recording the text turns blue to let you know it's been modified.  (If you change your mind later, you can always revert to the defaults for the audios, or record new ones.)

Click for a closer look

Video Voice will automatically save any recordings you make in your Therapist folder, unless one of your caseload data files is active.  In that case, it asks where you want to the recording:  in your own folder or the individual's. This opens up the personalization options even further. Although the audio recording may be called "Speak now," the actual recording can be whatever you like. You could, for example, ask for a child's attention by using his name, e.g., "Jimmy, talk now!" Likewise, you can customize the reward audios with their names - "Wonderful work, Bobby!"  You can have a different set of audios for each person - it's all up to you!

Therapists tell us that the kids they work enjoy about seeing their names on the screen in rewards, so having the computer talk directly to them as well adds even more excitement to the activities.  (Note:  If multiple therapists share Video Voice on a single computer, each one can have her own personalized sets of audios.)

There's also no reason the recordings have to be in English. Although the text for the prompts and rewards cannot currently be changed, the audio recording can be in any language. Video Voice doesn't know what language is being spoken, nor does it care.  So, if you're using the program with speakers of other languages, you can modify the auditory feedback accordingly.  (And watch for the ability to change text messages, too, in an upcoming release!)

By the way, this customizing option is available in the 30-Day Free Trial as well as the full Authorized User and International/Simplified operating modes. Give it a try for yourself by downloading at www.videovoice.com. Existing Version 3.0 users, you are entitled to the new and improved Video Voice via download, at no additional charge. To check which version you currently have installed, click on the telephone icon at the bottom of the Startup or Main Menu. If your version is lower than 3.0.127a, it's time to update!

Personalizing audios is just one of the ways you can customize Video Voice to satisfy your individual preferences. There are lots more, and we'll be talking about them in another post soon - stay tuned. Meanwhile, have fun making your own audio recordings and watching the smiles from your caseload when the computer calls them by name!


Yours in good speech,

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

More New Features, New Lower Price!

We haven’t posted recently. The reason is that we’ve been busy getting a new release of Video Voice out the door, and we’re pleased to report that Version 3.0.126 is now available for download at www.videovoice.com/vv_curel.htm.

This new version of the software has some great new features and capabilities, as well as numerous improvements to existing ones. And, Video Voice is now available at an even lower price!  Here are some of the noteworthy changes and additions.

Formant Spectral Display

Live F1/F2/F3 Spectral Display

The Formant Multi-Frequency Spectral display provides live feedback on the F1, F2 and F3 frequencies in speech. Previously released in preliminary form, it has now been completely revamped. In addition to smoother display of data, you can now capture "traces" to use as models for sound practice.

The immediate feedback in this display can be very helpful for work on ‘R’ vs ‘OO’ and discrimination of high frequency sounds like ‘S’ and ‘SH’. Give this one a try! (Formant Menu - F3/F2/F1 Multi-Frequency-Spectral) We’ll be back to talk more about using the Spectral display in an upcoming  post, but for now we just wanted to let you know there have been some big changes in that display.

Customized Audio
Version 3.0.126 lets you personalize operation with your own audio recordings of voice prompts, congratulatory messages, and other vocal feedback. Your voice can be the one in prompts for voice production ("Say [target]") and reward messages, and they can be in whatever language you use or prefer. Explore this new capability through the Configuration Menu-Auditory-Feedback options.

New Voice Prompt
Video Voice now indicates readiness for voice input in many games and displays with the prompt "Speak now."  This audio help the speaker know when Video Voice starts "listening," and it's time to turn his voice on.  "Speak now" is one of the prompts that you can customize to your voice.

Localization and Keyboard Language Support
Video Voice has always been "language-independent," even though the user interface is in English. The displays and audio recording don’t know what language is being spoken, just that sound is present. Sound is sound, and all languages of have frequencies that can be visually interpreted. (Okay, maybe not "San," the clicking language used by some African tribes, but they’re not likely to be much interested in using computers for speech practice...)  But speech work with Video Voice in other than English is certainly possible, and in fact the games and displays are being successfully used for speech development and remediation in many countries around the globe.

To support non-English use further, a few months back we introduced the International/Simplified operating mode. This streamlined mode will accept and display characters in all keyboard languages. (Authorized User and Free Trial support Latin-based keyboards only.) Want to show model names in prompts in Arabic, Greek, Cyrillic, Hebrew? No problem! However your keyboard is defined in Windows, Video Voice’s International/Simplified mode will handle it. This gives you the ability to display on-screen text such as user and model names, in the orthographics of your language. In this operating mode, however, data cannot be stored for reuse.

The International/Simplified mode also offers translations of buttons and controls on the therapy and game screens for Spanish and French languages.

The Authorized User and Free Trial modes do support non-English, Latin-based keyboards such as Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, etc. This means your model and user names can contain special, accented characters used in those languages.

Fluency Guide
For those people who work with fluency cases, there’s a new "Solutions" pdf document that offers suggestions on how to use the games and displays to reduce stuttering. (Find it on the Main Menu-Solutions-Fluency pdf)

Big Bad Bug Fix
Some users had reported a lock-up bug in some articulation games, particularly those that do model-matching. It was ugly, causing Video Voice to become unresponsive and require a restart. We’d seen the problem too, but just couldn’t reproduce it reliably. If you can’t make a failure happen in identifiable ways, it’s darned hard to fix. Kind of like when you take your car to the shop and report a strange noise, but of course it doesn’t make that noise so the mechanic can hear it! Anyway, we knew the problem was real, and battled it for several months, but believe we finally have it fixed. (I’m sure you’ll let us know if we haven’t, though!) We’ve made a number of other improvements in the articulation games, too.

New Lower Price!
In these hard economic times, things are tough all over, so we’re doing our part to make Video Voice even more affordable. We’ve reduced the price on all package configurations. To learn more, go to the Pricing page on our web site: www.videovoice.com/vv_price.htm

Why Download the Current Version?
If you’re already a Video Voice user, but haven’t downloaded a new copy of the software in a while, it’s really time to do that now, since there are many additions and major improvements! There’s no charge for software updates, so what are you waiting for?

If you’ve looked at Video Voice in the past, but didn’t make the decision to add this powerful tool to your speech therapy arsenal, it’s time to take another look! With the new games, displays and features to help you streamline your therapy results, it’s a shame not to give it another try. You may be able to start another Free Trial automatically, but if you need assistance with that, we’ll be happy to offer it.

We’ll be back soon with more details on some of these new features and some interesting stories, but for now, please check out this new version of Video Voice. Think you’ll like what you see!

Yours in good speech,

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

Help!!

What do you do when you need help communicating information about speech with those in your caseload and getting them to understand how to make changes in their voices? The little boy who just can't seem to find the right tongue position for his 'R's. The girl whose slushy 'S' is driving you crazy. The youngster who just won't do purposeful voicing.

There are, of course, a plethora of speech therapy techniques and a number of tools available to streamline the process. One of those tools is the visual feedback on voice production Video Voice provides. We obviously believe its displays and games offer great benefits for communicating about most any aspect of speech development and remediation, and so do the many speech-language pathologists who have added it to their tool kits.

But what do you do when you need help with Video Voice? Used to be, you’d pull out the big user manual and pore through the index for answers. The problem with printed documentation, however, is that it can all too quickly become out of date, especially if the software changes. Since we’re always working on adding to and improving Video Voice, changes are a common and frequent occurrence. We therefore decided not to provide a printed manual, but instead make it an internal, integral part of the software operation. As the program changes, so does its reference material.

On virtually every Video Voice screen, you’ll find a Help button. Clicking it opens the built-in manual to the page appropriate to the area you're using. This internal documentation is not the anemic, sketchy variety many software programs have, the kind that can raise more questions than they answer. Video Voice's Help file contains more than 150 "pages" of information, chock-full of details on what the controls do for you, and how they function. The pages have an on-line "feel" to them, and are loaded with links that easily transport you to other related parts of the manual.

There are other built-in tools, too, like the Help Me Choose interactive guide and the Solutions and Support materials, all of which have buttons/links on the Main Menu. The "tool tips" for controls that appear when you dwell your cursor over them also briefly describe function to let you know if a control is what you need to use.

But sometimes you just really need to talk to somebody! We're proud to offer friendly, responsive support to both existing Video Voice users and those who are evaluating to see how it can meet their needs. You can ask your questions or get suggestions for appropriate use with different speech problems either by phone or email. Most of the time when you call, you'll hear a real person's voice on the other end of the line. If you do happen to get a recorded voice, just leave your name and number, and we'll call you back as soon as we can.

Just the other day a speech-language pathologist who's considering Video Voice called for guidance on what things would be most helpful with children she works with. Her caseload runs the gamut of the autism spectrum, from low-functioning, preschool-aged children who need vocal awareness encouragement to older, fluent ones who need to work on expressive function, particularly increasing pitch range and intonation skills. I was able to make a variety of suggestions for both cases. For the little ones who need to develop understanding that something happens when they use their voices, games like Chat-N-U-Go Choo-Choo and Pitch Painting can communicate that cause and effect. For the older boy who speaks in a monotone, P-A-R Pitch displays can illustrate desired voicing, pitch and fluent intonation in a sentence like "How ARE you?" vs. how it looks and sounds differently when he uses a flat pitch with distinct pauses between words. There are lots of other options, too, but we only talked about those few in our brief conversation.

We all need a little help sometimes, and that includes us. We do our very best to make Video Voice a flexible, easy-to-use tool, but hearing from speech-language pathologists (or others) about how they're using the displays helps us understand what we can do to make it even more effective. Of course we like to hear about things you like, but just as important are the things you don't like. If you have problems, they’re our problems, too, but we can’t fix them if we don’t know they exist. We welcome all feedback, so please give us yours!

In closing, here’s a little musical entertainment that fits the bill, and might just put a smile on your face: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=606ZcMKXlUg. 

And remember, when you need someone, we're here to help!

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

Models for Speech

People sometimes wonder why Video Voice has no preprogrammed models of target sounds and words. There are actually very good reasons for that.

To start with, we don't know what targets any individual needs to work on. Consider the number of words that exist. In the English language alone, there are at least a quarter of a million words, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. And that's just English. Video Voice's displays are language-independent, and can easily be used for speech therapy in Spanish, French, Arabic or most any other language.

Even if we were to put together libraries of target models, there are other issues. There are usually distinct differences in male vs. female, adult vs. child voices. It's difficult-to-impossible to strip out the pitch elements from sounds, so a man may not be able to match a woman's model, nor a child an adult's voice.

Then there's the matter of dialectical differences. What constitutes the “correct” production of any sound? In the northeast part of the U.S. a word like “bet” is pronounced with a short vowel (“beht”). In the south, the vowel is often elongated to a diphthong, e.g., “bay-uht.” Which way is the right way? Well, that really depends on where you're living, doesn't it? To Video Voice, however, those two pronunciations won't "look" the same.

In the F2/F1 Formant Matrix representation, you can see the addition of the extra vowel sound in the red pattern ("Bay-uht"). The "ay" appears higher and more toward the left of the screen space. The durational differences in the sounds aren't strongly noticeable in this display, although the changes in the vowel sounds are.

If you switch to the F2/F1 Temporal representation for a cross-time view of the productions, the longer duration of "Bay-uht" is obvious. In both cases, you can see why the two words don't look the same to Video Voice, and why pre-programming models for use could end up being frustrating for users.

Model Libraries 

Although there are no built-in models, Video Voice does provide a structure in which you can assemble your own sets of target models for your caseload, creating your very own model library. Once you’ve defined and stored them, they’re available for repeated use, or for transfer to other folders.

Within the Authorized User operating mode, each therapist can have up to 255 folders. Each folder can contain up to 255 models. That's a total of 65,025 separate models, more than you’re ever likely to need. (I sure hope you don't have 255 individuals in your caseload!) Video Voice will allow as many as 255 separate therapist folders, which means you could have as many as 16,581,375 models stored, but I think we can agree that's just plain silly.

So let's be serious. This caseload structure means you can easily build libraries of models, which may be useful if you’re a school-based therapist, especially if a number of your students have similar speech problems, such as articulation of /r/. By building a library of models featuring that sound in different positions, you’ll have a source for targets that you can use to set up directories individualized for each student. And then you’ve got a therapy tool customized to your particular needs.

How do you go about this? Start by setting up a Therapist folder to contain the library, giving it a name such as MODLIB. Then, within that folder, define a caseload folder with a name like R Sounds. Activate the R Sounds folder with New Session, then use Formant Create to make a series of models with R: run, race, round, etc. (Make sure you clearly enunciate/stress the R during production so that it will be clearly visible in the patterns.)

You can repeat the process for S Sounds, Vowel Sounds, or whatever other targets you commonly work with, until you have a series of MODLIB folders containing your models.

Once you have built your library, you can transfer copies of any target models to any student's folder. Start by activating the desired student's folder with New Session. Then, go to the Data Management Copy Data function. Specify your MODLIB folder as the target source, and select and move desired models into the student's destination folder. Easy!

If you have students who share common therapy goals or articulation problems, you can also use this same strategy with their own data folders, treating them as a source for targets. Model libraries can streamline setup time, especially if you have a large caseload.

A final note. During therapy, consider library models to be only starting points. It’s always easiest to match your own voice, so when a student successfully produces a target, it’s a good idea to turn his voice pattern into the model. All it takes is a single click of the Replace (or SaveAs) button.

Model libraries are a good way to maximize your productivity with Video Voice and customize activities for everyone in your caseload. Why not give it a try?

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

Hey, I Have A Voice!

Over the years, we’ve talked with many therapists who have told us they find Video Voice most helpful with young children who come into their programs with little or no awareness of their voices. In particular, profoundly deaf youngsters often start off with no idea that vocalization is even an option. Visual stimulus for those little ones can be a key that unlocks a hidden door, helping them understand that "I have a voice, and something happens when I use it!" 

Video Voice has many options to assist with this first building block of speech. The simplest are those like Pitch Painting, Magic Box (Magic Blocks option), Kaleidoscope and On The Air, in which any sound results in colorful response from the display.

Others like Chat-N-U-Go Choo-Choo and Voice-A-Sketch can be set so that any form of sound onset or ongoing vocalization will result in a change in the display. With Choo-Choo, it can be the train, car or horse moving after a vocal onset or sustained phonation is detected. With Voice-A-Sketch, a picture will be gradually be revealed. You can use these games to start with simple phonation or onsets (then later move to work on volume control, specific sounds and words).

The Up, Up and Away game, the object it to try a balloon across a mountain range. The balloon only moves when voicing is present, and its height is related to the volume level. If the player This encourages vocalization, and allows for work on speaking volume as well.

With the Jumping Jack race game, you can use the More Volume option, but set the volume level required very low. Then, most any vocalization will make Jack run.

Another simple "cause and effect" game option is Laser Master.  In this game, vocalization activates a laser beam and moves an "alien space ship" out into space (off the screen).  Although the general purpose of this game is for pitch and/or volume work, the Duration goal simplifies operation, and any pitch or volume will make the space ship glide across the screen. 

In addition to the games, Video Voice offers other graphic displays to help develop cognition of speech, such as the Formant Multi-Frequency Spectral display and Formant Gobble.  The Spectral display provides visual feedback with a colorful graph of all three Formant frequencies simultaneously.  The Gobble display is like "Pac-Man for speech" - the goal is to eat up a sound pattern.  The live nature of these displays is a very powerful way to illustrate the presence (or absence) of speech.

These are just some of the ways visual feedback can stimulate the awareness and use of voice. Whether you’re working with hearing impaired children, those with autism who need encouragement to develop their speech skills, or youngsters those who are relearning vocal control after a head injury, you’re sure to find something in Video Voice that will pique their interest and get them talking!

Yours in good speech,

Video Voice Support Team

1-800-537-2182

mv@videovoice.com

Picture Perfect Speech

There are many aspects of Video Voice that can be adapted to meet the individual needs of the people you work with. You can specify the kinds of reward images and sounds that you want to see and hear. You can choose how scores appear in the Formant and P-A-R displays, as well as some aspects of their calculation. In the games, you can control which reward sounds are played at the end of the game, default Fade Speed, Pitch Range and other aspects of score display and game operation.  Changes you make can be stored as part of your Therapist ID settings , or, if you have a individual’s data folder active, settings can be permanently saved there.  Then, any time you reactivate that person’s data folder, the individualized settings  are automatically used.

The game that has the most options for customization is Voice-A-Sketch.  In that game, meeting the defined speech goal results in a picture appearing, either in pieces or in "window shade" fashion.  (The goals can be continuous phonation, volume above or below a defined target level, production of a target sound or work, and more.)  There are 78 high-quality built-in pictures to choose from, but you can also use images you have stored on your computer.

A few years ago, a therapist who works with autistic children said she felt they would respond more favorably if familiar images appeared - family members, pets or other objects of particular interest to them.  We responded by adding a new Graphics Source control that lets you use either the Built-In or My Own Pictures.  If you choose the latter, Video Voice looks in the My Documents/My Pictures area of your computer, and lets you choose from any images you have stored there.

This provides some very powerful personalization of the game. Say you’ve got a little girl who is very motivated by horses, or a little boy who loves sports cars. You can set up folders under their names in your My Pictures area and fill them with those kinds of images.

There are literally thousands of pictures available online of nearly any image type. Google or other search engines can assist you in locating them. When you find one you want to use, simply right-click on it and use the "Save Image As" option to put a copy of the .jpg or .gif in the desired My Pictures folder.  Voila!  You’ve now got a picture you can use in Voice-A-Sketch.

When importing pictures into Voice-A-Sketch, you don’t have to worry about the shape and size. Video Voice will size the pictures to best fit within the available space and adapt the picture frame accordingly.  The best images will be landscape in orientation, because that’s how the screen’s "easel space" is laid out, but any size or shape will work.

The possibilities are endless!  Have fun personalizing Voice-A-Sketch to make it even more uniquely motivating for individual cases.  If it’s an option for you, you even can involve them in the search for pictures they’d like to see, and use that as a therapy activity, too.

Yours in good speech,

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