About this Episode
Fluency in speech can be targeted in a number of ways. A useful analogy that many Speech Therapists utilize is one of a smooth road (to represent smooth speech), a bumpy road (to represent something resembling a stutter), and a road with a roadblock (to represent when our speech gets stuck and certain sounds “block” the rest of our sentence from being produced effectively). Our goal is to assist our students to speak as smoothly as possible by staying on that smooth road. When speech begins to sound “bumpy” or “stuck,” it can be difficult to get back onto the “smooth-speech road” in the moment. A few steps to assist in this redirection of speech is to ask your student to stop, take a deep breath, relax the muscles of their mouth, and slow their speech down. These tips are helpful in assisting our students back onto the “smooth-speech road” as we know that many times, when we hear a stutter in speech production, it is due to unwanted tension. Stopping and slowing it all down is a way to release that tension for the production of smooth speech to continue.
When the language of the song speaks about producing smooth speech, the musical accompaniment reflects that language through the swaying, legato melody. When referencing bumpy speech, the musical accompaniment reflects this through the staccato playing on the guitar. This musical reflection assists students in recognizing the change between “smooth” and “bumpy” through a musical auditory cue. This auditory recognition of change will hopefully translate to recognizing changes from “smooth” to “bumpy” in their own speech when tension occurs. Following the given steps can drastically increase a student’s success in speaking with smooth speech, while their awareness of their production of speech will increase their ability to address this tension both in and out of the music setting on an independent level.
Expanding this experience
Utilize the lyrics of this song as a lyric prompt for your student when you notice bumpy or road-blocked speech. Practice adding in sentences to the chorus of this song such as asking questions, playing a game, or commenting on a conversation. When producing these sentences, focus on recognizing your student’s success in smooth speech production, and reminding them of the given steps to produce smooth speech if needed.