Laura Kasbar - Converting Apraxia and Scripting to Conversational Speech...

There are several people/companies that I get very excited about who are working with the special education community.  Asperger Experts is one of them.  Geminii is another company; they produce a speech therapy video system to improve verbal communication for children with autism, Down Syndrome, traumatic brain injury, or apraxia of speech due to other issues.

This video features the originator of Geminii, Laura Kasbar, who developed the videos for her own on-spectrum children based on her background in foreign language learning. She explains the research behind its development, as well as the research that has been done actually using Geminii, and shares some success stories.  She doesn't promise miracles; some children have used it and their command of language becomes asymptomatic, while others (especially adults who have lived their lives without speaking) may gain only a few words-- although, as Kasbar remarks, just being able to say "yes" and "no" can have a profound impact on a person's life.  She does admit that its effectiveness is limited for people who have seizures, as the seizures seem to erase any new learning.  (I have heard of that issue before.)  The system is currently available as a monthly subscription at about $98/month, with scholarships available.  Using the subscription, parents are able to tailor a program to their child's specific needs and modify it as the child progesses.

As Ms Kasbar explains, the strength of the video system is that children with speech apraxia may need as many as 8,000 repetitions of a concept to learn it, and learn best in short, frequent sessions.  Using a targeted video for a few minutes, several times a day over several months allows more input to the child's brain than he might get from years of weekly, hour-long sessions with a speech therapist.  While I am not a speech therapist, and have never used this program, nor do I yet know anyone who has, the principles used in its development make it a program I would recommend to anyone whose child has speech problems.