First I would like to apologize that it's been so long since you've heard from me. I had every intention of following through with writing one post each week in the month of October with the Ultimate blog challenge. I even had a few topics prepared and ready to write. What do they say about best intentions?
Here is a presentation I made to my public speaking group, Finding Our Way, two weeks ago. I was planning to make it better based on the constructive feedback I received from the group. Their feedback is always amazing and most helpful. And then I thought, if I wait until it is better, I might not ever publish it. That is the way most of my draft posts stay, as drafts and never shared. So here goes, with "warts and all".
Project Based Speech therapy
Today, I’d like to share how project based speech therapy helped me in my recovery from stroke with aphasia and apraxia; how using it with my speech therapist made perfect sense when I reflected back on it; and how I’m still using projects helps me to continue improving my communication skills in order to live my best life.
Before my stroke, I had spent many years as an adult literacy teacher, helping people with essential skills to read, write, and communicate effectively. I often used Project Based Learning with my students - especially with my ESL students. It is a technique that encouraged students to tackle real world challenges by working on projects. I hated using the standard worksheets and felt that these real projects not only helped the student to learn the basic skills but also was fun and motivating. I could also measure their progress.
Little did I know that this very approach would later become an important part of my speech therapy.
When I started speech therapy, I had to relearn the most basic skills—how to speak, read, and write. The initial projects were simple, but they played a significant role in rebuilding my communication abilities. I remember my first project: go to the grocery store and ask for a single item. Sounds easy, right? But for someone dealing with aphasia and severe apraxia, breaking down the task was a painstaking process. I had to select an item, practice saying its name, script the request on paper, rehearse it, and finally, go to the store, speak the sentence, and listen to instructions. Then, I took a picture for my speech-language pathologist.
The projects started off small, then got increasingly more complex incorporating all language skills (reading, writing speaking and listening) I still use projects as a way to try to improve my communication skills and stay motivated.
I had never heard the term "project based speech therapy" until I watched the documentary PAH a couple of months ago. Coleman Watson explained that he and his speech language therapist began working on this film together and used this project as his therapy.
As soon as I heard this, I contacted my speech therapist. We both remarked that this is exactly what we did with my project to create a presentation for RI Hospital staff about my experiences. We didn’t call it that but what we did was in fact Project Based speech therapy.
If I piqued your interest in using Project Based Speech therapy, here are some steps to try.
Think about a project you would like to do. It usually ends with a product that you can share. Ex. A letter to your insurance company for an over charge.
Using the SMART goal technique that Rebecca just shared think about and write down the specifics of your project.
For the therapy portion, what skills will you use and try to improve - reading, writing, speaking or listening. good projects usually use all of them
And then just begin.
I hope if you try this, you’ll like enjoy it as much as I do.
It seems to me that Project Based Speech therapy worked for me after my stroke as project based learning did for me when I was a teacher. Way back then, providing real life activities for my students seemed to make the most sense. I also gravitate to setting SMART goals for myself and encourage others to do the same. When I started with a very young, inexperienced speech therapist in out patient therapy who wanted to start doing exercises based on a particular “curriculum“. "Let's work on the sound that M makes." Even though that was one I knew how to do at that time. It brought back all my training as a teacher, specifically as an adult Ed teacher, where the most applicable curriculum is one based on what the individual student needs. If a student already has the skills why not challenge them to use the skill in an advanced way or in a real life context as oppose to having them do rote activities? I knew I needed to move from that first SLP to a more experienced one who would make my goals. I guess my first speech therapy project was to some how advocate for getting the more experiences SLP who they were trying to lay off. With my family's help and the few words I was then able to express, we were successful. And the rest is history.
Until next time.....
I think this is an excellent way of learning how to do anything. It's how I am navigating my mother's senior years. Each problem is a project to be solved.