Final Draft and Review

Kourtney Kramer

Debra Reece

English 1050

Final Draft

Speech Therapy for Young Offenders

What if someone told you, that because of the way your child spoke, made him or her a factor of becoming a young offender with multiple charges?  The fact that they may have had a small stutter or some kind of speech impediment makes them at risk for making bad decisions in the prime teens of their life.  The article that I chose for my analysis paper talks about the testing they have done to determine if young offenders were those with past speech issues.  They stated that around 50% of children and adolescents receiving services for a range of adjustment disorders (for example, behavior disturbances, anxiety disorders) actually display language impairments when specifically tested.

I do not think that the author did everything they could do to capture its readers. The first few pages are successful on teaching you about the situation to which young children with speech impediments are determined to grow up like.  The author is more about logos and the facts of the situation.  Logos is very much the spot where the tests are passed back and forth to only show the facts.  This is ineffective because there is nothing to tie the reader in.  It is hard to read a paper if the author does not know how successfully pull in their readers and to keep them interested.

The article is although, effective in showing its readers that there is hope for those young offenders who are being held and still are continuing to suffer from speech or language disabilities.  It reminds us that the hat unmet developmental difficulties can be addressed in order to maximize their opportunities for gainful participation in society and to avert the adoption of an ongoing adult ‘lifestyle’ associated with persistent crime.

As far as statistics go, the article was very good at showing you many examples but how am I supposed to understand if I don’t know the content in the article?  When I look at this article I think of someone printing off a bunch of numbers that have no meaning to them.  My biggest question was whether or not the author was trying to help solve the problem or to simply show to more people who aren’t aware that there is this lurking problem of children with speech impediments and not living up to their full potential in life.

It is also effective in showing you that the way kids are treated at a young age does have a very large impact on the choices they make through out their lives.  The more confident students go on to be successful and the less confidant students get held back at a disadvantage.  This in turn reduces the likelihood of school engagement, thus lessening the access that high- risk young people have to the protective effects of academic achievement. Beitchman et al. (1999) suggest that communication difficulties tend to be misinterpreted as non-compliance and conduct problems in the classroom environment.

            This article is trying to show that speech and language therapy intervention can be effectively given to youth by teams who can test each individual.  They preform multiple tests to rate where each individual is at on an educational level. They aim towards identifying any language and communication difficulties in the young people, to coordinate with their personal needs, and to evaluate any change in language or communication post-intervention.

            A decision was made to target the young people on the ISSP.  The ISSP is the most rigorous non-custodial intervention available for young offenders.  It targets the most active repeat young offenders and those who commit the most serious crimes.  They ISSP program aims to reduce the frequency and seriousness of offending in the target groups they are testing and to tackle the underlying needs of offenders which give rise to offending, with particular emphasis on education and training. To meet the criteria for ISSP, the young people will either be prolific offenders who have committed at least ten crimes over the past year and who have already received other community sentences through the English courts, or they will have committed a crime that, if committed by an adult, would have carried a custodial sentence

of 10 years or more.

Teens who usually engage in criminal activity, in the author’s point of view, are linked to having speech disabilities as well as learning difficulties.  They say that the tie between these two is they are functioning two years below their peer group putting them in a disadvantage of those around them.  The idea of them being left behind creates the opportunity for anger and frustration to build up and put them in the position to be a young offender. Studies of offenders’ speaking and listening skills have used populations of young people in different countries over various age ranges. This means that studies are not directly compatible, but a consensus figure of 50–60% of young people who are involved in offending having speech, language and communication needs is emerging. 

             In my opinion, if we work hard to help improve children’s speech disabilities while they are still young, rather than waiting until it weighs in on their lives and starts having an effect on their social life, we can help better them.  A lot of the solutions to these problems are simple, yet we are not giving them all the effort we can give.  If each person realized the impact they had on a child’s social behaviors then we could all do our part in helping them have a fighting chance.  The article suggests the strengthening of the educational support and I personally think that this is the best solution.  Over all the impact that this article has is pretty important, the author is very creditable and trusting because of the educational level you can detect through the words and test they preform.

Even though my grades may not show it, I have actually learned  a lot this semester.  I have also learned a lot on what not to do but I think thats important to learn your faults along with your strengths because if you didnt know where you were weak you wouldnt ever know how to improve.  I think thats the main thing I learned this semester.  Yeah I know its supposed to be off the curriculum but I mainly just learned things about myself.  I learned that I only know how to write an arguement paper.  I dont know how to do anything else and a lot of times I had to go back and re-write my papers because I was writing them the wrong way and had no clue because thats all Ive ever writen before.  I learned that I am not very good with quoting sources. I dont think I could count on two hands how many times I have been taught to quote sources and authors and still to this day Im 100% sure I do it wrong.  I learned that if Im not writing about something that I am passionate about then I probably will not give that paper all of my effort because I need to understand what Im talking about in order to put together a great paper.  My main goal is, when I have to retake this class and by the looks of my grade Im going to have to, to prove to myself that I can do better.  I can take what I think is pretty good and improve that even more so that I can become the great writer I have always wanted to be.  My goal is to improve on my weakness' and show myself that I can work harder, and that I can do better. 

Rough Draft- Final Paper

Kourtney Kramer

Debra Reece

English 1050

November 17^th, 2014

A Better Future for Children with Speech Impediments

            Every parents number one worry, is 100% the safety and well being of their children.  You pace and panic while they are at school and at night when they aren’t home yet you wonder and doubt everything you taught them.  But what if someone told you, that because of the way your child spoke, made him or her a factor of becoming a young offender with multiple charges?  The fact that they may have had a small stutter or some kind of speech impediment makes them at risk for making bad decisions in the teenage years of their life.

            My purpose is to remove the stereotype that kids who are raised with speech impediments are destined to become young offenders. Authors Karen Bryan, and Juliette Gregory write out the test results of individuals that had committed a felony and have had a history of speech or language disabilities.  In this article, it shows how a team set up by the testing program can give speech and language therapy intervention to test each individual to determine a educational rank for them. “Teens who usually engage in criminal activity, in the authors’ point of view, are linked to having speech disabilities as well as learning difficulties.  Studies of offenders’ speaking and listening skills have used populations of young people in different countries over various age ranges. This means that studies are not directly compatible, but a consensus figure of 50–60% of young people who are involved in offending having speech, language and communication needs is emerging.” Says Bryan. They say that the tie between these two is they are functioning two years below their peer group putting them in a disadvantage of those around them.  The idea of them being left behind creates the opportunity for anger and frustration to build up and put them in the position to be a young offender.  

            The article also mentions the importance of peers and family in the lives of those who are struggling with speech and language disabilities.  Palikara (2009) suggests that “good family relationships may also be positive in helping children with speech and language therapy to cope with secondary education, although many young people who become involved in criminal activity have little to no family support.”  One of the most common reasons for children being raised with speech disabilities is because of emotional trauma or serious events that happen in a child’s life.  Things that happen to the parents or the family have effect on the children even if we don’t know it.  Some of the most important factors that help children progress include parent carry over, participation and motivation.  The article tells you about the importance of educating your child, and doing all that you can at a young age to help improve the impediment before it starts to play a role on the child’s life. The more interest, devotion and excitement you show, the better your child’s attitude will be towards therapy.  If they are not happy when working with teachers or therapist then they are less likely to work as hard or willingly.

            The thing that frustrates me the most is the statement that, “boys with early language development problems were significantly at risk of teenage antisocial behaviors.” stated by Smart (2003).  The assumption they are making is huge and climactic for those who are not as social as the people surrounding them.  There is always the choice of each individual to live the life that they chose, whether to go out of their comfort zone and working to improve any disabilities they may have or rather, sitting back and letting your disability become a hurdle you chose not to jump over.  It all depends on the way that the teen or child handles the challenges they are given to decide how their future will play out.  There are people in the world that grew up with speech impediments and because of their dreams and wishes they became very successful in life.  Bruce Willis, a famous actor off of Die Hard and The Whole Nine Yards, had stuttering problems throughout his youth and was always scared it would affect his acting career. Fortunately he successfully grew out of it not too much from a therapist but from being an actor, it actually removed his speech disorder. This just goes to show that given the right amount of confidence and things will work out for your kids.  Another example that I tend to find very interesting is Rowan Atkinson, who is more commonly known as Mr. Bean.  Atkinson admits to having struggled with speech impediments as a child.  He struggled the most with the letter B, but because of the way he chose to handle his life and the things that may have held him back, he used to his benefit.  He taught himself to over pronounce the word and later, used that as a comedy act for his career.  It was one of the key reasons he became the comedian he is today, aside from his rubber like facial expressions that make up most of his work.

            I want to argue that you can prevent kids with speech impediments from becoming young offenders in tomorrow’s society.  Rather than working to fix their impairment down the road when negative things have already came into play in their lives.  Why try and fix the problem after it’s already taken a toll on the rising generations when we can work harder on preventing and fixing it before hand.  I say this because the Bryan and Gregory tend to dwell on fixing the problem when it’s a little too late.  I know that there are ways to work with the youth to improve their disadvantages and encourage others to include those that may not feel as comfortable in a social environment because of their disabilities. 

The simple solution to this is improving the educational support for children with specific language impairments.  Raising the one on one time with students who seem to need the specialized attention to help in advancing their schooling and the experience they have.  It’s important to create a safe environment for student so that their confidence can be built up and help prepare them for becoming more social for later on in life.  When in a safe environment the student will be able to open up and feel more comfortable with speaking with those around them.  A way to better their disability is giving them opportunities to talk, publicly and one on one.  Not necessarily in front of large crowds but small groups who will encourage them and be patient with the struggles they may have as they try to express themselves.  I found an article called Adult Speech Therapy and they gave out three helpful tips for those who are suffering from impediments to work on as they communicate with others around them.  I believe that if we implement this into our education system that we can reduce the number of kids who suffer from this and help them to have a better and brighter future.

The first tip that it gives you is, ‘Look at the person you are talking to’, which may seem kind of predictable but eye contact is a huge key to an understood conversation.  If you are focused on the conversation and giving the words and the person you are talking to, your full attention than you can more easily communicate your thoughts.

‘Use gesture and facial expression to enhance your message.’ Is one of the next tips that it suggests.  If pronouncing your words doesn’t come easily and your face shows that, people are going to have a harder time understanding what you are trying to communicate.  If you show your facial expressions the kind of emotion you are trying to portray than the message is more easily understood and better communicated to those around you.

And the last one I found most helpful, ‘Use your lungs, and breathe from your diaphragm when talking to give your voice more power.’ If you are quiet when speaking or looking away from those around you because you are nervous to speak up in fear that people will hear your impediment, speak up! The more confidence you have in your voice the more confident you will sound.  Even the most confident people still get nervous when speaking to others but the key is to use power and to prove yourself wrong about a speech impediment holding you back.

I strongly believe that if we take these hints and others as well and implement them into the way kids are taught and raised that we can banish the stereotype of kids being two levels behind those without impediments.

If teachers would take the time to learn about their student’s individual speech impairment they would find ways to help improve that student.  The more they get to know the student the more they learn their strengths and weakness’ and their likes and dislikes.  The teacher can then put the student in situations where they know they will succeed, giving them a confidence boost and creating chances for them to open up and be more social.  It also helps to create a better relationship for that child to have as an influence as they learn.  The more positive influences there are for the child decreases the amount of negativity they see and decreases the opportunity for them to develop speech impediments.

In my opinion, if we work hard to help improve children’s speech disabilities while they are still young, rather than waiting until it weighs in on their lives and starts having an effect on their social life, we can help better them.  A lot of the solutions to these problems are simple, yet we are not giving them all the effort we can give.  If each person realized the impact they had on a child’s social behaviors then we could all do our part in helping them have a fighting chance. Taking the time to show the children that might be suffering, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel and what they may be struggling with can be fix or repaired; That this speech impediment isn’t something that has to shape their future.

Children really do pick up everything around them and some how absorb it.  I have a nephew who almost always can see through the walls that my family or I put up to guard our emotions.  He can pick up the smallest hint of sadness in my eyes and it immediately has an effect on his mood and his actions.  The smallest bit of frustration his dad feels after being let go at his job caused my nephew to be stressed in school and to pick on the other kids because being angry is what he saw at home.  The way adults react around children really does have a huge impact on their lives and their behaviors.  The more serious the trauma, the more serious role it plays in their life.

The fact that the stereotype of children with speech or language disabilities shapes them for becoming young offenders even exists, frustrates me in many ways.  I’ve seen many children, nephews and neighbors who have had problems with the way they speak. No matter if it’s that they cant pronounce the letter R, or that they stutter when trying to ask for help, and they have become smart, outgoing kids. The only way we can help them as they develop into their teens is to reinsure them that things get better; that if kids are teasing them that there are easier ways to solve it than anger.  You can’t stop teens from teasing or making fun because when they are in that stage of vulnerability they chose to pick on others.  But the support system they could have at home and from their peers can prove to them that there is improvement and you can repair the speech impediments the child is faced with.

Giving them a brighter future and more chances to succeed rather than fall into the stereotype of becoming a young offender could be the best thing that we ever do in our life.  They are the next generation that will run our business’ and be the next church leaders and school teachers, but that can only be made possible if we decrease the amount of children who let speech impediments and language disabilities lead them down a path of destruction.