Therapy
Goals and Objectives
Summary of short-term goals and gains for first two quarters at RIT: We began by reviewing English phonemes and basic English pronunciation using expressive and receptive spoken English with sign support (simultaneous communication). After three weeks into the quarter, Student 4 was beginning to understand some signed and spoken English in a face-to-face interaction supported by some writing. Her courses were challenging. She had to rely nearly totally on overheads, handouts and textbook information. She did not understand two instructors who were not using voice and did not have written material to support their lectures. When the instructors became aware of her difficulties, they agreed to add voice and writing to their instruction or to tutor her independently. By the end of the ten weeks she was signing and speaking simple everyday English phrases and had successfully completed her NTID English course.
As her sign language improved we focused on conversational strategies using interactive e-mail, videotaped interactions, and group speech therapy. She continued working on her English grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and articulation. Group therapy and videotaped interactions were done with another international student experiencing the same social difficulties. Modeling techniques were employed and often the content of the conversations focused on American culture. At the end of the quarter, the students interacted on videotape.
A transcription of that conversation (pdf) shows both students successful with perspective taking and turn-taking. Student 4 also displayed skills needed to initiate and maintain a topic about a mutual course they will be taking. Both used good clarification strategies to ensure understanding
A second strategy used to develop both English and conversational skills was exchanging email and then supplying feedback on grammar and vocabulary.
This writing sample (pdf) shows an example of an interaction done with a speech pathology intern who was the same age as Student 4 and was able to include some of the current vocabulary used by hearing college students. In addition to the social interaction, the intern gave Student 4 suggestions for grammar and vocabulary improvement by using parenthesis around the selected words. At the end two quarters of her program, Student 4 finished NTID English and was recommended to begin the RIT Liberal Arts.
At the end of her first year at RIT, Student 4 was comfortable conversing with other students using signed English but wanted to develop her ability to converse using spoken English only. Instruction focused on using correct grammar and vocabulary in a spoken English context and developing strategies. Her spoken intelligibility when reading 10 sentences improved from an entering score of 3.8 or 82% intelligible to 4.7 or 95 % intelligible.
Her fricative errors decreased although she still had difficulty with the three vowels.
Second year of program
Student 4 was confronted with new challenges related to her RIT Liberal Arts courses. She was required to do research for essays and to write about pieces of literature. Her greatest challenges were in organization and elaboration of her ideas by providing examples of her thesis from research. Limitations in her English vocabulary presented challenges in reading literature and articles for her research. Therapy strategies involved discussing her reading and expanding on her ability to elaborate. In addition to meeting twice a week, interactive e-mail was used to clarify ideas for written essays.
View the instructor’s feedback (pdf) for the student’s first essay draft. This sample shows
her final essay (pdf). Student 4 completed two prerequisite writing courses. Experiential activities were included to help her gain communication confidence and to give her content to write about.
Third year of program
Student 4 progressed through her liberal arts courses and courses in Applied Computer Technology and began looking for a co-op job. She also began taking some other courses as a cross registered student at RIT. This presented new challenges for her. All of her NTID instructors and liberal arts instructors communicated using simultaneous communication. She, in fact, selected instructors based on that criteria and would always meet them before registering for a course to be sure she could understand them. RIT courses provided interpreting support. She was unable to follow the interpreter exclusively or the instructor’s English exclusively so special accommodations were provided by RIT to support her understanding of the class lectures.
In addition to continuing to provide support for her liberal arts courses, speech and language therapy focused on successful job interviewing. It is helpful for students to relate the concepts and strategies they have applied to conversation and to written discourse to the unique goal of a job interview. An example of one strategy is the use of interactive videotaping using split screen technology. Discussion of conversations or interviews can be instructive.
At the end of her third year, Student 4 had completed most
of her liberal arts requirements successfully finishing
courses in music theory, sociology, psychology, and Japanese.
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To develop interactive spoken
and signed English
