Processing Speech Students need to distinguish speech sounds correctly so they can learn the rules of language and associate sounds with letters Speech sounds can differ by as little as 10 millisecond

(This includes ESL students) Children with language impairment can’t sequence 2 tones at rapid presentation rates (This includes ESL students) Research by Dr. Paula Tallal’s early studies conducted in the 70s at Rutgers University. Dr. Paula Tallal bio On the following graph you see the results of a simple test that changed the path of research and brings us here today. Dr. Tallal selected two groups of students. One group was clinically identified as Language Delayed Individuals, and the other group served as the Control (as they did not demonstrate any language issues). The student were presented with two tones, a high tone and a low tone. The task was to determine their order. When presented with long intervals between the tones, students in both groups were able to process and sequence sounds, but when the interval between the tones was decreased, the children in the Language Impaired group started to have difficulties. The students were unable to determine the order of the sounds. (Examples are on the next slide.) So at this point you might wonder, how fast is normal speech? In natural speech, sounds are constantly changing and rarely stay steady for more than 40 milliseconds. If a child is unable to process or follow these rapid changes, they may miss much of what is said – just as you do when you use a cell phone with a bad connection. What if we could increase the rate at which students process sounds?  We from the extensive research and outcome studies that the brain is plastic and can change. The adaptivity that is built into Sky Gym makes it very effective at gradually improving the ability of students to process and sequence sounds presented at different frequencies and durations, with interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of just 25 ms at the highest levels.  Not only do many students have a challenging time doing this critical task, but some don’t understand what they are supposed to be doing.  Therefore, it requires careful monitoring, especially when the students are beginning

Children with language impairment can’t sequence 2 tones at rapid presentation rates The answer is found in Dr. Paula Tallal’s early studies conducted in the 70s at Rutgers University. On the graph you see the results of a simple test that changed the path of research and brings us here today. Dr. Tallal selected two groups of students. One group was clinically identified as Language Delayed Individuals, and the other group served as the Control (as they did not demonstrate any language issues). The student were presented with two tones, a high tone and a low tone. The task was to determine their order. When presented with long intervals between the tones, students in both groups were able to process and sequence sounds, but when the interval between the tones was decreased, the children in the Language Impaired group started to have difficulties. The students were unable to determine the order of the sounds. (Point out examples at the different ranges.) So at this point you might wonder, how fast is normal speech? In natural speech, sounds are constantly changing and rarely stay steady for more than 40 milliseconds. If a child is unable to process or follow these rapid changes, they may miss much of what is said – just as you do when you use a cell phone with a bad connection. What if we could increase the rate at which students process sounds? As we discussed earlier, we can change the brain. The adaptivity that is built into Sky Gym makes it very effective at gradually improving the ability of students to process and sequence sounds presented at different frequencies and durations, with interstimulus intervals (ISIs) of just 25 ms at the highest levels.  Not only do many students have a challenging time doing this critical task, but some don’t understand what they are supposed to be doing.  Therefore, it requires careful monitoring, especially when the students are beginning   Control Language Impaired 40 ms - Phonemes 40-350 Syllables Tone Duration = 75 msec Tone 1 = 100 Hz, Tone 2 = 300 Hz

. . .Big Changes in Meaning 100 milliseconds Small Changes in Timing To show how important this timing is, I want you click on the first speaker below. What did you hear? 100 milliseconds Now, click on the next speaker. What did you hear this time? To show how important this timing is, I want you to listen and tell me the word you hear. [CLICK on the top speaker three times. Ask your audience what word they heard. Ask them to spell it. They will come back with “s-a-y.”] Yes, this is the spectrograph of the word “say.” The first part is the sound of the letter “s” and the second part is the sound of the letters “ay.” [CLICK on the bottom speaker three times. Ask your audience how many heard “s-t-a-y.” Ask how many heard “s-p-a-y.” ] Why did you hear something else when all that was changed was the insertion of 100 milliseconds of silence between the “s” and the “ay?” In the English language we have what we call “stop consonants such as, /t/ and /p/ where the sound is literally stopped for a split second before it is released. The brain has learned that when there is silence between two sounds to expect a “stop consonant.” This, in effect, is what happens to a student who is slow at processing sounds. In many situations, they could hear something very different than what actually is being said.

100 milliseconds Small Changes in Timing . . .Big Changes in Meaning This is the spectrograph of the word “say.” The first part is the sound of the letter “s” and the second part is the sound of the letters “ay.” Why did you hear something else from the first sound byte to the second when all that was changed was the insertion of 100 milliseconds of silence between the “s” and the “ay?” In the English language we have what we call “stop consonants such as, /t/ and /p/ where the sound is literally stopped for a split second before it is released. The brain has learned that when there is silence between two sounds to expect a “stop consonant.” This, in effect, is what happens to a student who is slow at processing sounds. In many situations, they could hear something very different than what actually is being said.

How is Fast ForWord different? What does Fast ForWord do that one to one instruction cannot? The Fast ForWord program uses patented* acoustically modified speech sounds to actually stretch (in the time domain) selected portions of phonemes providing the student with an optimal chance of distinguishing between similar acoustic sounds. Through hundreds of trials and increasing frequencies and durations of tones and sequences, the student is eventually presented with exercises using tones at intervals within the ‘normal’ range of 40 milliseconds. (See exercise examples on the next slide) *U.S. Patent 6,289,310 September 11, 2001

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