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PROGRESS
REPORT - 2007
CLIENT : Sam
THERAPIST
:Katherine Rudolph
Exploring the
Word in Colour & Speech
03-9729
8819
info@exploringtheword.com.au
Impulse for
Recreational Therapy
Sam has shown
enthusiasm and willingness to participate in the painting, singing,
speech and number games, and picture forming with coloured clay.
He appreciates the activity and the communication. The
tactile movement is rhythmical and conducive to harmony
Breathing –
Flow of Speech
In his
constant flow of speech and song, Sam exhibits a healthy breathing.
He tends to need more out-breath, and often is exuberant.
Sometimes his voice is quite strong. This expression
has an assertive quality. To meet his speech, one must often repeat
answers to his questions and then offer details of the course of
the day etc., to satisfy his curiosity and need for reciprocal
communication. He lives very much in the present, so that
repetition does not bore him. Sometimes painful memories of
the war in Vietnam come up, at which time it is best to change the
subject, or sing another song. Sometimes, in the flow, other
memories and songs come out that are hard to capture a second
time.
Balance of
Vowels
Being a
person who has strong feelings, Sam feels the vowel sounds
especially intensely. In the speech games, he enjoys intoning
vowels, just for the sake of hearing them. One hears more of
the Ah O UU in him than the EE A. This shows his expansive
nature. The way he expresses himself shows a love of the
rhythmical in language. He sometimes says, for example, “I’m
not a hundred percent, I’m not a lot, I’m not very much, but I’m
ENOUGH!” He has an artistic and musical nature and plays with
words.
Balance of
Consonants
K L S F
M (a consonantal out-breath)
Lips –
MBPFV
Sam can
differentiate all but B and P. Sometimes, after repetition, he
can
differentiate
them, but it is not predictable. Both consonants still sound like
B.
Teeth - LNDT
TH SZ R SH CH J
The TH sound
is still hard for Sam, as well as Z and SH. J is pronounced like
Y.
Palate – YGK
CH H
G is
sometimes difficult
Articulation
Sam is quite
able to make himself understood. Sometimes he slurs the
sounds out of a need to speak too quickly. He loves French
and Japanese, and makes an effort to pronounce French correctly,
when I teach him simple sentences in French. It reminds him
of early youth and his mother in Vietnam (who passed over thus
year). However since he seems to have somehow adjusted to the
loss, it makes him happy to remember French.
Course of
Therapy
Sam paints
two paintings in quick succession. He pays attention to the
rhythm rather than the process itself. I help him by making
strong light/dark contrasts which he sometimes sees. Sam’s
seriously impaired vision seems to fluctuate. He can blow a
cigarette ash into a small hole in a can, at times; yet, cannot
distinguish the coloured clay on the table a short time later.
I suspect that he has tunnel vision, which might also explain
his accuracy at bowling. His two abilities with
picture-forming are rolling the plasticine clay, and mixing the
colours of clay to get a ‘marbled effect’. He is comfortable
with this, and enjoys it. (The results of our efforts will
soon be seen on my website) : www.exploringtheword.com.au.
One example of the coloured clay picture-forming technique
can be seen at this time. Some of this year’s paintings will
also be visible.
Sam is
working on counting forwards and backwards to ten, and he is
learning the French song ‘Allouette’. When possible, I
attempt to bring such new elements into his work, avoiding the
tendency to become ‘fixed’ in a particular pattern of
activity.
Prognosis
I would
recommend that Sam continue with the present therapy in the coming
year. I would like to acquire a small Xylophone for him as
well. He may be able to sing vowels and play at the same time,
during a pause in the aforesaid process.
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