Speech Disorder Literature on the Whole

These texts as a whole demonstrate a positive outlook on having speech disorders. These disorders can be cured and overcame. They are good literature to be used in the classroom to get the students to be comfortable with speech disorders. They can teach about the disorder and inspire students who are dealing with these disorders. As a whole students can learn how to address the subject that some may not be familiar with and others may be very familiar because they suffer from them.

The article provides more solid information to the topic while the stories bring abstract life to the topic. Each book covers a different grade level. Each book covers a different type of speech disability. Hooway for Wodney Wat is a picture book for lower elementary school that has a main character that has sound substitutions in his gliding sounds (he pronounces his R’s as W’s). Cats got your Tongue is a picture book for upper elementary whose main character deals with selective mutism. The Silent Spillbills is a chapter book for adolescents whose main character suffers from a stutter of her S’s. These books cover a wide range of speech disorders for a wide range of students.

The Prevalence of Stuttering, Voice, and Speech-Sound Disorders in Primary School Students in Australia

This compilation of authors studied the prevalence of speech disorders based upon grade level, gender and socio economic status. They also look at the amount of support and help for those students in each of those areas. David H. McKinnon, Sharynne McLeod and Sheena Reilly found some unexpected results after their research. These Australian students were studies in a four stage process. These stages include: training in the data collection process, teacher identification, confirmation by a speech-language pathologist and consultation with district special needs advisors. They found that speech disorders were more prevalent in males than females. As grade level increased, the prevalence of speech disorders decreased. Students who were identified with a speech disorder were more likely to be in the higher socioeconomic groups.

This article gives great background knowledge to how the topic affects our youth. It is more prevalent than we know and the issues should be addressed. There is a lack of support in the public school systems for students with speech disabilities. The authors do a good job of studying the issues and bringing them to light. This can be used as a basis for the study of literature that deals with speech disorder plots and characters. It can also be used in figuring out what kind of literature and speech therapy needs to be used in what kinds of classes. The different demographic will help teachers decide this.

The Silent Spillbills

Katerina is starting the seventh grade. She’s a confident girl but there one thing that she’s insecure about. Katerina stutters her S’s. Her neighbor Paul is not any help in the manner. He’s been teasing her since she was little. The only thing that gets her mind off of it is rowing through the wetlands with her grandfather and sighting birds. But once her grandfather threatens to kill her favorite bird she must use her voice in the community and take a stand. She overcomes her fear of stuttering in public with the help of an unexpected friend.

Tor Seidler does an excellent job at giving hope to those who stutter in his novel The Silent Spillbills. This book will inspire leadership in even the shyest students. They will be encouraged to overcome the fears of public speaking. They will learn to speak their mind in the most public spaces. It encourages students not to focus on how their voice sounds but more on what their thoughts are saying. Many people suffer from many types of stuttering. This can be used to introduce the topic of stuttering and speech disabilities.
Seidler, Tor. The Silent Spillbills. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc, 1998.

Cats got Your Tongue

Young Anna is just about to start kindergarten but she is very shy. As the first day of school approaches Anna decides to stop talking. She doesn’t talk to her classmates. She doesn’t talk to her teacher. She barely talks at home even. Her lack of speech hinders her progression in class. The teacher offers her help through speech therapy. With the help of her family, her teacher, her therapist, and her classmates Anna is able to overcome her fear of speaking at school.

Selective mutism is the refusal to speak in certain places or at certain times. Those who suffer from selective mutism choose when they will and will not speak. This condition is more common than most of us know in elementary schools. Students experience selective mutism for many reasons including shyness, anger, and sadness. This book can be used to introduce the topic and encourage those who experience selective mutism to speak in class. It can be used as an introduction to dealing with emotions and learning to speak in class with confidence.

This picture book by Dr. Charles E. Schaefer, illustrations by Judith Friedman, is a positive portrayal of those who suffer from selective mutism in their book Cats got Your Tongue. It is encouraging because it depicts a young child overcoming the condition. Anna is a character that many elementary students can relate too. It is good for them to know that they too can overcome their selective mutism.
Schaefer, Charles E. Cats got Your Tongue. Washington D.C.: Magination Press, 1992.

Hooway for Wodney Wat

Hooway for Wodney Wat is an encouraging picture book about a young rodent who has trouble pronouncing his R’s. He is consistently teased by his peers. The classroom is suddenly turned upside down by the arrival of a new student, a bully student. After being named to leader of Simon says Wodney Wat is able to get all of his peers on his side with the use of his unique voice inflection as he drives the bully away.

Hooway for Wodney Wat is a positive portrayal of those with speech disabilities. It gives hope to young readers who may be facing some of the same issues. Helen Lester is able to pull the reader in with charming humor and keep them in until the last sentence with Wodney Wat’s story. Lynn Munsinger does a great job at capturing the smallest details to express the biggest emotions in her illustrations. This heartwarming tale will inspire students in many different ways. It is a great way to introduce a topic that may be touchy to young students but positively arouses discussion about issues that many people go through at a young age.
Lester, Helen. Hooway for Wodney Wat. New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1999.

Literature Counts...

In my TE 401 class I recently had to teach a lesson on Thanksgiving. I had a general idea of what I wanted to do. Since I would be teaching 1st graders I decided to first brainstorm with them about the holiday. Then i would read them some literature on the holiday. After the story was over i would recap on what they learned and do a creative project that involves making Thanksgiving turkeys that describe what the students are thankful for. Simple enough? Not really. I begin by look for a book that tells the story of Thanksgiving for 1st graders. This was not an easy task. Many of the books that I found at our countries most popular book stores were not telling of the Thanksgiving story. They were more like "Jane Doe had a horrible Thanksgiving". That was just the first problem

After an intensive search I found one book that told the story of Thanksgiving. After reading the story it did not seem to be for the 1st grade level but at that time I had no choice. So I bought the book. That day I began reading the story with a few tweaks that I thought would make it go smoothly. The story took longer than I expected and by the time I was done I had lost the attention of all the students on the carpet. When it was time to recap the story they couldn't even tell me some of the main points in the story. The literature had lost them.

So the moral of the story is that LITERATURE COUNTS! The choice of literature is very important in teaching a lesson. You have to think of the grade level, the content of the book, and whether or not the students will be interested. Well I have definitely learn my lesson...no pun intended.

DAN 420

For all of you education majors here is a class you may want to look into for future semesters. It is called dance 420: creative dance and learning. This is not quite a dance class as you might expect. It is more like a movement class. It is a class based on movement in educational settings. As a part of the course you will be writing lesson plans that involve movement using the michigan content standards. This is a good course to take in your earlier undergrad years simply because it exposes you to lesson planning and content standards which in the michigan state education program you dont get until the fourth year. I am taking this class right now and I wish that I had taken it last year. Either way it is still a great course to take.

For example right now for my final lesson plan I am planning a lesson on the growth of apple trees. The students begin in a seed, grow into a sapling, then finally a tree. It goes through the seasons and stages of growth. Lastly apples are picked, leaves fall, and the trees rest for winter. The students will get to act out these movements while learning how apples and apple trees grow.

There is also a course called THR 420. This is the theater version of this class. I dont know much about it but it involves teaching theater in educational settings using lesson plans. I would recommend both of these classes to education majors.