Imagine sitting at the dinner table unable to join in a conversation. Imagine attending a party speaking to no one. Imagine trying to tell a relative or a friend a story, but the words simply don’t come. That is the fate of stroke survivors who don’t relearn their language skills. They are sentenced to lifetime of wallflower status, of loneliness, of alienation.

The Connection between ESOL and Speech Therapy

In some ways, their plight is similar to the issues afflicting immigrants. In our increasingly global society, studies have been done, and advanced degrees achieved, on the best way to learn a new language. For years, language-learning software has been instrumental and available in helping English speakers of other languages (ESOL) and English language learners assimilate to English-speaking culture. It is a short leap to assume that language immersion software, such as Rosetta Stone, can also be used as speech therapy for stroke survivors.

Why Rosetta Stone?

Rosetta Stone is unique in language software. It implements a proven instructional learning strategy espoused by ESOL instructors and somewhat similar to the popular Direct Method of Linguistics developed in the 19th century. It was a naturalist approach, which immersed students in the target language. The objectives were speaking and listening comprehension, not translation. Vocabulary was introduced through pictures. Emphasis was centered on usage and pronunciation. Students learned to write by transcribing in the target language. Rosetta Stone incorporates these and additional language learning methods.

How it Works

Since stroke survivors already know their target language, the emphasis on use with Rosetta Stone software enables them to relearn the physical and physiological connections between the brain and oral speech. Rosetta Stone is ideally suited for this exercise, containing an audio component, which enables stroke survivors to orally identify and correctly pronounce the words, phrases and sentences they are relearning in their target language.

Although reading sentences is easier than constructing them, the repetition of language learning software offers the physical practice needed for stroke survivors to correctly construct grammatical and complete conversational sentences.

Practical Applications

Jerry Buckman, a Winter Park, Fla., speech pathologist endorses language-learning software for stroke survivors. “My goal,” he says, “ is to improve functional communication within the family. To improve word choices, articulation and expression. What happens with many stroke survivors is they go on with their lives, but they live on the periphery. I want them to take the risk and move to the center.”

Stroke survivors prompt the Rosetta Stone software to speak and, though they only have a certain amount of time to respond, it repeats the exercise until they master it. Since they often lose the habit of talking, the speech component of Rosetta Stone can be tiring. Ideally, for speech therapy, a longer pause is necessary between the prompt and the pronunciation since stroke survivors often grope for words. Speaking after a stroke is hard work.

 “It’s not too easy,” claims Clara Randall, a stroke survivor who uses Rosetta Stone for about an hour day. Usually Clara gets a “D” or a “C” grade the first time she goes through a lesson, independently. She always repeats the lesson for a “B” or an “A” grade. In that time, she becomes much more adept and confident at managing the program. She knows when to press an arrow key and when to speak. If she garbles a word, the software prompts her to repeat it until she gets it right. She also accumulates a list of “hard” words (hard to pronounce) and practices speaking them at the end of each lesson.

Independent Speech is the Goal

If stroke survivors have a tool they can use independently, to relearn their target language, they may not have to live out their lives groping for words, gradually losing the physical ability to form speech, and becoming painfully and ignobly isolated. “It is important to read and write and do it orally,” Buckman says. “Spelling is important. If a patient is having difficulty formulating words, Rosetta Stone gives her a clear shot. There is a good, clear tone for the patient to model.

I think it has practical applications for a speech pathologist.”

Source: Elizabeth Randall/Orlando Education Examiner