Purpose: A systematic search and review of published studies was conducted on the use of automated speech analysis (ASA) tools for analysing and modifying speech of typically-developing children learning a foreign language and children with speech sound disorders to determine (i) types, attributes, and purposes of ASA tools being used; (ii) accuracy against human judgment; and (iii) performance as therapeutic tools. Method: Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines were applied. Across nine databases, 32 articles published between January 2007 and December 2016 met inclusion criteria: (i) focussed on children’s speech; (ii) tools used for speech analysis or modification; and (iii) reporting quantitative data on accuracy. Result: Eighteen ASA tools were identified. These met the clinical threshold of 80% agreement with human judgment when used as predictors of intelligibility, impairment severity, or error category. Tool accuracy was typically <80% accuracy for words containing mispronunciations. ASA tools have been used effectively to improve to children’s foreign language pronunciation. Conclusion: ASA tools show promise for automated analysis and modification of children’s speech production within assessment and therapeutic applications. Further work is needed to train automated systems with larger samples of speech to increase accuracy for assessment and therapeutic feedback.

We present a multitier system for the remote administration of speech therapy to children with apraxia of speech. The system uses a client-server architecture model and facilitates task-oriented remote therapeutic training in both in-home and clinical settings. The system allows a speech language pathologist (SLP) to remotely assign speech production exercises to each child through a web interface and the child to practice these exercises in the form of a game on a mobile device. The mobile app records the child's utterances and streams them to a back-end server for automated scoring by a speech-analysis engine. The SLP can then review the individual recordings and the automated scores through a web interface, provide feedback to the child, and adapt the training program as needed. We have validated the system through a pilot study with children diagnosed with apraxia of speech, their parents, and SLPs. Here, we describe the overall client-server architecture, middleware tools used to build the system, speech-analysis tools for automatic scoring of utterances, and present results from a clinical study. Our results support the feasibility of the system as a complement to traditional face-to-face therapy through the use of mobile tools and automated speech analysis algorithms.

There is continuing debate about the origins of productive morphological errors in children with speech sound disorders. This is the case for children with theorised phonetic and motor disorders, such as children with childhood apraxia of speech (CAS, e.g., Ekelman & Aram, 1983; McNeill & Gillon, 2013 McNeill, B. C. , & Gillon, G. T. (2013). Expressive morphosyntactic development in three children with childhood apraxia of speech. Speech, Language and Hearing, 16(1), 9–17. doi:10.1179/2050571X12Z.0000000005 [Taylor & Francis Online] , [Google Scholar] ). The morphological skills of children with CAS remain relatively unexplored in pre-schoolers. We investigated English morphology in a retrospective, cross-sectional design of 26 children aged 4–5 years who completed the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals—Preschool (2nd edition; Wiig, Secord & Semel, 2006). The research aims were to determine: (1) the language profile of the children, (2) the accuracy of each morpheme type produced, and (3) how many of those morphological errors are explained by speech errors (clusters, late developing phonemes, central vowels or weak syllable stress)? The results indicate the group of children with CAS had poorer expressive language skills than receptive skills and 48% demonstrated difficulties with morphology in word structure and recalling sentences subtests. The children had poor accuracy and inconsistent production of a range of morphemes and despite many errors due to the speech characteristics of the stimuli on the CELF-P2, motor speech concerns could not explain all the child’s morphological errors. The results suggest morphological difficulties are co-morbid to CAS and when this occurs, treatment for morphosyntax is indicated. There are also significant clinical implications in the assessment of morphosyntax for children with CAS which are discussed.

We previously developed a tablet-based speech therapy game called Apraxia World to address barriers to treatment and increase child motivation during therapy. In this study, we examined pronunciation improvements, child engagement over time, and caregiver evaluation performance while using our game. We recruited ten children to play Apraxia World at home during two four-week treatment blocks, separated by a two-week break; nine of ten have completed the protocol at time of writing. In the treatment blocks, children's utterances were evaluated either by caregivers or an automated pronunciation framework. Preliminary analysis suggests that children made significant therapy gains with Apraxia World, even though caregivers evaluated pronunciation leniently. We also collected a corpus of child speech for offline examination. We will conduct additional analysis once all participants complete the protocol.