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Today I’m sharing a collection of free background noises to use in speech therapy. We work with people returning to restaurants, malls, jobs, and families, so let’s bring a little of this into the therapy space.  Try adding some distracting background noise during the session to make the environment more like real life. I find background noise useful/functional for challenging many skills or strategies!

Background Noise-3Here are a variety of noises to use, depending on the patient-centered goals:

 

Restaurant Noises

Airport Noises

Factory / Machine Noises

Construction Sounds

People Talking in a Bar

Kids in a Park

Driving in the Rain

 

Depending on patient goals, you could note and document the following factors in therapy:

Language:

  • Do skills generalize across multiple “settings” in therapy?
  • Do word-finding abilities decrease with distraction?
  • Are different expression or comprehension strategies required with busier environments?

Cognition:

  • Is selective attention intact to complete task in noisy environment?
  • Is patient able to self-cue for strategies, such as asking for volume to be turned down?
  • Does memory change in less predictable or busier environment?
  • What length of time could the patient tolerate the background noise before having increasing headache?

Speech:

  • Does intelligibility change in noisier environment?
  • Does the patient independently alter patterns or strategy use to compensate for a different environment?

 

Do you have favorite noises or distractions you use to make therapy more like real life?

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