SpeechMatch using Audacity

I have long been interested in capitalizing on psycholinguistic research from years ago (e.g., Joan Welkowitz, Stanley Feldstein and others) which showed that individuals who were more socially effective were able to match the patterns of sounds and silences of their conversational partners.  They measured certain parameters of speech, including how long people talk (called vocalizations) or how long they paused (pauses and switching pauses), or how loud they spoke (vocal intensity) and showed that people who were best able to "tune in" and match these elements of speech of others (called vocal congruence or "matching") were rated has exhibiting positive characteristics of interpersonal functioning, including the old standbys of empathy, warmth, and genuiness.

More recently I have been successful in developing a kind of "biofeedback" program using a free downloadable audio editing program called Audacity.  I have been using this program, which I typically use for other purposes such as recording my podcasts, to provide VISUAL feedback of speech patterns to individuals with autism or Asperger's Syndrome.  The procedure is simple:

After turning on the recording function of audacity, I begin to speek (e.g, "I am going to walk the dog").  I then ask the person with autism/AS or NVLD to look at my pattern of speech and repeat my statement, making their pattern look just like mine.  In this way, I am teaching the person with autism/AS/NVLD to "talk like me."   To observe a trial with a 22 year old college student with HFA, observe the brief screencast below:

Download speechmatch.wmv

This screencast is in Windows Media and I will post this one and others in other formats (e.g., Quicktime) as soon as I get the chance to do so.

I have presented SpeechMatch at two recent meetings, including one on non-verbal learning disabilities and one on social anxiety and selective mutism.   The response has been very positive and I believe it will be of great interest to speech and language therapists and others working with individuals with autism spectrum problems.  I am embarking on a small study to examine, in greater detail, the effectiveness of this program and would appreciate your feedback.

Comments

[amy reichardt]

aloha sir-i am in kilauea if i can help you-i'm sitting here with my 16 year old 'mystery savant'autistic spectrum gluten free/casien free blossoming son,who also has mixed cp,and we found you are here-my cell is 808 3862186
julian has his own show on www.kkcr.org
90.9 or 91.9 his father is the operations manager of kkcr, if we can help you please let us know-we've been here 17 years and are currently the hawaii disability rights commission's new project here,as my son has been abused and neglected by the public kapaa school system-i took him out in september,they don't know how to test him becuase they don't know what they are seeing.
they said he had an IQ of 46 and he is a genius who has all the symptoms/quirks of aspergers i can find myself-
but hey my neighborhood had a tidal wave go through it tuesday,i live at the 22.3 mile marker.julian was in princeville with his father on victoria loop.
great page,call me
amy

[Erika]

This SpeechMatch is brilliant! Kudos! You designed it? Please email me. I'd like to add some ideas to this SpeechMatch.

[Autistic Spectrum Person]

I am on the autistic spectrum.
I like my speech patterns very much.
You want to teach autistics to speak like you do?
I want to teach neurotypicals to speak like I do!!!

[autism]

Thanks for the info. Audacity is a wonderful program and being a parent of a child on the spectrum, it's nice to know it can be used in such creative ways! Good stuff.

[Cary Terra]

You really are something. I have not encountered any mental health professional or researcher who communicates - both explicitly and implicitly - such a normalizing sense of optimism. As the wife of a man with Asperger's, I am very aware of the struggles he faces in forming and maintaining relationships - so your work really touches me. I will pass on your site to him. Thank you - this is a wonderful site.