This advice-column-style blog for SLPs was authored by Pam Marshalla from 2006 to 2015, the archives of which can be explored here. Use the extensive keywords list found in the right-hand column (on mobile: at the bottom of the page) to browse specific topics, or use the search feature to locate specific words or phrases throughout the entire blog.
SmartPalate
By Pam Marshalla
Q: Have you tried the SmartPalate? I am considering trying it with a few clients who have stubborn sound errors. I would like some input from people who used it first.
The SmartPalate is a clinical electropalatometry tool and I have not used it. I have read all about it, however, and I am sure it will be very useful for some clients, but there are ways to do this without the expense.
The SmartPalate provide visual feedback about place of articulation, but we can use tactile with no expense. Simply stroking the palate where you want touch to occur.
Also, eventually the client will have to do it with tongue-to-palate anyway, so the SmartPalate actually stands in the way and makes an additional step. It is very cool, however, and will impress the heck out of parents.
They have a lot of information on the SmartPalate website and they can link you to therapists who use it.
I have used it with several private clients as well as the clients I used it with in graduate school and it is amazing. I would say try traditional therapy for a hard s or r no longer than a month before seriously considering using this tool. I love Pam Marshalla’s work and her experience is unmatched, but when it comes to this piece of technology I have to say I would never say it is an additional step. It speeds up progress like nothing else that I tried with the most difficult cases including a woman in her 30’s with CP who after a life of therapy was NEVER able to figure out how to make a correct R sound until she should get visual feedback. She had the sound mastered in isolation in just a few sessions of experimenting with her articulators and watching the screen. The tactile cues are not enough as the client is still left in the dark to figure out the motor plan to place the correct articulators in the right place to make a good sound.