The use of innovative technology in the field of Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) has gained significant attention nowadays. Despite being a promising research area, Socially Assistive Robots (SARs) have not been thoroughly studied and used in SLT. This paper makes two main contributions: firstly, providing a comprehensive review of existing research on the use of SARs to enhance communication skills in children and adolescents. Secondly, organizing the information into tables that categorize the interactive play scenarios described in the surveyed papers. The inclusion criteria for play scenarios in the tables are based only on their effectiveness for SLT proven by experimental findings. The data, systematically presented in a table format, allow readers to easily find relevant information based on various factors, such as disorder type, age, treatment technique, robot type, etc. The study concludes that the despite limited research on the use of social robots for children and adolescents with communication disorders (CD), promising outcomes have been reported. The authors discuss the methodological, technical, and ethical limitations related to the use of SARs for SLT in clinical or home environments, as well as the huge potential of conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a secondary assistive technology to facilitate speech and language interventions.

The humanoid robot NAO is widely used in therapy scenarios for children with neurodevelopmental disorders, however it has poor speech recognition and dialog based on a predefined lexicon that results in limited vocabulary and limited number of predefined dialog scenarios. The integration of Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI) in NAO can significantly enhance and expand the robot's capabilities for intensive speech and listening exercises for children with speech and language disorders. Applying design-based research, the authors present the ongoing effective iteration in the building-testing cycles of a software architecture for Conversational AI in the robot NAO by integrating different AI cloud services for NLP into NAO's native software. Examining the aims and methods of stakeholders interested in integrating Conversational AI in NAO for speech and language therapy, we revealed several technical and ethical challenges. These challenges were successfully addressed with solutions implemented in the Node-RED platform, such as achieving more accurate and speech recognition, generating human-like text based on a context, and implementing multilingual text-to-speech synthesis. Additionally, implementation raises ethical considerations for both developers and therapists, especially regarding the assessment of risks linked with AI systems. We followed the guidelines set in the European AI Act, which categorizes AI systems according to their associated risk levels.

Currently, high-tech assistive technologies (ATs), particularly Socially Assistive Robots (SARs), virtual reality (VR) and conversational AI (ConvAI), are considered very useful in supporting professionals in Speech and Language Therapy (SLT) for children with communication disorders. However, despite a positive public perception, therapists face difficulties when integrating these technologies into practice due to technical challenges and a lack of user-friendly interfaces. To address this gap, a design-based research approach has been employed to streamline the integration of SARs, VR and ConvAI in SLT, and a new software platform called “ATLog” has been developed for designing interactive and playful learning scenarios with ATs. ATLog’s main features include visual-based programming with graphical interface, enabling therapists to intuitively create personalized interactive scenarios without advanced programming skills. The platform follows a subprocess-oriented design, breaking down SAR skills and VR scenarios into microskills represented by pre-programmed graphical blocks, tailored to specific treatment domains, therapy goals, and language skill levels. The ATLog platform was evaluated by 27 SLT experts using the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and System Usability Scale (SUS) questionnaires, extended with additional questions specifically focused on ATLog structure and functionalities. According to the SUS results, most of the experts (74%) evaluated ATLog with grades over 70, indicating high acceptance of its usability. Over half (52%) of the experts rated the additional questions focused on ATLog’s structure and functionalities in the A range (90–100), while 26% rated them in the B range (80–89), showing strong acceptance of the platform for creating and running personalized interactive scenarios with ATs. According to the TAM results, experts gave high grades for both perceived usefulness (44% in the A range) and perceived ease of use (63% in the A range).

Assisted reproductive technologies (ART) have been increasingly used worldwide over the past decades, raising sustained interest in their potential implications for child development beyond perinatal outcomes. While medical risks associated with ART have been extensively examined, evidence regarding early functional development in real-world clinical contexts remains limited. The present study explores developmental characteristics and referral patterns among children conceived through ART in comparison with naturally conceived peers, using data derived from outpatient speech-language therapy practice. A retrospective descriptive analysis was conducted on 1,661 anonymized anamnestic records collected over a six-year period through a standardized web-based questionnaire completed by caregivers prior to developmental consultation. Children were grouped according to conception method (ART versus natural conception), and descriptive statistical methods were applied to examine demographic characteristics, referral age, developmental milestones, and parent-reported clinical information. Children conceived via ART accounted for 23.2% of the sample. In both groups, referrals were most frequent between 2 and 5 years of age and showed a consistent male predominance. ART-conceived children were referred at a slightly younger age; however, no clinically meaningful differences were identified between groups in early motor, communicative, or regulatory developmental milestones. A higher proportion of positive family history of hereditary conditions was observed in the ART group. These findings indicate that ART, as a method of conception, is not independently associated with adverse early developmental outcomes and support the use of inclusive, function-oriented developmental monitoring frameworks relevant to clinical practice and public health policy.

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