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Visualarticulation

Thomas G. Schultz
Lincoln Elementary School, Torrington, Wyoming

Subject: Special Education/Speech
Grade: K-3

"It was amazing that two trainable mentally retarded students were able to understand the instructions, manipulate the camera, and take (all by themselves) pictures of each other. They were quite proud and happy at the challenge."

Purpose and Description of Project

The camera helped Thomas Schultz's speech therapy students become "aware of not only how good speech sounds but how good speech looks," as they studied pictures of a teacher saying various sounds and then photographed each other trying to make the same sounds.

Teacher and students then used the sets of photos-of both model and children -- to study how the tongue, teeth, lips, jaw, and facial features (articulators) looked as the different sounds were made correctly and incorrectly. A mirror was used to supplement the photographs, but Schultz stresses that the camera was the real key to the project because "the pictures froze features that are fleeting when one looks into a mirror" and gave the children "immediate feedback." Further, he says, a high level of motivation was maintained because the children were excited at being able to use the camera and take their photos home to show their parents.

Activities

Schultz began by photographing a popular kindergarten teacher making these sounds: "F," "Th," "W," "R," "L," and "S." The students then studied the photos and practiced identifying each sound until they understood how each sound looked on the teacher's face.

The children then took each other's pictures and watched as the pictures developed. Next, they tried to identify what sounds they were making in the photos, using a mirror to watch their faces as they said the sounds they thought were pictured.

After working with their own photos, the children also practiced identifying sounds other students were saying in their pictures and then tried to match up their own photos with those of the teacher model.

Materials, Resources, and Expenses

The project's human resource was the teacher model who posed for control photos. Equipment and supplies included a Kodak camera, color film, and a large unbreakable mirror.

Outcomes and Adaptability

Schultz reports that the children "were able to identify correct and incorrect sounds much faster using Visualarticulation. They could see what they were doing wrong and make a change." In fact, he notes, the project was "far more successful than anticipated" because the exercises made the students "take a closer look at themselves, helped them retain a mental image of how correct sounds should look, and improved their ability to concentrate on what they were doing right and what they had to change in order to say their target sounds."

Schultz believes that this project would be valuable for the regular classroom as well as in speech therapy classes and also for older children. He points out that about 17 percent of all school-age children have speech and vocal inadequacies and that "speech patterns can be a deterrent in the areas of reading, writing, spelling, and development of a positive self -image."

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