I Have My Target Word, but Where Do I Start?

Full transcript

Nicole coming in from the NYU Motor Speech Lab. On this Monday tidbit, I wanted to talk about what it looks like to actually start with your target word.

I just started today with two new participants in our research study. If I could show you videos I would, but obviously, for confidentiality, we can't. One of the target words for one of my kids today, the first time doing this word, is "hi." He is more profoundly impacted, and he's a little over three years old. So how do I start with this word? Where do we begin?

What I do is say to him, "Can you say 'hi'?" And I do this twice. What I'm doing there is giving him two opportunities to try to get the target word, and I'm also showing him examples of how the word is said. His default for this word is "duh," sometimes "die."

So then what did I do? I stopped him, because I don't want to engage in negative practice. I don't want him saying "die" at all. The first thing to do is slow down. I'm sure you do this too: "Feel the air, feel the air." I take his hand, he feels the air, I feel the air. I do that whole thing, and then I say, "Okay, let's say it together." This is the first step in the DTTC hierarchy, simultaneous production. So I say, "Okay, let's say it together. Hi." And I slow down. And what does he say? "Die."

So I say, "Okay, let's try it one more time. I want you to really think about it. Hi." And he says "die" again. So then what do I do? I tell him I want him to meet me here, and I just hold that initial articulatory configuration, because what he's doing is that alveolar sound, which we don't want. I say, "Okay, just meet me here," and I stay there for a little bit. I prompt him to think about what it feels like right now with his mouth open. That's where we start for this word.

Another thing I did was take off voicing. For those of you who have taken the Advanced CAS Workshop with Dr. Strand: when you take off the voicing, you're making the target production easier. So I said, "Okay, we're going to say it in a whisper. We're going to say it really slow. We're going to say it together. I'm going to start at the same spot. Meet me here. Hi." Then I told him, "Okay, this is your mouth. Your mouth is big. We're starting here. Hi." And I did it slowly, in a whisper. "Hi."

Of course, he's thinking, why do I want to say "hi"? Why do I want to say this word in a whisper, and why do I want to say it with you? But I was really encouraging him, and you know what? I was able to get this word today. Very scaffolded, very supported: simultaneous production, lots of hand gestures, no voicing, just a whisper. But I was able to get him to say the word that way.

There's a dynamic quality to DTTC. When I tried to add voicing today, on the first day, he said "die." So he's not there yet, and we might have to sit in slow simultaneous, in a whisper, for a little while. But that's okay, because I know we're going to get that configuration.

So I just thought I would share, and I'll keep you posted about this little guy. He's really, really cute, and he's significantly impacted. Working on a word like "hi," with that beautiful diphthong, and such a functional word, is really going to open up different articulatory configurations for him, and also social greetings. So it's one of the words we really like working on in the Motor Speech Lab: "hi" and "bye," when appropriate. Thank you all for joining, and I'll see you again next week. Take care, everybody.