The human body provides an ideal medium for optimum transfer of body movement stimulation to the normal development of phonation, articulation, voice quality, and listening skills in young children, who have communication problems.  The movements are based on phonetics, and the perceptual parameters (tension, duration, pitch, loudness, pause, intonation and rhythm).  For example, the body provides the medium to transfer the optimal tension in the movement to the process of phonation/articulation and listening.  This is called muscular generalization.  The movements are used for both stimulation and correction.  Correction movements are selected based on an error of the child's response; the parameters are used in the analyses.  Propioceptive feedback enhances the child's memory and carry-over to conversational speech.
     Body movements depict the quality of these phoneme, syllable or phrase, and provide the children with useful information for their development.  Movements are used in group and/or individual therapy.  Involving the whole body in the speech/listening process is both effective and fun for the children.
     The goal is 100% classroom mainstreaming, with minimal modification.  The results are:   children speak clearly, are understood by others (teachers and peers), and use their listening skills in a natural way to understand others.
     Case studies will be presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of body movements for children with hearing impairment, CAPD, language or speech problems.  If needed, the children wear a hearing aid or have a cochlear implant.
 
 

     The school system/University model was developed to provide intensive (25 hours/week for the school year) and quality (certified) Verbotonal therapy for preschool hearing impaired/deaf children, who have cochlear implants or hearing aids.  The children receive both group (up to 10 children) and individual therapy that is auditory based with a high-quality speech-signal input through vibrotactile and headset attached to training units (Listen-Suvag).  Both wide-band amplification (16-octaves) and acoustic filters are used to maximize the child's residual hearing and the neuroplacity of the brain.
 The emphasis is on spoken language, that includes normal phonation, articulation, voice quality, listening skills, and auditory memory.  The child's memory is developed with Verbotonal body movements and speech rhythms, with propioceptive feedback.
     The goal is 100% mainstreaming, with minimal modification.  The therapy begins with young toddlers, occurs at least one-year before the implant, and continues through the school-age years.  Therapy, after the implant, can be used when the implant occurs at a young age.  Part-time therapy (3-6 hours/week) can be used, but the progress is slower and the results are not as good.  The Verbotonal training of the clinician and/or teacher is the key factor for quality therapy, and successful use of cochlear implants in the school system.  The same Verbotonal training is used with cochlear implant or hearing aid in the same group therapy.
     The presentation will include four (4) children, ages 5-8 years, who have received 3-6 years of Verbotonal therapy.  After therapy, speaking/listening skills of these children are similar to normal hearing children of the same age.  In short, the results are excellent, and provide a school system/University model for cochlear implants.
 
 

       Ten native-Korean male speakers and ten native-American-English male speakers produced the target vowels /i,I,u,U/ in both words and sustained phonation.  These recorded speech samples were judged by a panel of three expert judges for vowel identification.  They also were analyzed by the experimenter to determine the formant frequencies (F1 and F2).  All measurements had a high degree of reliability.
       Korean speakers produced the phonemic vowels, /i/ and /u/ with a high accuracy similar to that of native English speakers.  Korean speakers produced the non-phonemic vowels, /I/ and /U/ with very low accuracy (high number of errors); these errors were not observed in the Americans.  Korean errors for non-phonemic /I/ and  /U/ were predictable errors, i.e., /i/ for /I/, and /u/ for /U/.  In addition, Korean speakers had more errors for sustained vowel phonation than words.
       The first formant (F1) was a better predictor for both the Koreans' phonemic and non-phonemic vowel identification.  The second formant (F2) was a inconsistent predictor of vowel identification.  The Korean phonetic patterns provided information for ESL teaching strategies.   Achieving a high percentage correct for non-phonemic Korean vowels in English may stabilize and enhance the Koreans perceiving and producing English words.