prosody issues

[Tomball]

I need some help with an Aspergers student whose parents want therapy for his "monotone." I have tried to explain that this is part of his disability, but to no avail. What types of things have worked for working on prosody? He does not qualify based on my assessments, but I would like to give his parents some suggestions. Also, in other districts, do you have to serve a student because he has an AU label? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!

[megherditch]

I, too, have worked on bringing more interest into the voice of this group. Using real telephonesis pretty good. He calls and leaves a message on your office phone (from somewhere else on campus..or from a cell phone.) Then he listens as you represent his ups and downs in pitch with a line. His line will be pretty flat (monotone) He needs to hear his voice and see itrepresented in a visual chart. He can practice repeating familiar sentences from history, etc. that need emphasis to sound he way they were intended. You don't have to work with ASP. students unless thee are areas of concern. Pragmatics, using interst in narrative presentation, asking questions, etc. Honestly, we have 4-5 here that still use thoses unusual prosody patterns, but we do work on them more informally with emphasis on their pragmatics.

[Debby]

There is a method used to work with deaf and hard of hearing students that might be helpful for you to use. It is called Verbotonal (NOT auditory verbal!!). Do a google search for Dr. Carl Asp from the University of Tennessee or "Verbotonal Method for working with deaf and hard of hearing" or Professor Petar Guberina (he was from Yugoslavia). I used it for 10 years working with deaf students and it has remarkable results. One of the main goals of the method is for deaf children to have normal suprasegmentals and that is the first thing that is worked on with kids.