VAST Songs: Autism & Apraxia

Singing has been used as an accepted treatment technique in speech therapy for many years. It’s also well known that music stimulates several different areas of the brain. Multiple research studies have shown that stimulating different areas of the brain results in improved speech production. Singing in unison with a visual model has also been demonstrated to have a positive effect on speech production when using familiar songs.

VAST-Songs supplements the accepted use of singing in speech therapy by providing extra cueing: simultaneously hearing the song while following the oral movements. The application was designed to accommodate and then challenge individuals with speech production or fluency problems.

-Provides maximum auditory cuing through 4 layered audio tracks:
- Vocal melody, piano melody, rhythmic piano accompaniment, and a metronome.
-Audio support can be gradually decreased, promoting user independence
-Adjustable tempo of the songs – start at a pace that suits the user’s capabilities and increase over time
-Optional display of written lyrics, providing another form of simultaneous cueing
-User-adjusted settings are saved for each song
-A Mirror function (for devices with front-facing camera)
-Written and video-based tutorials

This app represents a collaborative effort between the music and speech therapy professions:
-Vocals were performed by Neurologic Music Therapist, Jenni Rook, MT-BC, LPC – Clinical Director for Music Institute of Chicago’s Institute for Therapy through the Arts.
-Speech-Language Pathologist, Darlene S. Williamson, MA, CCC-SLP is an Apraxia expert with 30+yrs of professional experience and 3+yrs of experience using and developing the VAST program in a clinical environment

If you’re willing to offer any feedback or have any other input surrounding VAST-Songs, please contact us at [email protected].