SYSTEM FOR QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF SPEECH

ASSESSMENT OF THE SPEECH OF COMMUNICATIVELY HANDICAPPED INDIVIDUALS IS ONE OF THE PRIMARY ACTIVITIES PERFORMED BY SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGISTS. THIS PROJECT EXAMINES THE FEASIBILITY OF A SEMIAUTOMATED, COMPREHENSIVE SYSTEM FOR THEQUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT OF SPEECH TO BE IMPLEMENTED WITH CURRENTLY AVAILABLE TECHNOLOGY. THE ENVISIONED SYSTEM IS DESIGNED TO ACQUIRE RAW SPEECH OMIT DATA. AS WELL AS A TRAINED CLINICIAN'S OBSERVATIONS, IN THE COURSE OF THE TESTING SESSION. THE SYSTEM FOLLOWS A TESTING BATTERY MODEL, EXAMINING SUCH FACTORS AS: (1) CLIENT'S BACKGROUND/ HISTORY, (2) SINGLE-WORD ARTICULATION ABILITY, (3) SENTENCE ARTICULATION ABILITY, (4) RECEPTIVE ARTICULATION ABILITIES (5) SPEECH MOTOR FUNCTIONS, AND (6) PERIPHERAL INTEGRITY OF THE SPEECH MECHANISM. AS A FIRST STEP TOWARD THE ENVISIONED SYSTEM, THIS STUDY IS COMPRISED OF A SINGLE-WORD ARTICULATION TEST FOLLOWED BY MISARTICULATION ANALYSES TO EXAMINE THE EXTENT TO WHICH EXISTING SPEECH RECOGNITION TECHNOLOGY CAN BE ADAPTED TO PROVIDE ANALYSES AT THE PHONETIC LEVEL THAT IS CONSISTENT WITH THE CLINICIAN'S ASSESSMENT OF THE CLIENT'S ARTICULATIONSKILLS. IF FEASIBILITY IS VALIDATED, PHASE II WILL BE DEVOTED TO IMPLEMENTING THE ANALYSIS ALGORITHM AND ASSOCIATED DATA MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE FUNCITONS REQUIRED TO AUTOMATE THE ASSESSMENT PROCESS. FURTHER LEVELS OF ANALYSIS WILL BE DEVELOPED INCLUDING PHONOLOGICAL PROCESS ANALYSIS, PHONETIC CONTEXT ANALYSES OF ERROR SOUNDS, AND ACOUSTIC ANLAYSES OF ERROR SOUNDS. POSITIVE RESULTS FROM THIS STUDY YIELD A REDUCTION IN TIME-CONSUMING DATA COLLECTION, STORAGE, AND ANALYSIS ON THEPART OF THE CLINICIAN, AS WELL AS IMPROVED DIAGNOSTICE PRECISION. A SYSTEM SUCH AS THIS WOULD HAVE WIDESPREAD APPEAL FOR ALL SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGISTS, AUDIOLOGISTS, AND EDUCATORS INVOLVED IN THE REMEDIATION OF DISORDERED SPEECH.