Abstract
Children with speech sound disorders benefit from feedback about the accuracy of sounds they make. Home practice can reinforce feedback received from speech pathologists. Games in mobile device applications could encourage home practice, but those currently available are of limited value because they are unlikely to elaborate “Correct”/”Incorrect” feedback with information that can assist in improving the accuracy of the sound. This protocol proposes a “Wizard of Oz” experiment that aims to provide evidence for the provision of effective multimedia feedback for speech sound development. Children with two common speech sound disorders will play a game on a mobile device and make speech sounds when prompted by the game. A human “Wizard” will provide feedback on the accuracy of the sound but the children will perceive the feedback as coming from the game. Groups of 30 young children will be randomly allocated to one of five conditions: four types of feedback and a control which does not play the game. The results of this experiment will inform not only speech sound therapy, but also other types of language learning, both in general, and in multimedia applications. This experiment is a cost-effective precursor to the development of a mobile application that employs pedagogically and clinically sound processes for speech development in young children.
Highlights
Speech development resources and materials for use on tablet-based and touchscreen devices have become widely available in recent years
This study aims to employ a “Wizard of Oz” design to evaluate the efficacy within a multimedia platform of four types of feedback to assist speech development in young children
How effective are different types of feedback in improving speech sounds in young children while using a multimedia platform?
Summary
Speech development resources and materials for use on tablet-based and touchscreen devices have become widely available in recent years. Applications for mobile devices are unlikely to provide feedback on speech sounds produced by children (see section Preliminary App Search) This project will set up a series of experiments (The Wizard of Oz experiments) to systematically examine which aspects of feedback are most effective in engaging and motivating children with speech sound disorders to use the computer technology that is currently available. This will result in developed portable technologies which will allow children with speech sound disorders to fully engage and benefit from highly sophisticated speech training “apps” on tablet, web and smart phone devices to assist with homework when engaged in speech pathology interventions with a speech pathologist and develop intelligible and age-appropriate speech. This technology will provide much needed resources for large numbers of children who live in regional, remote and rural settings and who have very limited access to specialist remediation and treatment
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