SIGNAL PROCESSING DEVICE FOR IMPAIRED SPEECH ASSESSMENT

THE EFFECTIVENESS OF SPEECH THERAPY AND TRAINING IS LIMITED BY THE TIME AVAILABLE FOR INTERACTION BETWEEN THE THERAPIST OR TEACHER AND THE PUPIL. A DEVICE THAT COULD AUTOMATICALLYCOMPARE A BRIEF UTTERANCE TO A STANDARD OR REFERENCE VERSION OF THAT UTTERANCE, AND DISPLAY A MEASURE OF THE TRIAL UTTERANCE ON A SPEECH-QUALITY SCALE, WOULD SERVE AS AN IMPORTANT EXTENSION OF SPEECH THERAPY AND TRAINING BETWEEN LESSONS. RESEARCH INTO THE NATURE OF SPEECH AND THE RAPID DEVELOPMENTOF SIGNAL-PROCESSING TECHNOLOGY NOW PERMIT CONSTRUCTION OF SUCH A DEVICE AT REASONABLE COST. THIS PROJECT WILL DETERMINE THE FEASIBILITY OF APPLYING PHONEME-BASED SPEECH RECOGNITION ALGORITHMS TO EVALUATION OF IMPAIRED SPEECH. THE RESULTS OF THE EVALUATION WILL BE DISPLAYED ON A SCALE THAT IS CONSISTENT WITH THE EVALUATIONS OF TRAINED SPEECH SCIENTISTS FOR THE SAME EXAMPLES OF IMPAIRED SPEECH.