The staff at Simply Speaking uses a variety of programs which aid in the successful treatment of clients. The following is a sampling of the types of programs used.
Sara Rosenfeld-Johnson’s Oral-Motor Program’s for Speech Clarity
This program is a tactile teaching technique which supplements traditional therapy. It is used to improve oral motor skills for all ages and ability levels. This type of oral-motor therapy is used for individuals with articulation disorders (muscle-based, phonological, developmental delay and apraxia of speech), voice disorders, fluency disorders and post cerebrovascular accident or CVA clients, as well as clients with mild-to-profound levels of hearing loss. It incorporates a tactile component which is used to improve muscle awareness, placement and strength/motor memory – all prerequisites for the development of speech clarity. Sara Rosenfeld Johnson created a variety of different exercises to target the strength and awareness of the lips, tongue, soft palate and jaw. Some common programs include the straw drinking hierarchy, horn blowing program and the bite block program.
Beckman Oral Motor Protocol
The Beckman Oral Motor Protocol consists of specific oral motor stretches and stimulation techniques to improve the range, strength, variety and control of the lips, cheeks, jaw, tongue and soft palate. This technique differs from other oral motor approaches as it does not require the cognitive participation of the individual. It is used to improve oral motor skills for feeding and speech and is beneficial for children who fall within a wide range of diagnostic categories.
Visualizing and Verbalizing by Nanci Bell
Visualizing and Verbalizing (V/V)® is a learning program that helps students improve reading comprehension, language comprehension, and higher order thinking skills by developing the ability to create mental imagery for the language they read and hear, and to create an imaged gestalt – imagery for the big picture, or whole. This mental imagery for language is called concept imagery, and it is essential to comprehension skills.
Individuals with weak concept imagery may have difficulty comprehending what they read, even if their reading skills are otherwise unimpaired. These individuals may have trouble following directions, or expressing their own ideas in an organized manner. They may be accused of being lazy, or of not trying hard enough, because words directed at them seem to go in one ear and out the other. V/V® instruction can help these individuals connect language to mental imagery and enable them to make a significant, measurable improvement in language comprehension.
V/V® was authored by Nanci Bell, M.A., Director and CEO of Lindamood-Bell Learning Processes, and the program has been used in Lindamood-Bell® Learning Centers and School Services partnerships since 1986.
Wilson Reading System
The Wilson Reading System is a highly structured reading and writing program that serves as an intervention and helps 2nd – 12th grade struggling readers learn the structure of words and language by directly instructing students to decode and encode (spell) fluently. The program was originally developed for students who have dyslexia, but has been expanded to target the needs of students who are below grade level in reading. Level A uses age appropriate reading material for younger or ESL students, while Level B uses age appropriate reading material for older students.
Based on the Orton-Gillingham multisensory philosophy and principles, the Wilson Reading System provides a well organized, incremental, and cumulative 12-step system. Steps one through six provide students with the basics for decoding and encoding to create a solid foundation before moving on. Steps seven through twelve focus more on advanced word analysis, vocabulary development, comprehension, and metacognition. The Wilson Reading System provides a plan in which students receive instruction in: learning to hear sounds; manipulating color-coded sounds, syllables, and word cards; performing finger-tapping exercises to assist in phonemic awareness; writing dictated words and sentences; reading aloud; and paraphrasing selections they read and which are read to them. Students receive direct reinforcement and instructional feedback based on their individual performances and do not proceed to the next step until they have met each step’s criteria, as each step builds upon the one before.
Accent Reduction by Elizabeth Peterson
This program teaches the Standard American Speech model. This is the model that represents the official spoken language for the United States. It is also the model for professional and career speech patterns. This program is organized into four units. It is arranged by typical accented behaviors and speech habits speakers have when English is not their first language. Once habits are identified, the lessons teach how to produce the sounds correctly. The result will be clear and understandable speech.