Cade’s story is a powerful example of how the Palatometer can fix an /r/ problem in a matter of weeks. Incredible!Cade had been in speech therapy since first grade, and after eight years of therapy he still wasn't making much progress. All of that changed with the help of the Palatometer.  We knew that this was something we had to share, so we contracted CML Productions to tell Cade's story.  They flew out to Louisiana and over the course of two days they interviewed Cade, his mom Shannon, and Dot, his speech therapist. It's amazing to think that all this started from a simple contest at a trade show.

 

We met Dot at the ASHA 2010 conference where CompleteSpeech had a contest offering a 90-day free trial for the Palatometer. To win the contest, participants had to write a description of why they felt they should get a 90-day free trial. As you can imagine there were hundreds of responses. Here is one we received from Dot:

 

"I need this for 'Cade.' The 11-year-old has it all- he's smart, he's athletic, he's funny... and he has /r/ problems. Unfortunately, the /r/ problems are starting to lower his self-esteem. His friends are starting to make fun of him. Cade avoids telling stories if he has to say too many /r/ words. Next year, Cade will be in 7th grade. Although he loves his therapist, Cade asked me if I could not follow him to middle school.

 

From my bag of tricks I have used mirrors, tactile strategies, diagrams, modeling and so forth. Yet, I feel Cade needs something more visual. That need is your Palatometer. I believe the visual feedback using EPG will effectively correct his haunting /r/ problem.

 

Dr. Schmidt has the scientific data to show EPG works. I have Cade. Give us your device and together we can show Southwest Louisiana (no- the entire state) the positive effects of EPG!"

 

It was an easy decision. Dot Cobb won the 90-day free trial! She was thrilled, Cade's mom was ecstatic, and Cade was eager to get started. His progress that he made was nothing short of miraculous. See for yourself in his video.