SofiaFala: Software Inteligente de Apoio à Fala

Approximately 2.7 million Brazilians may have some speech disor-der, according to the Brazilians Institute of Geography and Statis-tics. Language therapies usually employ speech exercises at homefor people with speech disorders without close specialized super-vision. There are fundamental movements. Assistive technologyand machine learning can support the development of speech pro-nunciation practice systems. SofiaFala is a mobile application thatsupports prescription, monitoring, execution, and evaluation ofspeech therapies. It also supports speech therapist data analysis forthe outside clinical environment. In the two last years, 1,400 speechtherapists have required access to the SofiaFala.

Subjective screening of children with speech disorders is costly, time consuming and infeasible due to the limited availability of Speech and Language Pathologists (SLPs). Therefore, there is an increasing interest in automatic speech analysis of children with speech disorders as it can offer a practical alternative to human assessment. Paralinguistic features are a set of low-level descriptors commonly used in speech emotion recognition. However, they have not yet been examined with childhood speech sound disorders such as, apraxia-of-speech and phonological and articulation disorders. In this paper, we investigated the effectiveness of paralinguistic features in discriminating between typically developing children and those who suffer from different types of speech sound disorders. Two types of standard paralinguistic features were explored, the Geneva Minimalistic Acoustic Parameter Set (GeMAPS) and its extended version, (eGeMAPS) feature sets. We applied feature selection to find the most discriminant set of features and employed binary classification using a support vector machine (SVM) to discriminate between the two groups. The method was tested on a recently-released public speech corpus collected from typically developing children and children with various types of speech sound disorders. The system achieved segment-level and subject-level unweighted average recall (UAR) of around 78% and 87% respectively.

The proposed article presents the results of the analysis of legislative documents and scientific and methodological literature in the field of speech therapy in an inclusive environment. Speech therapist at the beginning of the school year based on the results of the survey of students, in case of speech disorders that require long-term assistance or specially organized training, suspicions of other developmental disorders - recommends parents (other legal representatives) of the child to contact the inclusive resource center for comprehensive psychological pedagogical assessment of child development. The conclusion of the inclusive resource center on a comprehensive psychological and pedagogical assessment of the development of a child with special educational needs notes the features of the child's speech competence (knowledge, abilities, skills, etc.), the needs and recommendations for speech therapist, and the number of hours for correctional developmental speech therapy services. After receiving an opinion on the comprehensive assessment, the educational institution, represented by the head of the institution, enters into an agreement with a speech therapist to provide correctional and developmental services to a child with special educational needs who is studying in an inclusive form. Based on the conclusion of the comprehensive assessment, an Individual Development Program is drawn up, which states that the speech therapist is a member of the team of psychological and pedagogical support of the child. Speech therapist, being a member of the team of specialists who provide psychological and pedagogical support to children with special educational needs in an inclusive educational space, performs: diagnostic, developmental, organizational and methodological, advisory and educational work. Special pedagogical activity of a speech therapist is carried out on the basis of the program included in the structure of the basic educational program of the general educational institution. Based on this, the main activities of a speech therapist are determined in the framework of psychological and pedagogical support of children with special educational needs who study in an inclusive space. During the school year, the speech therapist draws up the following documents: a speech card for each child, long-term and calendar work plans, individual notebooks for each child, an annual report on the results of correctional training. The speech therapist participates in school methodological associations, meetings of the inclusive resource center, replenishes the speech therapy office with new methodological and didactic literature. Each activity of a speech therapist is included in a single process of psychological and pedagogical support and within the framework of inclusive education acquires special significance. That is, it is focused not only on overcoming speech disorders in students with special educational needs, but also on their socialization and adaptation among peers with normo-typical development. Thus, the activities of a speech therapist in an inclusive environment are not limited to corrective action. Promoting the socialization of children with speech disorders is becoming increasingly important. Because it is speech disorders that become an obstacle on the way to communication of children with speech disorders with other children and teachers. Overcoming speech disorders contributes to the formation of a child with special educational needs self-confidence, the development of its cognitive abilities. A speech therapist can be the person who will help a child with special educational needs to build relationships in the school community and beyond.

Benefits of intensive speech treatment have been documented for a range of speech signs in English speakers with Parkinson's Disease (PD). However, the answer to a critical question that whether the same treatment benefits speech variables including intelligibility in Mandarin speakers is still unclear. In order to develop a targeted speech treatment for Mandarin speakers with PD, we reviewed the efficacy of intensive speech treatment to improve vocal loudness and functional communication and discuss possible explanations for efficacy on Mandarin speakers with PD. Literatures about intensive speech treatment for Mandarin speakers with PD were retrieved from PubMed, Web of Science, Embase, China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Wanfang and Weipu Database for Chinese Technical Periodicals (VIP) Database. Search strategy was (voice therapy OR speech therapy OR voice treatment OR speech treatment OR voice training OR speech training OR voice rehabilitation OR speech rehabilitation OR Lee Silverman voice treatment OR intensive speech treatment) and (Parkinson's disease) and (Mandarin speakers OR Chinese OR Chinese people). Five randomized controlled trials were selected and possible explanations for efficacy on individuals with PD are discussed. Further research directions are suggested. The existing evidence from treatment efficacy studies of intensive speech treatment provides support for improving vocal loudness, speech intelligibility, pitch and rate in Mandarin speakers with PD. Our future research will continue to work to conduct a large sample multicenter randomized controlled trial to provide high quality evidence and understand the basic mechanisms accompanying treatment-related change.

Situation Awareness (SA) involves the correct interpretation of scenarios, allowing a system to respond to the observed environment and providing decision-making support in several domains. Speech therapy is a domain where SA may provide benefits; however, there are few proposals that address reasoning about situations to improve therapeutic tasks. An early identification of speech sound disorders allows the diagnosis and treatment of various pathologies. So, in this paper, we present a novel situation-aware approach using machine learning for detecting patterns on sound frequencies, aiming to classify the correctness in the pronunciation of words spoken by children aged 3 to 8 years. The approach was evaluated through a speech corpus containing approximately 27,000 audio files, collected from pronunciation assessments performed by Speech-Language Pathologists with more than 1,300 children. Our results showed an average accuracy over 92% for classifying speech disorders. The classification results were used to elaborate a projection strategy based on the identified situation.

Communication interventions have broadened from dialogical meaning-making, assessment approaches, to remote-controlled interactive objects. Yet, interpretation of the mostly pre-or protosymbolic, distinctive, and idiosyncratic movements of children with intellectual disabilities (IDs) or profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD) using computer-based assistive technology (AT), machine learning (ML), and environment data (ED: location, weather indices and time) remain insufficiently unexplored. We introduce a novel behavior inference computer-based communication-aid AT system structured on machine learning (ML) framework to interpret the movements of children with PIMD/IDs using ED. To establish a stable system, our study aimed to train, cross-validate (10-fold), test and compare the classification accuracy performance of ML classifiers (eXtreme gradient boosting [XGB], support vector machine [SVM], random forest [RF], and neural network [NN]) on classifying the 676 movements to 2, 3, or 7 behavior outcome classes using our proposed dataset recalibration (adding ED to movement datasets) with or without Boruta feature selection (53 child characteristics and movements, and ED-related features). Natural-child-caregiver-dyadic interactions observed in 105 single-dyad video-recorded (30-hour) sessions targeted caregiver-interpreted facial, body, and limb movements of 20 8-to 16-year-old children with PIMD/IDs and simultaneously app-and-sensor-collected ED. Classification accuracy variances and the influences of and the interaction among recalibrated dataset, feature selection, classifiers, and classes on the pooled classification accuracy rates were evaluated using three-way ANOVA. Results revealed that Boruta and NN-trained dataset in class 2 and the non-Boruta SVM-trained dataset in class 3 had >76% accuracy rates. Statistically significant effects indicating high classification rates (>60%) were found among movement datasets: with ED, non-Boruta, class 3, SVM, RF, and NN. Similar trends (>69%) were found in class 2, NN, Boruta-trained movement dataset with ED, and SVM and RF, and non-Boruta-trained movement dataset with ED in class 3. These results support our hypotheses that adding environment data to movement datasets, selecting important features using Boruta, using NN, SVM and RF classifiers, and classifying movements to 2 and 3 behavior outcomes can provide >73.3% accuracy rates, a promising performance for a stable ML-based behavior inference communication-aid AT system for children with PIMD/IDs.

Digital games are among the treatment methods for speech disorders that serve purposes other than mere entertainment. These games have been used for different speech disorders at any age. This study aims to review articles that have used digital games for rehabilitating speech disorders. This study was a scoping review. PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched on February 28, 2022, to access the articles on digital games used in rehabilitation of speech disorders without any date restrictions. The search strategy was as follows: ("video game [MeSH term]" OR "computer game" OR "mobile game" OR "serious game" OR gamification [MeSH term]) AND ("speech pathology" OR "speech therapy [MeSH term]" OR "speech disorder [MeSH term]" OR stuttering [MeSH term]). Original interventional and observational studies in English were included. The data were extracted from the relevant articles, including the first author's name, year of publication, country, target group, participants, mobile device/computer-based, type of game design, language level, number of sessions, and outcome. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Of 693 retrieved articles, 10 articles were included in this study. Digital games were used for different speech disorders such as apraxia (20%), dysarthria (10%), articulatory hypokinesia in Parkinson's disease (10%), dysphonic disorder (10%), hearing disability (10%), phonological impairment (10%), and speech disorder in autism (10%). Most of the articles (60%) used a mobile device-based game. Phonemes (30%), words (30%), and sentences (20%) were the most frequently used language levels in designing digital games. All the reviewed articles reported the positive effect of digital games on speech and the patients' motivation in therapy. Digital games can improve patients' speech and motivation in therapy. Although studies showed the positive impact of digital games on speech disorders, personalized speech therapy should be considered in designing these games.

Introduction: Speech and language therapy is an emerging field in our country’s healthcare system, with speech and language therapists collaborating with various disciplines, including the nursing department. This study aims to assess the awareness of final-year nursing students regarding speech and language therapists. The study is descriptive in nature. Method: This is a cross-sectional study conducted with senior students from the Nursing Department of the Faculty of Health Sciences at Kastamonu University (N=109). Data were collected using a questionnaire designed to measure awareness of speech and language therapy. Descriptive statistics, the chi-square test, and Fisher's exact chi-square test were employed for data analysis, with a significance level of p<0.05. Results: In the study, it was found that 85.3% of the participants had knowledge about speech and language therapy, and 66.7% had obtained this information from social media. Additionally, 63.3% of the nursing students stated that speech and language therapists hold a bachelor's degree. Moreover, 98.2% reported that speech and language therapists work with school-aged children, 87.2% with preschool children, 78.0% with adolescents, and 61.1% with adults. Furthermore, 100% stated that speech and language therapists work with speech disorders, 96.3% with stuttering, 78.0% with autism, 76.1% with cleft lip and palate, and 73.4% with voice disorders. Conclusion: The study revealed insufficient awareness among nursing students regarding speech and language disorders and their areas of practice. To improve awareness, it is recommended to integrate interprofessional courses into the nursing curriculum, organize case presentations with healthcare teams, and hold seminars.

Background Speech-language pathology is a specialty in the study, assessment, and rehabilitation of speech-language disorders (or communication disorders) which are common problems that may affect both sexes and all age groups. Aim The aim of this study is to raise the attention in Iraq about the role of certified speech pathologists (or speech therapists) in the treatment of patients with communication disorders according to their age and sex distribution, as seen in the phonetic center of University of Jordan. Patients and methods Subjects with speech problems, who visited the phonetic center in Jordan University for treatment by certified speech-language pathologists, were analyzed retrospectively during 3 years (1996 to 1998), and it included 731 subjects with speech disorders, consisted of 213 females and 518 males, with a minimum age of 2 years and a maximum age of 72 years. Results The most common age presentation of communication disorders varies, and it was found that the major speech and language disorders and their distribution were as follows: delayed language development occurred mainly in age group 3 to 4 years (about 57%), stuttering occurred in 3 to 5 years (about 24%), and in articulation disorder occurred in age group 4 to 6 years with about 42%, and in hearing impaired patients occurred mainly in age group of 2 to 4 years with about 45%, in children with mental retardation occurred in age group of 6 to 8 years with about 29%, voice disorders occurred in age 20 to 29 (25%), nasality problems in age group 3 to 5 years (25%), dyslexia in age group 8 to 10 years (40%), and the cases of apraxia, aphasia, and autism were low in number. Conclusion The age and sex distribution of communication disorders varies according to the type of disorder. The speechlanguage pathologists have very important role in the evaluation and treatment of speech language disorders. There is great deficiency of this specialty in this country, and the aim of this article is to ring the bell of attention to these common disorders. Abbreviations SLP: Speech-language pathologist; CDs: Communication disorders; DLD: Delayed language development; HIP: Hearing impaired patient; MR: Mental retardation; CP: Cerebral palsy. How to cite this article Al-Dujaily M, Nabàa SJA. Age and Sex Distribution of Speech Disorders. Int J Phonosurg Laryngol 2015;5(1):7-14.

Aim: To study speech disorders encountered in routine ENT practice and the role of speech therapy in its effective management. Material and Methods: The present study was carried out on 60 patients, who were presented to the out patient department of E.N.T., M.P.SHAH MEDICAL COLEGE, JAMNAGAR (Gujarat),for speech disorders. The OPD and Indoor patients of the E.N.T. department, who had a speech defect prior to or following surgical interference for organic Otorhinolaryngologic disorders were also included in this study. Results: Speech disorders like Dyslalia, Dysglossia, Stuttering were prevalent in both the sexes and in every level of society, though the disorders were more prevalent in males as compared to females. Stuttering was the most common disorder encountered and speech therapy had encouraging results. All the ten patients of Dyslalia were subjected to appropriate articulation training, following which eight patients improved satisfactorily whereas two patients missed follow-up. All the eight Deaf-Mute patients were given auditory training and speech and language stimulation therapy, following which, two patients acquired satisfactory speech level. All seven patients of Dysglossia improved satisfactorily after tongue tie release surgery and appropriate speech therapy. Conclusion: With the advent of newer treatment modalities and improved coordination between ENT surgeons and speech-pathologists for correct diagnosis of speech disorders, speech therapy is suitably individualized according to the expectation of the patients and limitation of the speech pathologists. A fuller understanding of the effectiveness of speech therapy amongst the patients has developed and it has emerged as an acceptable modality of treatment of various speech disorders.

The claims of primary school children with speech disorders are characterized by the presence of maladaptive forms of behavior in a situation of success or failure. Students with speech disorders demonstrate such features of behavior in a situation of failure as: blaming others and circumstances for their failures (including language), problems in communication and interpersonal interaction, taking responsibility for their actions, discrediting goals and objectives, low productivity of organized activities. The article presents the results of a study of the level of claims of primary school students with speech disorders and their peers without speech pathologies. The purpose of the article: to study the level of claims of younger schoolchildren with severe speech disorders. The study sample consisted of 40 students of grades 3 – 4. The level of students' claims was determined using the "Schwarzlander Motor Test" technique. For students with speech disorders, the predominance of an inadequately inflated level of claims is characteristic. Unrealistically high levels of claims were found in 75% of students with speech disorders. Moderate and high levels of pretensions prevail among students with normotypic development. Students with speech disorders have an inadequately inflated level of claims. An unrealistically high level of claims was revealed only in a group of students with speech disorders. Their claims are characterized by: firstly, low resistance to failure and low ability to withstand prolonged stress, and secondly, a great need for high claims associated with unrealistically inflated self-esteem.

Speech data from people with atypical speech patterns remain underrepresented in research, limiting the development of effective assistive technologies for communication support. The SofiaFala Ecoa project addresses this gap by designing and deploying an accessible, citizen-science-driven platform for the collaborative collection of a multitask atypical speech corpus. This initiative combines a redesigned mobile application, a web-based recording portal, and interdisciplinary outreach activities to engage participants with speech disorders, their families, and healthcare professionals. The system enables the capture of speech in multiple tasks—such as reading, repetition, and spontaneous speech—while supporting multimodal data integration. Our objectives are threefold: (1) to establish a scalable and inclusive infrastructure for gathering speech data; (2) to expand the availability of publicly shareable corpora of atypical speech; and (3) to foster community participation in research on assistive speech technologies. The contributions of SofiaFala Ecoa include the creation of a pilot corpus covering multiple speech tasks, the implementation of tools and protocols to ensure ethical and secure data collection, and the demonstration of feasibility through initial engagement metrics. By bridging accessibility, inclusivity, and technological innovation, SofiaFala Ecoa paves the way for improved AI-based speech technologies that reflect the needs of people with speech disorders.

Technology incorporation in speech therapy has been growing over the years. Mobile applications are among the adoptions that facilitate delivering speech therapy services. The situation in Malaysia is discouraging because there are not enough speech-language pathologists (SLPs) to serve the growing number of populations. Despite the abundance of available speech therapy mobile applications in the market, there is a lack of information focusing on the SLP’s knowledge and usage perspectives,especially inMalaysia.The objectives of this study are to describe the knowledge and usage perspectives of speech therapy mobile applications among SLPs in Malaysiaandto analyze the instructional features and functional features relationships within the perspectivesof SLPs.Surveys are established in three parts, with demographic questions in Part A, Likertscale responses for statements in Part B, and open-ended questions in Part C. This study is co-designed to relate to the results from an initial study that adopted PRISMA(PreferredReporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) and features analysis. The data from the initial study includes a review of 161 apps out of 1797 that have been identified. Five instructional features and nine functional features are presented. There are 35 SLPs participatingin the survey. Their responses demonstrate evidence of SLPs’knowledge and usage of speechtherapy mobile applications.We will propose a conceptual framework for the features of speechtherapy mobile applications,using peoplewith aphasiaas a point of reference for users with speech and language disorders

Speech and language disorders in children account for about 6% of the population, and if not treated adequately they persist. Thus, affected children may experience long-term problems such as both diminished socialization and literacy in later life. Assistive technologies in the form of serious games have been successfully used to support language and speech therapies, but their developers have the challenge of improving their human-computer interfaces. This paper describes the design and development of a mobile software (a serious game app) that runs on a tablet. Its main objective is to support children's speech and language therapy of English language tenses. Important usability testing and design guidelines regarding mobile interfaces are addressed. Future work will include usability testing based on the user-centered design (UCD) paradigm and prototyping to improve its interface design.

The article discusses the types of strokes, general statistics and prevalence of strokes in the world and in Ukraine. The survey and tendencies to occurrence in younger people were carried out; the factors of stroke occurrence in young people have been studied. Statistics on the uneven distribution of strokes by gender were analyzed. It has been determined that women are at higher risk of suffering a severe or fatal stroke than men. The main reasons for such statistics are indicated. The main types of speech and language impairments that can occur after cerebral circulatory disorders are analyzed. The leading signs of aphasia, apraxia and dysarthria in adults have been identified. The definition of progressive apraxia of speech is revealed. It is established that these disorders occur due to damage to the language areas of the brain. The advantages of using electronic means of communication in speech-language therapy during quarantine restrictions and martial law in Ukraine are revealed. Software and messengers were characterised, such as Google Meet, Zoom, Teams, and Skype, that are used during distance and/or face-to-face sessions with a speech language pathologist. The main advantages of using these programs and the requirements for a speech language pathologist in the use of electronic means of communication are described. The concept of "social networks" and their impact on the rehabilitation of adult patients is revealed. The positive aspects of using social networks with adults during speech-language therapy, in particular Instagram and Facebook, are highlighted. Mobile applications are described as an additional means of restoring various aspects of speech, language and higher mental functions. It is noted that the current situation in the country, taking into account quarantine restrictions and martial law, can not provide full, continuous and quality speech language therapy in these cases, which leads to the conclusion that the lack of effectiveness of using exclusively traditional methods and techniques to compensate speech and language disorders caused by stroke, and encourages further search for ways to improve it by electronic means of communication. The author sees the need for a research aimed at studying the use of electronic means of communication in speech language therapy for people who have suffered a stroke.