What Others are Saying about SentenceShaper

Contents of this page

This page will be updated in the near future to describe activities involving SentenceShaper 2 at additional aphasia centers.

• Innovative uses of SentenceShaper at the Adler Aphasia Center

• Read about (and hear) a speech created with SentenceShaper and played to a thousand people

Innovative uses of SentenceShaper at the Adler Aphasia Center:

The Adler Aphasia Center in Maywood, NJ, discussed how they use our software in aphasia therapy in their September 2006 newsletter. (They write it Sentence Shaper, we write it as one word SentenceShaper, but it's the same thing!)

(Reprinted with permission.)

Their subsequent newsletters have described some exciting uses of the program...

Their 2006 Annual Report described the use of SentenceShaper...for political campaigning! This is discussed in an article entitled "Back to the Council," from which we quote below:

Even though a stroke robbed Haworth Councilman and attorney Ken Albrecht of his ability to speak, it didn’t take away the environmental law specialist’s intelligence, reasoning skills, or quest to return to his former office. After becoming a member of the Adler Aphasia Center in 2005, Ken quickly became involved in all discussion groups and joined the Member Advisory Council and Member Advocacy Group. By using our SentenceShaper^TM computer software, he formulated and practiced speeches and he ran for his old seat on the Haworth Town Council. In November 2006, he was re elected. SentenceShaper helped him to send the good news to his son in college in Connecticut through his MP3 player. During Ken’s swearing-in ceremony, he recited his Oath of Office thanks to SentenceShaper and his own drive to rebuild his life and re-emerge into society as a productive person once again.

Click here for the full story in the newsletter (the section quoted above is on page 5). For an update on the councilman, see our page about Ken Albrecht using SentenceShaper.  This and other uses of SentenceShaper were also described in "Restoring Lost Speech after a Stroke", an article about the aphasia center that appeared in the Wall Street Journal.

A 2008 Adler Aphasia Center newsletter tells about another member who

wanted to tell his sister how much she means to him and sing Happy Birthday to her in the DVD. He used Sentence Shaper software in our lab to help him create the message and song then saved his transmitted voice recording onto the DVD.

(Click here and go to page 3 for the full text.)

Shortly after Adler Aphasia Center purchased SentenceShaper, we asked Chrysa Golashesky, the computer coach, how things were going. We received the following answer, which is used with permission and shortened a little.

8-29-2006

There are seven gentlemen using the software. They represent about 10% of the members who come through the computer lab each week. They are the initial group selected because they all produce some language, usually speaking in phrases. The vast majority of them are very PC literate so they can work the software independently. Lastly, they are very open to trying new software.

I believe that 4 of the men are considering purchasing the software for their home use in the not too distant future. They still want someone to sit next to them to remind them about uses of the software and/or to customize words. They require a knowledgeable user at home before they can make the software investment.

You asked about the applications that members have expressed. Two of them come in the lab specifically to use Sentence Shaper sometimes for hours at a time. One is trying to compose some sentences that he can use when he is asked for some business advice requested by friends and family. He works on them at the center; then his computer partner helps him to send them as MP-3 files to his e-mail at home, so he can practice them there.

Another gentleman just sent his son off to college. When the young man does well on a test, or could use a few words of encouragement, he would like to record sentences and forward them as MP-3 files to his son so he can hear his dad's support.

...I have to admit that it amazes me when I look up and hear some of these fellows reveling in their complete sentence expressions. They are very proud of themselves, as they should be.

Then about two months later, on October 23, she added this update:

Since I last wrote, one of our members has returned to the workforce as a graphic artist on a part-time basis.  He is in the process of building a custom set of vocabulary terms in the Sentence Shaper Word Finder Editor.  He has a version of photo processing software that is voice activated, so he wants to construct verbal commands.

Another gentleman is running for councilman in his town.  He is also building his Word Finder Editor with campaign terms to help him develop portions of his speeches, and prepare answers to questions that he anticipates receiving.

As we saw above, the Councilman won his election, with the help of SentenceShaper. And here's another page on our website showing a successful use of SentenceShaper, as Adler member Bob Durham reports on a trip he took.

The use of SentenceShaper at Adler Aphasia Center is also discussed in an article written by Chrysa Golashesky, "Technology Applications at the Adler Aphasia Center".

A speech to a thousand people results from working with SentenceShaper

One of the first aphasia survivors to use SentenceShaper was Mrs. Elaine Wolpe. The devastating impact of her aphasia is movingly described in her son David J. Wolpe's book, In Speech and in Silence: The Jewish Quest for God (1992, Henry Holt & Co). In the spring of 1999, when her husband, Rabbi Gerald Wolpe, retired from Har Zion, his congregation of thirty years, Mrs. Wolpe used SentenceShaper to create two speeches of farewell.

If your computer has a sound card and can play mp3 files, you can click the button below to hear the last minute or so of one of her speeches. (It will play in a new browser window, so after it's over, just close it and this page will still be here.)

It is well worth listening to (as well as reading) because of her deeply expressive intonation. We believe that it is a very important feature of SentenceShaper that it allows users to communicate in their own voices.

Here are the closing lines of Mrs. Wolpe's speech:

Har Zion, thirty years of work and good memories…Sisterhood and Men's Club and services. Wonderful, wonderful children. Now that the end comes, wonderful memories. Now my reign is through and next year, young people, and good people. My husband -- unbelievable. Wonderful man; kind man, kind heart. New rabbi, but never, never try and imitate Rabbi. I love Rabbi and I love family. A lucky girl, a lucky family. Now we're through, but wherever we go, I'm here, and Rabbi's here. Goodbye, goodbye.

A few months after these speeches, Rabbi Wolpe wrote a moving letter of gratitude to Unisys Corporation, where Dr. Linebarger was employed. Parts of this letter are quoted below. (All quotations and the sound file of Mrs. Wolpe's speech are reproduced here with the permission of the Wolpe family.) Mrs. Wolpe's two speeches are also mentioned in a book about Rabbi Wolpe's retirement: The New Rabbi by Stephen Fried (2002, Bantam Books: pp 150, 262).

Rabbi Wolpe's letter (1/4/00)

Fourteen years ago my wife collapsed in our home from the rupture of two brain aneurysms. This began a scenario of brutal adaptation to the damage inflicted by the trauma. She went from a college administrator and public speaker to an aphasic who was, fortunately, cognitively sound, but unable to express her thoughts. For two years she could utter only a nonsense syllable and then after intensive speech therapy some pattern of conversation emerged. It has been a struggle for her and her family; only someone with her indomitable spirit could have survived.

Then, through her work at MossRehab, Elaine was introduced to Marcia Linebarger who began to work with her [using SentenceShaper]…[This work] produced two of the most poignant moments of my life. I retired as rabbi of Har Zion Temple in PennValley this past spring. Elaine and I had spent thirty years in the congregation and it had been a time of absolute joy. It was an emotional parting and I spent a great deal of time preparing my remarks. I did not know that Elaine was doing the same thing.

Marcia and Elaine worked at the computer with what Marcia explained was a "processing prosthesis." It allowed Elaine to place words in a memory pattern and laboriously to produce a speech of farewell to our friends. The first was at the Sisterhood luncheon in her honor and the second was at the farewell banquet. The sight of close to 1000 people weeping, my sons, daughters in law and I among them, was a tribute to their feelings about her and their admiration for her courage.