Junganew: A Herd of Sounds

More than 5% of preschoolers present with difficulty learning their sounds. The American Speech Language Hearing Association reported that there has been a 62% increase in speech sound disorders from 2001 to 2011 with steady increases causing future reading, academic, and social problems. Private therapy is costly. Most insurances do not reimburse for speech sound disorders. Therapy within the schools has increased caseloads dramatically, forcing therapists to group children allowing for very limited practice.

Junganew provides a multisensory approach to learning sounds and combinations of sounds, allowing children to explore independently, yet  teaches parents/caregivers how to take an active role in their child's success.

If scaled globally, this solution can positively change the lives of millions by allowing visual, auditory perception and processing, tactile, kinesthetic, proprioceptive and vestibular multisensory approach to enhance literacy as well as functional communication for both special needs and mainstream population of children.

More than 5% of preschoolers present with difficulty learning their sounds. The American Speech Language Hearing Association reported a 62% increase in speech sound disorders causing future reading, academic, and social problems. Private therapy is costly. Most insurances do not reimburse for speech sound disorders. Therapy within the schools has increased caseloads dramatically, forcing therapists to provide limited practice. 

Contributing factors that relate to this problem are vestibular in nature. Our kiddos are not moving as much today as in years past  causing difficulties with visual processing/perception, auditory processing/perception, and kinesthetic movements. Junganew addresses these problems by teaching children to learn their sounds using embodied cognition. Animals represent a particular sound providing tactile, auditory, and emotional connection. This loving cast of characters become the teachers to our kiddos allowing increased individual practice, monitoring, and reciprocal conversation.

This technique facilitates children with dyslexia. A child reads the word "SIT". This poses difficulties for some with visual perceptual deficits. When each sound is associated with an animal such as Miss Snake, Vowel the Owl, and Titi the Squirrel (who makes the 't' sound when eating nuts), children can easily manipulate these animals to begin to spell and read. 

We  address special needs and mainstream population of children, ages 2 to 7 years. As a Speech Language Pathologist having the privilege of working with children in many settings, each child has helped to build the stories of Junganew: A Herd of Sounds through imaginative play. 

Whether learning their letters for the first time or learning their sounds due to errors in speech patterns, children feel comforted and confident when playing with animals. Explaining "why" the animal makes a specific sound makes sense to our little ones. For example, children understand frogs get hungry. They eat flies by sticking their tongues out as they make a "th" sound. Pretending to be little frogs wakes up their imaginative skills, getting them moving, motivating them to produce the target sound while visually locating pretend flies, thus having the opportunity to engage all the systems of the brain for auditory, visual, and kinesthetic components while waking up their emotional associations creating an easy way to become functional communicators.

By combining animals to create words, we combine friends. As social beings with communication as the essence of all things, we address all learning types creating a conducive environment for learning without judgment or stigma.

The first of the series has been produced as an application. Junganew: A Herd of Sounds for "S" is currently in the App Store for iPad. It is an excellent resource for teachers and therapists, yet much of my feedback has been it's value as a tool allowing parents and caregivers to become active participants in their child's learning. I have since written the scripts and developed the characters for the "TH", "R", "L", and "F" sounds. I have the framework for all the other sounds of the English language. Additionally, I have written the prequel to these sounds whereby we address vowel production and simple syllable production to reach those diagnosed with Childhood Apraxia of Speech. I am hoping to impart a greater vision of more than an application, yet to include but not be limited to children's books, interactive toys, board games, children's theater and any other facet of media to reach the masses of children, thereby bridging the gap between special needs and mainstream population of children. The content reaches the child who may need therapy and also reaches the child who is simply learning their pre academic and academic skills. These brain based, playful techniques use speech language therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy techniques to focus on the development of the "whole child". Children have the opportunity to explore independently, self monitor their skills, and have fun. The Herd teaches additional themes such as play skills, life skills, and social emotional regulation skills in a therapeutic style that fully aligns with standard core curriculum.

Strategies to enhance this application include musical strategies facilitating memory, positive reinforcement through song and dance incorporating embodied cognition associating a movement with each sound, interactive music videos facilitating exploration, innovation, imaginative ideas, strategically created music enhancing the left brain / right brain interaction. Mirror models enhance self monitoring and comparison skills. My hope is to work alongside companies that create oral sensory motor tools to facilitate oral placement therapy for producing sounds correctly. These tools can attach to an application for further fun, exploration, and practice of manipulating the articulators to produce intelligible speech.

Most applications on the market addressing speech sound disorders incorporate many sounds simultaneously utilizing flash card based learning requiring a teacher or therapist to assist. The sound is addressed as a separate entity from language and social indications required for functional communication.This does not allow parents to conceptually understand the nature of foundational prelinguistic skills required for speech sound production and the best practices for gaining theses target sounds. 

Junganew: A Herd of Sounds allows an immersive experience for one target sound at a time while facilitating the foundation and interaction for language skills, social skills, prelinguistic and linguistic skills needed to address the whole child. This project provides parents/caregivers the opportunity to understand "how" to participate in the learning process, providing familiar ideas and activities, yet allowing room to generate their own ideas to functionally interact with their child. 

Junganew: A Herd of Sounds incorporates "mirror models" where the screen is  cut in half. On the left side of the screen, the chid can see themselves in the mirror. On the right side of the screen, the child views the animal who is teaching the target sound and its position within the word. The child models the animal with correct placement of the articulators and records themselves. They then have the opportunity to replay their video to self monitor and self correct the production of the target sound.

Additionally, the technology allows for video intertwined with interactive activities to facilitate the full story book feel to learning.

My hope is to collaborate with companies that utilize tools for oral placement therapy to utilize new technology and have child use these tools while engaging in the application for an even more full experience. This will allow parents/caregivers to understand how to practice these tools at home with their child by modeling the friendly cast of characters in the land of Junganew.