Exploring speech therapy games with children on the autism spectrum

ME Hoque, JK Lane, R El Kaliouby, M Goodwin… - 2009 - dspace.mit.edu
2009dspace.mit.edu
Individuals on the autism spectrum often have difficulties producing intelligible speech with
either high or low speech rate, and atypical pitch and/or amplitude affect. In this study, we
present a novel intervention towards customizing speech enabled games to help them
produce intelligible speech. In this approach, we clinically and computationally identify the
areas of speech production difficulties of our participants. We provide an interactive and
customized interface for the participants to meaningfully manipulate the prosodic aspects of�…
Individuals on the autism spectrum often have difficulties producing intelligible speech with either high or low speech rate, and atypical pitch and/or amplitude affect. In this study, we present a novel intervention towards customizing speech enabled games to help them produce intelligible speech. In this approach, we clinically and computationally identify the areas of speech production difficulties of our participants. We provide an interactive and customized interface for the participants to meaningfully manipulate the prosodic aspects of their speech. Over the course of 12 months, we have conducted several pilots to set up the experimental design, developed a suite of games and audio processing algorithms for prosodic analysis of speech. Preliminary results demonstrate our intervention being engaging and effective for our participants.
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