#26 Professor Game-Boy with Dr. Erik X Raj
“We have voices, so we need to keep on talking.”
BIO
Dr. Erik X. Raj holds a Certificate of Clinical Competence from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and is a practicing speech-language pathologist who works with school-age children and adolescents with various communication difficulties. He is currently an assistant professor and clinical supervisor in the Department of Speech-Language Pathology at Monmouth University in West Long Branch, New Jersey, and is also a facilitator at Camp Shout Out, a Michigan-based sleep away summer camp for young people who stutter.
Dr. Raj regularly presents interactive workshops demonstrating how speech-language pathologists can use mobile and Internet-based technologies to educate and motivate school-age children and adolescents. In addition to developing over 25 mobile apps for children with communication difficulties, he is the creator of Your Face Learning, an educational app for the iPhone and iPad that was named Creative Child Magazine’s 2019 Children’s App of the Year. Dr. Raj has obtained his Bachelor of Science degree in Speech Pathology and Audiology from Stockton University in New Jersey, and a Master of Science degree in Speech-Language Pathology from Misericordia University in Pennsylvania. He earned his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Communication Sciences and Disorders at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. You can also watch the interview on YouTube.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
0:00 - 20:20 Intro
20:20 - 40:42 How did you weave together your creative side?
40:42 - 43:28 There are three main components to a video game?
43:28 - 1:01:38 What was your favorite video game as a kid?
RESOURCE LIST
Oh the Places You’ll Go, by Dr. Seuss
Transcending Stuttering Academy and Self-Guided Online Video Course
MORE QUOTES
“Our voices are truly gifts and to not use your voice is a real disservice to those around you. So let's give everyone the best gift possible and let's just keep on using our voices.” - Dr. Erik X Raj
“Come into all interactions with open arms, because sometimes whether it's conscious or subconscious, we have closed arms and closed arms are really shielding us from the possibility of discovering something new, or maybe something different.” - Dr. Erik X Raj
TRANSCRIPTION:
Uri Schneider: Very boom. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. it's a special morning. It's an exciting morning. It's a brisk morning. Some of us need to button up and get cozy with our sweaters is sweater, weather. And, we are so excited. So my name's worry Snyder from Schneider speech, all about helping people create their own success story through breakthroughs in their communication abilities.
And I am joined this morning by a very dear friends. I just want to kick off today differently than I usually do. With a little bit of a preview of what's coming up and also the ways you can engage. So if you have a question that you want us to answer, I spoke to more than a few people who had a lot of questions for Eric.
so drop your comments. I will try to follow those and we will try to bring those up. We're going to talk about early influences and how Eric got into this career. we're gonna talk about his. Rock and roll is research and the apps and the newest release, which he just put out, which is a video game for kids to advance in their speech, language skills.
and we'll talk about tech, everything in between, and also just showing up real spirited and keeping your spirit high. And, I love hearing myself in stereo, It's awesome. Eric, welcome to this conversation and just to do the intro to, you can close your ears or whatever, but it's pretty long and impressive intro, but essentially you're in the presence of someone who is regarded as one of the most positive creative, engaging, dedicated.
Talented professors in the space of speech, language pathology. Eric is a practicing assistant professor and a clinical supervisor at Monmouth university, which is in long branch, New Jersey. He's also a facilitator, a beloved facilitator touching the lives. Of campers and staff at camp, shout out big shout out to camp shutout and the whole team.
and he regularly travels the world and now he travels all over zoom. I wish we could get, miles from the airlines for the travel we do on zoom. But, this guy is very sought after at state conferences and more, and he's the winner of the creative child magazines, 2019 children's app of the year.
Please give it up. My good friends, technophile creative musician, clinician par exsalonce professor dr. Eric X, Raj, the man with the coolest middle initial.
Erik x Raj: My man. It is so great to be here. It's just terrific to be able to connect with you, to connect with the world because that's what the internet allows us to do.
Have great conversations with so many wonderful people. You're one of those wonderful people and together we're here and we're gonna learn from one another.
Uri Schneider: incredible. So we got lots of wonderful touch points we can go to. but I just want to share a quick story to kick off, which was comical.
Cause here I got the most technologically advanced guy, the guy creates apps. The guy shows up 45 minutes early for this zoom call. I love it. And we finally connect. And we get on and both of us, and by the way, Eric is a master on Instagram. I highly encourage you to follow him. It's easy. His handle is the same everywhere.
Eric ex Raj. And, what's amazing is we get on and he couldn't hear me. So I'm talking louder. He still couldn't hear me. And he says, no, man, I think it's you. And I'm like, you sure about that? I think. I don't think it's me. I see the little signal on the bottom left tells me it's not me. It's no, I think it's you.
Cause I got, see, I got this really cool microphone. And then I got the ear. I said, dad, I don't know if he's not. No it's you. And then of course we figured out that the computer was pulling sound and also speaker through his microphone, but it reminds me of a story. It's a great story. It's all about speech therapy.
It's all about stuttering. It's all about life and it's about acceptance and knowing what you can move. So it's the story of the lighthouse story. Here we go ahead.
Erik x Raj: Shoot it my way.
Uri Schneider: it's an incredible lesson. I included it in our transcending stuttering Academy series and it goes like this there's a USS worship, nuclear powered worship, and they're sailing them through the ocean and the guy, who's the guy who looks out to see where they're going.
He sees that they're on a collision course with another something in the ocean. So he goes down to the captain, the ship and he says, captain, we're on a collision course with non unidentified objects. The captain says, will you tell them they need to change their course, 15 degrees, get it on the radio.
You says, this is the USS Johnson. You need to change your course, 15 degrees. And the message comes back. Now you change your course, 15 degrees. So it goes back to the captain. He says, captain, they told us to change. Our course. Captain says, you tell them we are a nuclear powered ship. Part of the U S fleet.
The U S has Johnson and they need to change their course. And if they don't. Message comes back. No, you change your course. 15 degrees get hot. Goes back to the captain. Captain says you tell them that I'm sitting on the launch pad controls. And if they do not change their course in 15, 15 degrees, right now we will launch, we will fire and obliterate them a message comes back.
No, you change your course. 15 degrees. We are a lighthouse.
Erik x Raj: Wow.
Uri Schneider: How often are we done trying to influence things? Because we think they're moveable. We think the kid could do better. We think our spouse could do better. We think teachers should do better. All kinds of technology should do better. And sometimes we're pushing against something.
That's not an open variable. And the flip side is true. Sometimes we think of things as closed variables. I couldn't possibly change my diet. I couldn't possibly learn that new skill. I couldn't possibly spend 10 minutes with my kid every day. I couldn't possibly use video games in speech therapy. We think sometimes, and assume that things that are actually open variables are immovable.
And other times we think that things that are movable, they're actually not moveable. And it gets us into a lot of trouble. So in your case, we had that funny thing where you were convinced it was my sound system, but until you tried fiddling with yours, we wouldn't have solved the problem. And so I think problem solving, which I get a lot from Kristen Comella shared friend and mentor of ours is about, looking for the open variables, looking for the possibilities, looking for the options.
And in every challenge is an opportunity to look at it with fresh eyes. Sometimes that happens with friends, with colleagues. That's the lighthouse story. You can use it.
Erik x Raj: I love that. And it really just reminds me all of us to just come into all interactions with open arms, because sometimes whether it's conscious or subconscious, we have closed arms and closed arms are really shielding us from the possibility of discovering something new, or maybe seems something different.
And. When we have closed arms, sometimes I think that increases maybe fear and anxiety. So when we think about tech, sometimes that's really in folks, a lot of, anxieties, But if we just. Take a moment to catch our breath and just open our arms. We can recognize that we can make something work. We can discover something new.
So that's exactly what you and I did in that first version of where I was saying early, come on, man. I was like, hold on. And I noticed the bite and I'm like, Oh, now I know for next time. And now I'm just that much more aware.
Uri Schneider: totally. So Eric, we got a bunch of, your crew is here, Adam Wars. Give it up for Adam where's upstate New York.
What's up Toria Victoria Wiggins from the UK Wixom or Wrexham, you know what I'm talking about? That viral video. He's the young boy. He made the viral video. You can check it out on our blog page.
He's already on his second poem. He was interviewed on the BBC last Thursday. He's crushing it and giving inspiration to other young people. And people who stutter and professionals around the world. And we got your bro. Mike, give it up for Mike Raj.
Erik x Raj: My man. I love you, Michael. Good to see you. Good to see you.
Uri Schneider: So your shares, your comments, your questions will help us spread. Eric's love and message to more and more people who need to hear it. So please do that throughout. How did you come to the field? How did you find stuttering as a particular interest and, yeah, whatever backstory we don't know that you'd like to share.
Cause I think we all arrive and interact in the moment and all of us come with a collection of stories and experiences that influence and shape how we come to that moment. and to this moment, I don't know where you've been and how you got to this moment. So if you could share what you'd like, that'd be
Erik x Raj: awesome.
Absolutely. So I guess if I really think hard about who I am, I would consider myself to be a artist, a creator, but I think most importantly, I consider myself a listener. And I think I have a. A great ability to hear the words and the songs and the sounds around me. And when I hear those words in the songs, in the sounds, I can catch the rhythm and that's the rhythm that makes me pumped to be alive.
And that's the rhythm that makes me pumped to connect with others because when we connect with others, in my opinion, we're really sharing our own stories. We're sharing our own songs and we're making new music. I think. Those instances of like my deep DNA allow me to be a speech language pathologist, because that's what we're doing.
We're connecting with people in an attempt to know who they are and to walk with them as they grow and evolve as communicators. yeah. As a speech language pathologist. I view music as a really nice foundation to things that I do in my work. And since we were talking about my brother, I want to give him a shout out because when you ask, Hey, has speech pathology really come into your life?
My brother was really one of the first people to tell me. I think you'd be a good speech language pathologist. So he's a little bit older than me. And he started off his career as a school psychologist. He has since evolved. And now he's a building principal and the elementary school. And, he was that first person to really start to say, I think this might be where you might want to consider going.
So it was a combination of that wonderful guidance from someone trusted, paired with a lot of miscellaneous life experiences. So bringing this back to music, In the work that I've done in my bands and in my musical performances, I've come across a lot of musicians that just so happened to be people who stutter.
And I've had great conversations with these individuals. when I'm a seventh grader, eighth grade or ninth grade or 10th grader, and I found that unique communication difference to be something that I want to know more about. So I remember in seventh grade it was eighth grade. I had to do an open-ended essay as an F as an eighth grader.
And I need to write like the opening, the body, the conclusion. And I remember going on this is like 1997. So Google wasn't even a thing yet because Google was born in 1998. If I remember correctly. So 1997, I'm using ask jeeves.com, which is one of the first search engines. And I'm typing in stuttering because I found that to be so interesting.
And I wanted to write an essay about stuttering and. I think back to those moments, and then I fast forward all of these years. And now here I am, I have the pleasure and the honor to work together with people who stutter as a speech, language pathologist. So all of these things, yeah.
When you look back in retrospect, they are the connection points that really got us to where we are. And now here I am, I'm doing my thing. I'm communicating with you and other wonderful friend and colleague, and we're connecting with the world.
Uri Schneider: listen to this guy. you start to notice he doesn't, he does talk like you're old school, typical stereotypical professor type, which is I find so refreshing. And to me, it's refreshing the young. And contemporary, but it's also refreshing the, bold and courageous to not really feel like you have to cow tail into the persona or the way that you think it's how it has to be done.
So someone added a comment asking, can you tell us more about your own communication style and what are you mindful of or hope you sound like? And I think that's a great question. I'm happy to answer it too, but I think for you, Eric, I really admire that both in your written style. Maybe it's because you're a lyricist.
but also in your spoken word, you have such a, eloquent way, an informal way, and a really hip way of saying things with great profundity and professionalism, even though it's really informed one. Can you just riff on that? Sure.
Erik x Raj: I think what I like to do as a clinician is I like to. Reminds all of my clients that they have a voice and their voice is able to share such great things about themselves, about their experiences, about the ways that they view the world.
And I think it's important for me to remind that to my clients, because sometimes my clients view their voice as something that can't do those things. If we take it back to a very simple level, sometimes my younger clients, they view their voice as something that is not fun. And as something that is anything but something that can change the world.
So with all of that in mind, I think it's important for us as humans to remind other humans that our voices carry weights. And when we make the choice to let our voice be heard, it is a true gift that we're giving to everyone around us, because presumably we have some great ideas that someone out there is looking for.
And. I think it's important for some of our clients to know that because we can perhaps help them to reorganize some of the stories that they have in their mind, because they might think, ah, you know what, I'm not good at this, whatever that means or that one time I messed up whatever that means.
Therefore, I don't want to take this chance right now, taking chances is a real part of life. And if we can do that in a. Systematic way where we take a small chance today, we take a small chance the next day, small chance. The day after when we look back, those are some big developments that we've done, right?
So to remind ourselves that our voice is and can be a source of fun and to never try to be someone else. Be who you are because the world needs you. I embody that. I think as a communicator, I realized that my name is Eric Raj. There's no other air garages out there. So let's just do me because that's all I know.
And if I try to do something else, I'm going to start to trip up and I'm going to lose sight, Because I'm not being who I am. So in a nutshell, that's how I view myself as a communicator. And I try to infuse that into the communication coaching, if you will, that I have the pleasure of doing with some of the great people I work
Uri Schneider: with in the spirit of a creative I'll share.
One of the most influential literary works in my life. Isn't Moby Dick, but it's Oh, the places you'll go by dr. Seuss and I believe he has a line in there. No, one's more Huish. Then you are right. So Eric, Raj, there's nobody that can do Eric Raj better than Eric Raj, knowing that could do you better than you.
So trying to do you as a version of someone else's is a fail from the start. I just wanted to respond to that and share my thought on that because I think it was a really profound question. And as Eric said, it's one that we see all the time. People come in and they'll say, Oh, I want to speak like you, or you'll ask someone who comes in and they'll say, I said, what's your goal?
And they'll say, I just want to speak normal. I want to talk normal. Like those normal people do. And I'm like, I get it. But I want to get more precise. I want to get more descriptive with that because there ain't nothing exciting about normal, right? It's like an arbitrary or social construct of what's called normal, but without getting philosophical, getting down to, like Eric said, there's a fascinating thing.
We all know you can unlock your phone with a pin code, right? It could be a word or a set of numbers or a series of touches or position that you drag your finger, how you can open your phone. Many of us with a fingerprint, you can also open your phone and control so much of technology with your voice.
Your voice has a unique signature everyone's voice is an identifier is uniquely different from every other person on the planet. And I think that sometimes the variation that we see in the way that people speak, whether it's their cadence, their rhythm, their choice of words, they can add color and writing the same way, the colors of the rainbow and the different tastes that we might bring to our palette.
Can do for us. I think, recognizing that our voice is special, none of us should try to, necessarily do plastic surgery to take out, parts of ourselves, parts of our voice that can really be signature. I know, for example, in the book, What was Catherine Preston's book called out with it?
I think it was called out with it. Get, Oh man. Someone comment, if you could remind me what was Catherine Preston's book, but she says in the beginning she went on a world tour looking for answers. How to deal with her stuttering, how to fix her stutter and through her world journey, through the UK, through the U S she wrote an amazing book, I think it's called out with it.
and she said that by the end, as a writer and as a speaker and in networking, her stutter became a signature. It became like something memorable that people remembered her. She stood out in that way. She wasn't just another human being in the crowd. Oh yeah. That amazing woman. Yes. She like has those little repetitions in her words.
She is incredible. and so it became a sort of like a brand in a way. So you could take anything and turn it into an asset. But to answer the question, I think we all need to learn enough flexibility so that we can at times dress it up and at times dress it down. My dad has this great idea, dr.
Phil Schneider and my father mentor guru legend. kick and get leading inspirate, inspiring it's speech all the time. He says, sometimes people want to know how to dress up formally for a wedding for an event for a holiday. But other times, kids and adults should be able to just let their hair down, be hanging out, lounging in their pajamas.
And if that means their speech, isn't their formal practiced skill driven speech. But if they're comfortable, natural, default self there's gotta be room for that the same way. None of us would want to be dressed up formally all the time. So I think for parents and for people who are working on things, I think that's an interesting one, but that was an awesome question.
anything you wanted to add to that, Eric? Great question.
Erik x Raj: Yeah, I really appreciate that thoughtful question.
Uri Schneider: Amazing. So what would you say Eric? Your journey of, goes with this. How did you weave together your creative side? Like your brother identified that this might be a good path for you? In what ways deliberately or in hindsight, have you integrated as opposed to shut down, certain parts, certain interests, certain passions.
How have you brought that together as a professor, as a professional?
Erik x Raj: Sure. I think. What I really appreciate is getting a chance to know all of my students and my clients, right? So from a practicing clinician point of view, I worked together with, these fourth graders, fifth graders, sixth graders, and I get to know really what makes them tick, who are they?
And when I say, who are they? Some of them are musicians, right? Some of them play musical instruments for their school band. Who are they? Some of them really enjoy skateboarding, right? And a funny thing is when you work together with so many wonderful children, you start to see little bits of yourself in them.
So anytime that a child shares with me that, Oh, you know what, I love music. I'm in the band. I play clarinet. I will say to myself, you know what? I've never played clarinet, but let me share with you. I have a guitar. Sometimes I play the guitar. back when we could do face-to-face therapy, it wasn't uncommon for me to bust out a guitar and ask the child to bring the clarinet to speech.
And we would try to infuse that and to answer your question, how does that kind of come to be? I thank the. Professionals around me that allowed that to happen. So I remember in my first year as a speech pathologist, we have this clinical fellowship year and that's that year where there's still someone watching over you to make sure you're doing everything ethically.
Certainly. And I remember lovingly the person that was my clinical fellowship supervisor, she would see instances of that. And she'd say, good, go with it. Keep doing that. You connected with that child. Keep doing that. there are like hoverboard things that are very popular right now. I don't get on top of them, but they seem to be very prevalent in the middle school, high school, like arena.
because I'm getting a chance to know my clients. So recently, this is a little bit before the pandemic, but I said, bring that thing in. Bring that thing in, let's talk about it because they're excited to be talking right. And all of these goals and objectives that we have. Sure. We can infuse that in so many different ways.
We don't have to do drill. There's a time and a place for drill, of course, but there's an a time there's a time and a place for just talking. So the person brought in this cool hoverboard thing and I'm talking about it and we're talking and we're thinking about different ways of maybe modifying our communication.
If we want to.
Uri Schneider: But all the, while
Erik x Raj: he's standing on top of this cool thing and I'm like, Oh my God, how are you standing on that? And then, the child said to me, mr. Eric, you want to try? And in that moment, I'm like, no, but then I said to myself, I need to, because what I do as a clinician all the time is I asked my children to show up and be the best versions of themselves.
I do that all the time. And sometimes when I ask children to use their voice. I'm putting a spotlight on them and that can be hard, right? So here's a child saying to me, mr. Eric jumped on top of this and I said, you know what? I will. The spotlight's on me right there. And communication still is in play because I'm communicating with my body that I'm willing to show up.
I'm communicating with my body. I'm willing to have a connection. So I stood on top of that hover board. I didn't fall and I was getting it. I'm like, wow, this is cool. And all the while we were laughing and laughter is a great indicator of that therapeutic relationship. And. Because we have that therapeutic relationship, we could keep on taking the next steps in the journey that is growing and evolving as communicators.
So to not be afraid to show up, sometimes I show up with a guitar
Uri Schneider: thinking they're showing up. I hate to interrupt. I've never done this, but our man, Sam Wiggins himself. Is actually joining us and watching this Facebook live right now with his mom in England. So Sam big shout out, big fist bump.
Everybody drop your comments for Sam. I am. He's the new Sam. I am. That's what I wrote on Facebook shows my love for dr. Seuss. But Sam Wiggins, you are earning your place in the world. As a courageous strong communicator, you're inspiring young people like your age, but you're also inspiring people even older and bigger than you.
If you don't know Sam Wiggins, you've been living under a rock again, you can look him up on Google or you can go to our blog page Snyder, speech.com/our blog. I had a beautiful zoom call with his amazing mom. Sam doesn't just fall from anywhere, obviously. great parents behind him, but Sam, thanks so much for taking the time.
Victoria is bringing back the fist bumps and, you're all better off to know Sam and to see that video, and use it any way that you can. We've also added Sam's videos to the collection of short videos that we have on the blog to collect all the best short videos from around the internet. to use in different ways, whether it's for awareness, for advocacy or in therapy or in a classroom, getting people to understand what stuttering is and what it's not.
But Sam, thanks for taking the time. But it goes with what Eric was saying, leaning in, giving it a go, going where the kid or where the young person, where the adult. Where they're at,
Erik x Raj: Sam showed up, he had something in him and he wanted that to be known. So he showed up with this poem.
He wonderfully spoke it out to the world and that's how I try to embody all of that. As a clinician, I'm showing up sometimes with the guitar sometimes with some weird hoverboard and I'm using my voice and I'm communicating.
Uri Schneider: Absolutely amazing. in the preview is actually an interview. Someone interviewed me, it'll be coming out soon and he asked me, how do you get information out of the reluctant 10, 11 year old? And, I would just say unlike some, clean desktop, entity, we have our ways. No. You'd be quiet.
You'd be curious, wherever they're at, if hover birds are where they're at, you go home and you learn all about how it reports. If it's some TV show or sport or video game. Get interested, lean in and get in there. And I think that's where Eric and I would suggest the most professional things to do is not to be so removed.
So distant and so stuck in the nomenclature and the literature and the language that is so detached from the world of the person that you're serving. You need to be well-versed and steeped in literature. And that's where you're grounded, but when you're working with people, you're working with them where they're at in their real life.
And I think that's where a lot of speech therapy may be. there's a disconnect, So I think if you're a speech therapist, I think the first thing to do is listen to your heart and listen to your client's heart. I think the best question I ever learned from one of my mentors Cyma Gerber works with a completely different population on stuttering.
She would say, first question asked the parents, where does your child have the most delight? Where are they the happiest, boom. if you ask that as a first question, first of all, it shows you're interested and you care. But as Eric said, learning doesn't happen when the person is scared, right? And this is a good segue.
Learning happens where your most comfortable learning happens in the name of, Westby, right? Carol lesbian. Another one of our Epic legends in the speech pathology world. A chance to hang out with, she would say you can't learn the breast stroke. If you're still not comfortable playing in the water.
You gotta be comfortable playing in the water when you're comfortable, then you're ready to learn. But until you're comfortable, you're not going to learn a darn thing. So it's another thought for parents, for teachers, for therapists, we need to make people whether they're young people or they're older people, they've got to feel safe.
They got to feel comfortable and that's not touchy feely. That's like clinical excellence one Oh one.
Erik x Raj: And if I could add to that, I feel that when we come. At our clients in a very inquisitive and. Honest, wanting way to know more about them and their experiences. It really helps them to see that they have valid information they can share with us because too often, when you think of the speech language pathologist, it's sometimes viewed as Oh, they have all the answers and I'm coming to them in hopes of getting all the answers.
So there's that aspect of they're here and like I'm here, but early people like you and I. We don't see that type of, disconnect. We see how, okay. Clinicians here, clients here. Sure. I have some knowledge as it relates to the book stuff. But guess what? They have some knowledge as it relates to the real life, real experience stuff.
And some of that might be from a starting point of view experiences related to communication. Difficulties, but also it might be experiencing their favorite YouTube performer, learning about their favorite person. They follow on Tik TOK. I want to know about all of those things, because at the end of the day, that's the delight that you were just talking about.
Those are the things that bring them delight. And if I can learn about that and infuse that in the work I do, it's helping me to be a better. Person of service, but it's also helping all of us recognize how we all have something great to bring to the table.
is it possible that you might be, are you still muted maybe? Oh my gosh.
Uri Schneider: Sure.
'cause
Erik x Raj: I don't hear you, but is it me? Oh, come on. I didn't change anything, but I will absolutely look at my speaker. So external headphones right now. And I have the microphone here. Hey, drop a line in the comments. Is it me? Or is it him?
Uri Schneider: I figured it out. You hear me?
Erik x Raj: I hear you though.
Uri Schneider: Okay, great. So we just took off the headphones. Can you hear me? Okay. Everybody just give me a thumbs up on the video. If you feel like you can hear. Okay. Otherwise I'll get closer to the mic. I want it to say it was hopefully we've established.
Arrogant. I would love humans will have human connection of all types of all sorts. And, and at the same time someone asked and I did want to get to this. Eric's been crushing it with apps and using technology in an, as a platform for enhancing communication skills and abilities. And now all of us are living with this COVID, screen existence sitting in one geographic location.
And Eric and I may be rocking it and connecting, but there's no doubt. This is not the same as sitting in the same room. It's good. It's good. And it's gotten better, but people are asking in the lives, on the comments and Eric, I think you have a lot of insight on this. we're looking at, we've been doing zoom before COVID, before 2020, we did 20% of the meetings we did using zoom.
It meant that adults didn't have to leave the office. And then that moms and dads could. Could have an appointment to figure out how to best help their kids during their lunch hour. It meant that kids that didn't feel well or traffic was going to make it an hour each way they could stay at home and zoom in.
So we were doing this now. We just ramped up basically to 100%. We're reopening carefully, but we're going to be living, I think, with this for a bit. I think there's a lot of challenge, but also a lot of opportunity on our end. The transcending stuttering Academy is an idea to make an online video course for people to have a self guided in Germany or to compliment speech therapy.
But you're deeply embedded in apps. And now this new video game platform, what are your thoughts about, COVID a turning point in civilization, but how we can adapt in helpful ways and overcome what seemed to be and feel very often like insurmountable challenges.
Erik x Raj: The first thing that comes to my mind when we start talking about this subject is the fact that I feel like we sit too much.
And I get it. you and I, we're both sitting right now because we're in front of our screen. But really what I've been thinking about a lot recently is this idea of do we necessarily need to be sitting as much as we do when we do teletherapy experiences. And. I feel like I want to dig deeper into that.
I know, of course the basics of a body in motion is a mind in motion, right? So I want to be intentional over the next couple of months with having a setup that allows me to be standing up and to perhaps use my body in a way that allows there to be a little bit more excitement.
And then at the same time, I want to encourage that whenever it's appropriate. So some of my students and clients, right? So for doing teletherapy and they're on the other side, it's one thing for us to say,
Uri Schneider: Oh, let's
Erik x Raj: have a conversation about a dog. Tell me about the descriptors of the dog. Give me this.
But maybe for some students we could say, Hey, let's stand up. And let's act like a dog right now. Let's make our voices in a playful way where we can do some barking. Let's maybe move our body in a way that would mimic a dog running. And again, everything is age appropriate, right? So I'm thinking about a child of a certain age where that would make sense, but the overall theme perhaps, is do we need to be sitting and are there opportunities where we can actually step away from the seat and stand up because in real life, I would bet that we're not sitting as much, my clients, back in the day they used to go walking around.
They're going to the malls with their friends. Of course it looks different now, but it doesn't mean we shouldn't still be thinking about the power of mobility and the gross motor aspect. So I'm really thinking about that as I'm just evolving my thoughts as it relates to this technology. And then is there technology perhaps that can be designed that maybe allows that to happen?
Maybe perhaps there are,
Uri Schneider: Eric, are you familiar with John rating? Dr. John Ratey wrote, what's considered the Bible on, add a delivered from distraction driven to distraction all those books. So highly recommend those books delivered from distractions. Most recent one is coauthored by ed Hallowell and John Rady.
John Rady's next book was called spark and it was all about movement and the brain. And there were some fascinating studies. I believe it was in Detroit. If I'm not mistaken in inner city school that did not have very good outcomes on STEM, testing, standardized testing of math and science, and they changed nothing in the curriculum, nothing in the funding, they just changed physics.
And what they did was instead of learning how to throw a spiral, instead of learning the technique of catching a baseball, they switched it to a robotic activity. So running sprints and laps around the gym. And then they realized, the kids that were naturally more fit were having a pretty easy time and coming in first and the kids that were less fit were coming in, not first place.
And they realize that's probably not the best idea. What if we hook them up with heart rate monitors. And instead of it being who came in first place, it was who was working the hardest, who put in the most effort who got their heart pumping in a way that was consistently. A percentage higher, a zone higher than their average.
And what happened was remarkable. The standardized test scores went up isolating for that one variable aerobic activity. They also looked at the classes where kids were in class prior to a physical activity and that the scores and re and also discipline went down and scores went up. discipline at the principal's office went down.
So behavioral issues were helped. By more aerobic activity and academic performance as a whole went up. So I think, you're not, again, it's not touchy feely stuff, when you're sitting sedentary the size, the other health risks, and this applies to us as professionals too, doesn't it, movement is so important.
And I gave a shout out. I taught at a school for kids with all kinds of amazing abilities and other scattered profiles. So they were really, stock market wizards, chess wizards. But dyslexic, they were, amazing performers of music and arts, but socially they weren't the smoothest operators.
And, in that, in those classes, I use the work of a good friend. Nikki Kraus out of Colorado, she made a set of DVDs back in the day with DVDs were a thing behind the desk, aerobic activity. So I want you to connect with her because you could do this on a zoom call where you can keep a sense of control.
Have the person stand up in their space, do five, 10 seconds of some kind of jumping activity, jumping jacks, whatever, and then bring them back in or do the whole session moving. So that's a really, I think there are some people that have laid some good foundation for you to really roll that out.
what about technology and interactive technology? Things like video games. Can you tell us a little bit about. Where you've been evolving from the first apps that you put out, what's come out. What you're really excited about having put out and now the newest video games. It, tell us a little bit about that process.
Erik x Raj: Yeah. So I was lucky enough to be an early adopter of the iPad. And if I'm remembering correctly, I think it was like, 2010 was when that first-generation iPad came out. So yeah, I got that first iPad.
Uri Schneider: I remember the buzz about what a bad name. It was like they could have the iPhone and the IDAs and anyone that was alive that remembers it was a marketing blender.
But they got past it as Apple seems to do. Yeah. So I
Erik x Raj: remember, speaking of those past recollections, I remember like an overwhelming majority, at least from like my space that I followed was talking about the iPad. Like what a waste, why do we need this big thing? It's a big phone. And there was all these funny memes back there of people putting the iPad to their face.
hello, are you there? I'm on the phone. So isn't it silly how we as a society. Potentially viewed something at one point. And now it is a whole different thing. So I started creating a bunch of apps in 2010, 2011, 2012. And I think those beginning apps were very one-sided. And when I say one-sided, it was you're pressing something and you're getting some auditory feedback and that's fine.
it does a great job because there's a place for all of those things, but really, as I've evolved as a. Clinician as a human, as a consumer of digital experiences, I value the. True interactive nature of doing something and then it triggers something else and then you're doing something different and then that triggers something else.
So it goes away from that whole one-sided linear experience. And then it turns more into a dual try sided experience with everything, but linear, it can go in any direction. So when I think about that description, To me that perfectly defines video games are a great narrative driven experience for the most part.
And, you start off as a character and then you're evolving the character through some sort of journey. And as a clinician, I see so much better. And if it in video games, because you can make so many great parallels to the work that they're doing as a communicator to the work that they're doing with the.
Actual character in the video game. So I guess this would be, this is being very overgeneralized, but I will say this, there are three main components to a video game. There's a character. There would be, an environment and an objective. So that makes sense with the world of therapy, right?
Cause there's a character, who's our clients living within an environment and there's a certain objective that they're attempting to grow into or evolve towards. So when I work together with children who stutter, they might play a video game and there's a barrier that's blocking them and they need to maybe do something to, get through the barrier.
I can then say, that's interesting because that video game experience might be similar to some of what you've talked to me about. So sometimes you've mentioned that there's a bit of a block, right? And what do you need to do to keep moving forward as a communicator? So we start talking about the video game experience, but then we can evolve and talk about the communication experience.
And then we go back and forth. All the while we're talking and we're perhaps discovering and learning some new things while having fun. So that's what video games have allowed me to see. And I want to really continue to dig deep into that as I've, just growing as a clinician.
Uri Schneider: Wow.
There's a question here. Was it difficult to create an app? That's both fun and interactive, but doesn't encompass speech therapy too much. I guess the, yeah. How did you find that balance? How do you strike that balance? I
Erik x Raj: think that balance is you trusting your ideas. That may be you're finding the right balance, but it's not just solely trusting on yourself, allowing your clients and students to be the beta testers.
We should never create in a vacuum. We need to make sure that all of our things are cut, open and really explored. And the best people to do that in my experience are my clients. they tell me straight up, I'm mr. Eric, this is boring, mr. Eric, this doesn't make sense to me.
And I'm like, Oh, thank you for sharing that with me. I then go back to the drawing board and I value their wonderful feedback because it just helps me to grow.
Uri Schneider: Now you gotta, you got a question they're just coming in and keep them coming. Garris, I'm talking about AR VR, virtual reality, a researcher who's developing some really awesome stuff out of Belgium.
So Gareth says, do you have a favorite? What was your favorite video game as a kid? And has that had any influence in how you shape the apps that you create? He's getting a certain vibe from super Mario brothers, from some of the screenshots. And maybe you will show us a little screenshot, but why don't you just, yeah.
What was your favorite video game as a kid? That's what Gareth was asking.
Erik x Raj: I love that question. Gareth much respect to that question. you nailed it. Mario brothers is hands down. The thing that inspired me, they call that side scrolling video games. So it's a two dimensional side scrolling experience where character starts here and then keeps moving towards a finished point.
I find that to be so visually pleasing and I find it to be also. I think mentally pleasing because you know that there's a finish line. If you will, you gain momentum, get towards the finish line, you take a breath and then you realize okay. Onto the next adventure. So from a human perspective, I view that as.
The days that we go through, we have a starting point. Our starting point is when we wake up, then we go through the journey of our day and then our finish line when we lay our heads down for bed. So it helps me to really see the line of progression that I'm going through as a human being.
So yes, Mario brothers, the Yoshi, everything relating to those, late eighties into the early nineties stuff is really what I've, consumed. And it finds its way into my current creations right now.
Uri Schneider: Okay for our next question, Eric, I want you to close your eyes. Okay. And see if you can name that tune.
Cool. I'm going to mute you and see who else can name that tune. I don't want Eric to give it away, but I'm ready. Hope you're listening. Here we go. One second. It's coming. Listen carefully.
Is that awesome or what? Eric named that tune. You're on mute though. I muted you. Sorry.
Erik x Raj: That is the classic Mario theme that a lot of us have really taken upon ourselves to really embody as creators. And, yeah, when I hear that it gets me super jazzed and like that brings back the essence of music and like what music can do for us.
So like, when I heard that I started jamming out, And I don't let myself, I don't want to have that stifled. Like I am who I am, I'm going to dance. And in some capacity, I want that to be. What my clients take away from working with me and for them growing as individuals. yeah, that's a great song.
And if I might mention this, so in this video games experience that I'm creating, if you do check it out, you'll notice that I actually don't have any,
Uri Schneider: how about when.
Erik x Raj: When you check it out, there's no music playing in the background. And that was a very intentional thing that I did because in the playtesting I was doing, I found that the music became distracting because while we're trying to converse during the video game play, sometimes our voices were getting drowned out.
So then I made the decision. I was like, ah, you know what? I love music. But I don't think music works for this particular experience. So we deleted all the video or the audio tracks. And now all you hear would be just like jumping noises. Cause I feel like that's still needs to be there, but the actual soundtrack is out.
but it is what it is.
Uri Schneider: I think the other thing, how many of you can chime in when you hear that song, it just, it brings you back to a very happy place. There's an association and the music, as Eric said, the power of music is it can move you at that moment. But sometimes also like the same way a smell or a B brings you back to another experience.
It was very pleasant experience. Now for some people, unfortunately having therapy, working on something that's uncomfortable. Either by virtue of itself or the nature of previous engagement around it has been unpleasant, I've been uncomfortable. So I think eliciting, comfortable experiences, familiar sounds and sensations, whether it's, a favorite snack or w and frankly, if you do it on zoom, have the parents provide the kid, the snack, the favorite snack, People shouldn't be punished or torture by sitting on zoom on these therapy appointments. It should be made as pleasant, as possible, as multisensory as possible. And there are ways to enrich the experience and add dimensionality. music is another one, right? You could do a name, your favorite tune, and come up, make a playlist with the kid.
Or these are things that can be done collaboratively even across the distance of the screen. So there's so much we can do to really enhance, enrich and add. Dimensionality to these face-to-face encounters. But for me, I think music, one of the things it does is it bringing you back to the very nostalgic experiences, in a very powerful way.
And it also opens you up, you let your guard down when you were talking about the video games. I was thinking, Eric, one of my favorite podcasts these days is called StoryBrand and it's a business podcast, but what it's talking about is having clarity in what it is that we're doing. Which is something I know you're very keen on, but also making sure that the person you are serving, they are the hero.
It's not about me. It's not about you. It's about them. So when you talk about the character in the video game, I wonder if another part of the power of that is that the person might not be ready to jump on top of a sewer or, squash those other bad guys, jump on top of a turtle, but through the character of the video game, they get to play out that inner hero.
That's waiting to. break out. And so that third person opportunity to be brave and courageous in a way that's less risky is a chance for the timid child. Maybe to be a little bit brave. And then you could maybe bring that a little bit and toe into that a little bit in real life. and also the idea of the comfort, the strength of safety, of that context.
That's familiar, it's playful, beautiful four words that I find open people up. Once upon a time, right? When you tell somebody, yeah. Once upon a time I met a kid, he was like, just like you. And I'll tell kids this and I'll tell them a story about themselves. But because I started with this once upon a time and they have a fictional name that starts with the same first letter, Alan, I don't know Allen.
Yeah. He was like a year younger than you. And blah, blah, blah. And this was his deal. And this is what he was dealing with and he didn't think he could do it. You got any advice and it's amazing because same person, if you ask them head-on they would get uncomfortable. They might clam up. They're not very resourceful because they feel threatened.
They feel concerned. They feel confronted, but once you make it like third person or you turn it into a story or you turn into a video game, People become resourceful. People come creative, people come in with bed of stuff. So I think, video games are one of several ways that we can do that. We've got our good friend, Daniel Rossi, one of the other he's probably you.
And he are the number one and two neck and neck. My favorite creatives, Daniel Rossi has an incredible podcast and a illustrated. It wouldn't be right to call it a comic book, but an illustrated book called, stuttering is cool. And, check it out, get the book. The guy is unbelievable. I had a great conversation with him.
One of our first conversations he joined me. He also helped us do some really wonderful illustrations for the transcending stuttering Academy work. And, and I think through cartooning, through video games, thinking about the creative pathways, thinking about, say the stuttering association for the young acting composing thinking of Sam, creating a poem, performing a poem.
Tapping into those channels for people who may be the front door is a little bit sticky. The front door is a little bit rough. The front door is a little bit scary. They can flex their muscles and express themselves in these other channels. And then start spreading that out in a strength-based kind of way.
What do you think about that? I
Erik x Raj: think everything you're saying makes total sense and it brings a story to my mind. So I'm going to take a page from you and I'm going to share with you
Uri Schneider: once. Danielle he's listening and he corrected me. I just want to, just clarify. Stuttering is cool.com and Frankie banky.com is the next iteration.
And he just launched his new website on October 22nd. Check it out, share it. The guy is a genius. He changes lives through his illustrative work and he gives work workshops just Eric has workshops on technology. Then he gives workshops on commenting. , I don't think that's a word, but I'm gonna make it a verb.
I think he just did an awesome workshop. I'm not mistaken for the Canadian stuttering association also for the Australian speakeasy conference. Daniel Rossi checked out. Okay.
Erik x Raj: I'm a huge fan of Daniella. He's a one wonderful buddy of mine. we bounce ideas back and forth with each other. So I echo everything that Ernie just said.
So I was mentioning how I'll take a page from your book and bring it all full circle. So once upon a time, I had a client who was very much into video games and he was evolving as a communicator. So because of his love for video games, For him. I started to adopt certain vocabulary and the vocabulary that I would use with him was something along the lines of what level are you currently at right now as a communicator, as a character in this thing called life.
And that resonated with him. So he said to me, right now I'm at level like 51. And then I might say, what does level 51 look like? I want to know what that means. So he. Was the child who stutters. He said, level 51 means that I can. Define what stuttering is. It means that I can define the three different types of stuttering.
Like disfluencies then he started define prolongations blocks repetitions. Then he started to tell me some more great foundational knowledge. And then with prompts and cues, he was able to say, when I first started, I was at level one, I didn't know those things and I didn't have the vocabulary to be able to really understand some of those things.
But now here I am, I have those things. And then he started to, without really any prompts or cues start to tell me about what does level of 75 look like? So we started talking about where he wants to keep going and what that looks like. So the simple tweak in my vocabulary. Recognizing that this is a child, like many children who enjoys video games, helped him to really take it upon himself to own his journey past, present, and future.
So that's really what I'm trying to better understand as I'm digging deeper into the literature and like doing the work of the therapeutic, fun.
Uri Schneider: So we're coming to the tail end, but I promised everybody you're going to get a sneak preview. So Eric's got the a
is all set and queued up. There we go. if you are enjoying this, please share it, please. Like it you'll help us share with more people. And right now you are getting hot off the press. To my knowledge, this thing just went live like 30 minutes ago, maybe more, but no one else I don't, as it's been presented internationally yet, no way.
this is the debut, my friends and, Eric found out about a half hour ago. let's get that URL. It's SLP video games dot X, raj.com.
Erik x Raj: But you can just go to SLP, video games.com.
Uri Schneider: There you go.
Erik x Raj: It redirects it.
Uri Schneider: Okay. All right. So give us a little walkthrough. Yeah. So check this out.
Erik x Raj: You, as a clinic, you could play this, you could start the game.
If you're working on speech, you have access to all these wonderful speech flashcards. Or if you have language things, you can do that as well. But we'll just look at speech. And what does that look like? So let's say the child's working on the L sound. So you plug in your L initial. Flashcard deck all the video games are smart, so they recognize and remember your particular flashcard deck.
So you'll start off at level one, and then you just follow the instructions, but this is a fun game called get rid of red. So you want to just get rid of red. So notice I moved the character and now I got rid of red and then the door opened, right? So I'm going to go through the door. Level two as a clinician, I might say, Hey, let's take a break for a moment.
Can we press pause? So child presses pause, and instead of it just being statically stopped, it then brings up the actual flashcards. So now if you're working on the different pronunciation with the L sound, you can go through the motions and you could gain different opportunities to talk about these things.
So he received a red lobster, so we do it and then I'll exit out. Then I'll go back to playing the game. But before we play, I might say, do you see something on the screen that was red? And then they might say, Oh, this little jumping character. So then I might bring it back to the words for a few moments.
I'll say, Hey, let's say the red character is jumping. So they do it. And then all the while they're trying to get rid of red. So they'll jump correctly and then got rid of red. Then
Uri Schneider: you
Erik x Raj: go through the door. Each level is a little bit trickier, but with some time and dedication, you are able to get through all the levels.
And it's been a fun, functional learning experience for all of my clients.
Uri Schneider: Wow. Wow. first of all, great font choice. Even if you took away the music, as Gareth said, I'm getting the super Mario vibe. there is so much possibly, or there's so much collaboration. There's so much resonance. I just want to thank you for sharing your creative spirit, your time.
I think the line that you said that I think deserves repeating and also attribution, we're all evolving as communicator. That's if I'm not mistaken from one only Casey Kristen canola, unless she got it from you. Nope, it's all her that's possible. But, look, I think I just want to finish off on this note, first of all, tremendous gratitude to you to let you know, we've got more people on this live feed right now than we've had in any conversations.
I think that's real Testament. And compliment to you, dr. Eric ex Raj, or maybe they were just itching for the preview of SLP, video games, dot com, little EA sports, getting the words, something like that. that's, if you played NHL 95, you know what I'm talking about, but, yeah.
Thank you. And I think the we've had some interesting conversations here. They will continue. I invite you to Sunday. We're having part two with Carl coffee. If we're lucky we might be joined by his lovely wife and get the perspective of, stuttering in couplehood. but lots of great conversations.
I'm going to do a quick screen share to show you what has evolved over here, so that you can see where to find Eric's next big thing. So add Schneider speech.com/our blog is a collection of playbacks of all the conversations we've had. So Eric is number 26. Here's the man. Sam. I am. I just want to point that out.
There's tons of awesome content here. Conversations with people that are in a league of their own. but here's Sam and I just wanted to highlight and spotlight this here's his video and I'm just going to play it for a moment and I'm going to let you come here and see it later, but here's his amazing picture, his shining face and his beautiful poem, which you can borrow from.
So I'm just going to play this through. Give me one second here and then we'll take it home. And, Eric, if you have any closing words, but I'll just play a little bit, it's Sam, his Palm, and then we will take it home with any wisdom that you want to share. So are we sharing the whole screen? That was not my intention.
Here we go. And boom,
I have a stomach.
Cat can get stuck. it doesn't
have a S it's what makes me. I have a stammer. It's what makes me just brings me back to where we started. We talked about, your voice is your signature, right? And so at once we want people to feel whole just as they are, and at the same time for everyone to know, and to believe you can always get stronger, more courageous, just expand your comfort zone, expand your courage, expand your love of self and others of connection with self and with others.
And along the way, learn new skills that once might be difficult, can become easy and in doing so, just be all you can be, so we'll kick it off to you, Eric, to bring us home,
Erik x Raj: we have voices and we need to keep on talking. Our voices are truly gifts and to not use your voice is a real disservice to those around you.
So let's give everyone the best gift possible and let's just keep on using our voices and keep moving
Uri Schneider: forward. Keep talking. Thank you all. I'm going to end this Facebook live here, but you can help us by sharing these words from Eric and share them close. Share them near Sharon fr and comments are welcome.
Where can people contact you ever. If they want to connect, what's the best way to reach you. Eric
Erik x Raj: X, raj.com,
Uri Schneider: ex Raj, whatever you need. You just look up Eric X, Raj. It's all there. Thanks so much, Eric really appreciated. Wish everybody an awesome day and a great weekend.