An Overland Park resident has channeled his personal struggle into a unique and beneficial creation. Noah Weaver has developed Word Whizzes, a card game designed to enhance speech and diction skills, born from his own challenging journey to regain his voice after a traumatic brain injury.
Word Whizzes is ingeniously simple yet effective: a card game centered around tongue-twisting phrases. These carefully crafted phrases serve as tools to strengthen the crucial connection between cognitive thought and articulate speech – a link that was severely disrupted for Weaver following a life-altering car accident several years prior.
“The crash was so critical, there was initial uncertainty about my survival,” Weaver recounts. The car wreck resulted in a traumatic brain injury that not only robbed him of his voice but also significantly impaired his mobility.
“I possessed complete cognitive awareness of the words I intended to say, but the ability to vocalize them simply wasn’t there,” he explains, highlighting the frustrating disconnect he experienced.
Rachel Lindstedt, Weaver’s speech-language pathologist, elaborates on the nature of his recovery process. “Noah faced difficulties in accurately and precisely planning the motor movements necessary to articulate his desired speech,” Lindstedt states.
Weaver details some of the therapeutic techniques employed during his rehabilitation. “A significant focus of my therapy with Rachel was on pronunciation and diction,” he shares. “To facilitate this, she incorporated classic tongue twisters into our sessions.”
Reflecting on this period, Weaver had a transformative thought: “I realized, ‘I could create a game from this. That would be really cool… we could make it enjoyable.'”
Driven by this inspiration, he began writing his own tongue twisters, initially as an integral part of his personal recovery. However, his vision expanded to create a resource for others navigating their own speech development journeys.
Word Whizzes has emerged as a novel tool – a game that parents and speech therapists can utilize, developed by someone with profound firsthand understanding of the challenges of voice loss and recovery.
Lindstedt emphasizes the inspiring nature of Weaver’s initiative. “He has effectively transformed his own profoundly traumatic, life-altering experience into something remarkably positive and beneficial,” she observes.
Whether intended for a child refining their enunciation or an individual recovering lost speech, Word Whizzes offers a playful yet purposeful path to improved communication.
Those wishing to connect with Noah Weaver or inquire about Word Whizzes can reach out to [email protected].
