Episode 237: Sean Sweeney (Part 1): Experiences of an SLP Jeopardy Contestant

This week, we present Part 1 of Chris’s interview with Sean Sweeney! Sean is a Speech-Language Pathologist and founder of SpeechTechie.com, a website that focuses on the intersection of speech therapy and technology.  In Part 1 of this interview, Sean discusses his recent appearance on the game show Jeopardy and some of the insider information he got as a contestant!

Before the interview, Chris and Rachel make some connections between Sean’s appearance on Jeopardy, including the similarities between the Jeopardy committee that decides if a question was answered correctly and the need for a team based approach to assessment. Chris and Rachel also chat about the difference between an “AAC app” and an “AAC system”.

Key ideas this week:

🔑 Giving a quiz that is put up on the board in front of a group of people (e.g. kahoot.com, baamboozle.com, quizizz.com) is as much a measure of reading ability and fluency as it is a measure of knowledge. Just like Jeopardy, you can read the question out loud to the contestants before giving them a chance to answer, giving slower readers a chance to succeed. 

🔑 An “AAC system” is more than a particular app or tool. It is the combination of all the ways that a person communicates (e.g. low tech board, robust AAC app, and gestures) and often does not mean just one tool. There are circumstances (e.g. bath time) where a different tool, like a laminated core board, could be more effective than their primary app or tool.

🔑 It is common for people to not remember situations that required a lot of thinking, stress, and language analysis, such as going on a game show or giving a speech in public. This is, in part, because the brain is so focused on the immediate task that it isn’t committing things to memory in the way it normally would.