Speech Aid Research Articles

On the application of intelligent speech aids in English teaching under multimedia environment

In order to improve the effect of English Teaching in multimedia environment, this paper proposes an English teaching method based on intelligent language AIDS in multimedia environment. Firstly, an intelligent speech teaching assistant system is designed in the multimedia environment. The software mainly includes four modules: new words and sentences, Chinese and English reading, voice evaluation, tools and settings. Learners can learn independently through the software, and teachers can also use the software to make various audio teaching resources in the classroom. In addition, the system can promote vocabulary teaching and support sentence pattern teaching and situational teaching in English teaching. The experimental results show that the average score of class 3A is increased from 86.35 to 86.79, with an increase of 0.64, which proves that the application of this method can effectively mobilize the enthusiasm of students in learning English and achieve good teaching effect.

Speech-aid prosthesis in velopharyngeal incompetency patient with cleft palate: can speech aids be applicable for adult patient?

BackgroundVelopharyngeal incompetence (VPI) therapy for cleft palate (speech therapy alone, speech therapy using speech aids, or combined therapy such as speech therapy using a pharyngeal flap), is more effective in younger patients than in adult patients. Speech therapy is known as very difficult for patients who still have VPI as an adult. Because of the possibility of subsequent speech disorders, the timing of surgery for cleft palate is accelerating. Herein, we present a case of an adult with articulation disorder due to VPI who was treated by speech therapy and a speech-aid prosthesis.Case presentationA woman who underwent cleft palate surgery at 8 years of age still had difficulty with articulation due to VPI as a 24-year-old adult because of a lack of continuous speech therapy. We decided to use a speech-aid application using palatal lift, and a reduction program was conducted four times, along with simultaneous speech therapy, over a period of 1 year and 7 months. During the therapy period, she was able to speak normally within a relatively short period of time, and after implementation of the reduction program, the therapy was completed by completely removing the device. Long-term observations have shown normal speech function without recurrence, even after the device was removed.ConclusionAs seen in this case, speech therapy using speech aids can show a good result for adult patients with cleft palate who missed the usual timing for the treatment of articulation disorders, depending on the situation. Therefore, it is hereby reported as a therapy option worthy of consideration.

Prosthetic management of an adult cleft patient with velopharyngeal appliance and airway evaluation by acoustic pharyngometry

Cleft lip and palate is the most common congenital malformation in oro-facial region. In adult cases where defect is large and paucity of tissue is there, prosthetic management of the defect with palatal obutrator and velopharyngeal appliance is the treatment of choice. It requires scrupulous clinical skills and detailed knowledge of anatomy to prevent airway obstruction and discomfort during function. Acoustic pharyngometry (AP) is an advanced tool to evaluate the airway in 3D during function without radiation exposure. In this case report palatal obturator with speech aid prosthesis was fabricated to rehabilitate an adult cleft palate patient. AP test was done to ensure adequate airway space with prosthesis.

Role of Speech Aid Prosthesis as Diagnostic and Therapeutic Aid for Velopharyngeal Insufficiency Defect: A Case Report

Soft palate tumors pose the challenge during reconstructive and rehabilitating procedures. Surgical resection of these tumors leads to velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI). The primary effects of VPI are hypernasality and air-flow escape, while the secondary effects are abnormalities in speech articulation. Surgical revision along with speech therapy is a common approach to the treatment of VPI. Prosthetic management by means of speech aid prosthesis helps to reduce resonance, nasal emission and consonants errors. This clinical report describes the different stages of rehabilitation of velopharyngeal insufficiency defect following resection of malignant melanoma of left posterior alveolar ridge and soft palate. The speech aid prosthesis helped to rehabilitate the velopharyngeal insufficiency defect and aided in the diagnosis of extent of speech function improvement by perceptual and objective methods.

Obturating materials in pediatric dentistry: A review

Primary teeth should be preserved until their normal exfoliation time so as to maintain arch length and function in order to provide proper guidance for the eruption of permanent teeth, enhance esthetics and mastication, prevent aberrant tongue habits, aid in speech and prevent the psychological effects associated with tooth loss. Pulpectomy consists of removing the pulp tissue associated with micro-organisms and debris from the canal and obturating with resorbable filling material. Success rate of endodontic therapy depends on many factors like familiarity with the complexity of primary tooth canal systems, their formation and resorption pattern, obturating material as well as obturation technique used that is capable of densely filling the entire root canal system and providing a fluid tight seal from the apical segment of the canal to the cavo-surface margin in order to prevent reinfection. One of the major areas of research in pulpectomy is to discover new materials for obturation so to have the specific properties similar to teeth. This article will render the role of many important obturating materials which we use in dentistry and their advantages and disadvantages and their modifications.

Multimodal Second-Language Communication: Research Findings and Pedagogical Implications

This article reviews research findings involving visual input in speech processing in the form of facial cues and co-speech gestures for second-language (L2) learners, and provides pedagogical implications for the teaching of listening and speaking. It traces the foundations of auditory–visual speech research and explores the role of a speaker’s facial cues in L2 perception training and of gestural cues in listening comprehension. There is a strong role for pedagogy to maximize the salience of multimodal cues for L2 learners. Visible articulatory gestures that precede the acoustic signal and the preparation phase of a hand gesture that precedes the acoustic onset of a word provide a priming effect on perceivers’ attention to signal upcoming information and facilitate processing, and visible gestures that co-occur with speech aid ongoing processing and comprehension. L2 learners benefit from an awareness of these visual cues and exposure to input.

Digital fabrication of an adult speech aid prosthesis by using a 3-dimensionally printed polyetheretherketone framework

This article presents a digital fabrication method for a speech aid prosthesis by using a 3D-printed polyetheretherketone (PEEK) framework. The computer-aided design (CAD) of the speech aid prosthesis framework was based on oral scan data. The framework was printed with PEEK filament material supplemented with nanoTiO2 powder by fused deposition modeling (FDM). A resin preliminary cast was 3D printed, and an altered cast technique was adopted to fabricate the definitive cast. The PEEK framework exhibited precise fit, toothlike color, excellent mechanical properties, and reduced weight as compared with a typical metal framework. This technique describes the successful clinical application of 3D-printed PEEK material for the fabrication of an adult speech aid prosthesis.

High-frequency spectral shaping enhances glimpsing speech in noise for younger adults with normal hearing

Amplification is necessary to restore audibility to individuals with hearing impairment. However, frequency-specific amplification alters the spectrum of speech in addition to increasing the speech level. The current study investigated the effects of spectrum and speech level on speech recognition by younger adults with normal hearing. Sentence recognition was measured in quiet, speech-modulated noise, and steady-state noise. In addition, acoustic metrics were utilized to quantify the alterations resulting from spectral shaping. Acoustic metrics included (1) the Hearing Aid Speech Perception Index, in order to investigate changes to the temporal envelope, and (2) glimpse analyses, to quantify the proportion of time-frequency units that were glimpsed in a sentence. Results demonstrated that at high speech levels in quiet, spectral shaping was associated with lower sentence recognition. However, in all other conditions, and particularly in noise, spectral shaping enhanced sentence recognition. Acoustic metrics indicated that this enhancement in noise is associated with increases in the proportion and signal-to-noise ratio of glimpses, which resulted in improved preservation of the envelope and temporal fine structure of sentences in comparison to unshaped stimuli. Thus, spectral shaping is beneficial for speech recognition in noise for normal hearing participants due to enhanced speech glimpses.

Obturating Techniques in Pediatric Dentistry : Literature Review

Primary teeth should be preserved until their normal exfoliation time so as to maintain arch length and function in order to provide proper guidance for the eruption of permanent teeth , enhance esthetics and mastication, prevent aberrant tongue habits, aid in speech and prevent the psychological effects associated with tooth loss. Pulpectomy consists of removing the pulp tissue associated with micro-organisms and debris from the canal and obturating with resorbable filling material. Success rate of endodontic therapy depends on many factors like familiarity with the complexity of primary tooth canal systems, their formation and resorption pattern, obturating material as well as obturation technique used that is capable of densely filling the entire root canal system and providing a fluid tight seal from the apical segment of the canal to the cavosurface margin in order to prevent reinfection. This review article basically focuses on various obturating techniques used in deciduous teeth with their comparison, pros and cons.

Fully Flexible Electromagnetic Vibration Sensors with Annular Field Confinement Origami Magnetic Membranes

AbstractSensing of mechanical motion based on flexible electromagnetic sensors is challenging due to the complexity of obtaining flexible magnetic membranes with confined and enhanced magnetic fields. A fully flexible electromechanical system (MEMS) sensor is developed to conduct wearable monitoring of mechanical displacement with excellent adaptability to complex surface morphology through a suspended flexible magnet enclosed within a novel setup formed by a multi‐layer flexible coil and annular origami magnetic membranes. The annular membranes not only regulate the overall distribution of the magnetic field and enhance the overall magnetism by 291%, but also greatly increase the range of the magnetic field to cover the entire region of the coil. The sensor offers a broad frequency response ranging from 1 Hz to 10 kHz and a sensitivity of 0.59 mV µm−1 at 1.7 kHz. The fully flexible format of the sensor enables various applications demonstrated by biophysical sensing, motion detection, voice recognition, and machine diagnostics through direct attachment on soft and curvilinear surfaces. Similar sensors can combine multiple sensing and energy harvesting modalities to achieve battery‐less and self‐sustainable operation, and can be deployed in large numbers to conduct distributed sensing for machine status assessment, health monitoring, rehabilitation, and speech aid.

Management of a velopharyngeal defect with hollow speech bulb prosthesis

Velopharyngeal (VP) insufficiency is an anatomic defect of the soft palate which renders the palatopharyngeal sphincter incomplete. In cases where a surgically repaired soft palate is too short to contact the pharyngeal walls during function, speech aid prosthesis or speech bulbs are optimum choices of treatment. This case report elaborates the correction of hypernasality of speech associated with VP insufficiency, by means of speech bulb prosthesis. This speech bulb is a combination of cast partial denture with extension into the defect area to hold heat cure acrylic material. This retentive component was embedded in heat cure acrylic resin material to aid in retention. This improved the hypernasality, speech, comfort, retention, and overall patient acceptance.

Training essential class students

In this article, we have provided information on the history of expressive reading, Uzbek speakers, and the role of speech aids in reading. We also briefly touched upon the important functions of expressive reading, how to organize expressive lessons, and the expressive reading of poetic and prose works. In conclusion, it is important for this article to provide theoretical and practical guidance on how elementary school teachers should teach students how to express themselves. If we look at the history of expressive reading, with the advent of fiction, its expressive reading and oral performance also emerged. As the stages of formation of fiction are complex and varied, so is the development of oral performance. The teacher explains to the students that one word is separated by a pause from the other, and at the end of the sentence there is a decline in the voice. The children, on the teacher's instruction, subdivide a small sentence of 3–5 sentences into sentences, and make sure that pausing between them helps to understand the story. Our president Sh. Mirziyoyev has stated, Critical analysis, strict discipline and personal responsibility are the daily rules of every leader's activity. In his book, “… the quality of teaching in secondary schools, lyceums and professional colleges, as well as in higher educational institutions. Implementation of modern training plans and methods is inadequate. The similarities between expressive reading and artistic reading are that they both follow the rules of speech articulation of the Uzbek language, general technical and theoretical means, pauses, accents, diction, intonation, tempo and rhythm will do. Because it all depends on the purpose of the author and the content of the text. Thus, expressive reading in school is based on the purpose of the writer and the text, the methodological skill of the teacher, the age and the level of knowledge of the students.

Quantifying the Range of Signal Modification in Clinically Fit Hearing Aids.

Hearing aids provide various signal processing techniques with a range of parameters to improve the listening experience for a hearing-impaired individual. In previous studies, we reported significant differences in signal modification for mild versus strong signal processing in commercially available hearing aids. In this study, the authors extend this work to clinically prescribed hearing aid fittings based on best-practice guidelines. The goals of this project are to determine the range of cumulative signal modification in clinically fit hearing aids across manufacturers and technology levels and the effects of listening conditions including signal to noise ratio (SNR) and presentation level on these signal modifications. We identified a subset of hearing aids that were representative of a typical clinical setting. Deidentified hearing aid fitting data were obtained from three audiology clinics for adult hearing aid users with sensorineural hearing loss for a range of hearing sensitivities. Matching laboratory hearing aids were programmed with the deidentified fitting data. Output from these hearing aids was recorded at four SNRs and three presentation levels. The resulting signal modification was quantified using the cepstral correlation component of the Hearing Aid Speech Quality Index which measures the speech envelope changes in the context of a model of the listener's hearing loss. These metric values represent the hearing aid processed signal as it is heard by the hearing aid user. Audiometric information was used to determine the nature of any possible association with the distribution of signal modification in these clinically fit hearing aids. In general, signal modification increased as SNR decreased and presentation level increased. Differences across manufacturers were significant such that the effect of presentation level varied differently at each SNR, for each manufacturer. This result suggests that there may be variations across manufacturers in processing various listening conditions. There was no significant effect of technology level. There was a small effect of pure-tone average on signal modification for one manufacturer, but no effect of audiogram slope. Finally, there was a broad range of measured signal modification for a given hearing loss, for the same manufacturer and listening condition. The signal modification values in this study are representative of commonly fit hearing aids in clinics today. The results of this study provide insights into how the range of signal modifications obtained in real clinical fittings compares with a previous study. Future studies will focus on the behavioral implications of signal modifications in clinically fit hearing aids.

Speech fine structure contains critical temporal cues to support speech segmentation

Segmenting the continuous speech stream into units for further perceptual and linguistic analyses is fundamental to speech recognition. The speech amplitude envelope (SE) has long been considered a fundamental temporal cue for segmenting speech. Does the temporal fine structure (TFS), a significant part of speech signals often considered to contain primarily spectral information, contribute to speech segmentation? Using magnetoencephalography, we show that the TFS entrains cortical responses between 3 and 6 Hz and demonstrate, using mutual information analysis, that (i) the temporal information in the TFS can be reconstructed from a measure of frame-to-frame spectral change and correlates with the SE and (ii) that spectral resolution is key to the extraction of such temporal information. Furthermore, we show behavioural evidence that, when the SE is temporally distorted, the TFS provides cues for speech segmentation and aids speech recognition significantly. Our findings show that it is insufficient to investigate solely the SE to understand temporal speech segmentation, as the SE and the TFS derived from a band-filtering method convey comparable, if not inseparable, temporal information. We argue for a more synthetic view of speech segmentation – the auditory system groups speech signals coherently in both temporal and spectral domains.

Acoustic noise and vision differentially warp the auditory categorization of speech.

Speech perception requires grouping acoustic information into meaningful linguistic-phonetic units via categorical perception (CP). Beyond shrinking observers' perceptual space, CP might aid degraded speech perception if categories are more resistant to noise than surface acoustic features. Combining audiovisual (AV) cues also enhances speech recognition, particularly in noisy environments. This study investigated the degree to which visual cues from a talker (i.e., mouth movements) aid speech categorization amidst noise interference by measuring participants' identification of clear and noisy speech (0 dB signal-to-noise ratio) presented in auditory-only or combined AV modalities (i.e., A, A+noise, AV, AV+noise conditions). Auditory noise expectedly weakened (i.e., shallower identification slopes) and slowed speech categorization. Interestingly, additional viseme cues largely counteracted noise-related decrements in performance and stabilized classification speeds in both clear and noise conditions suggesting more precise acoustic-phonetic representations with multisensory information. Results are parsimoniously described under a signal detection theory framework and by a reduction (visual cues) and increase (noise) in the precision of perceptual object representation, which were not due to lapses of attention or guessing. Collectively, findings show that (i) mapping sounds to categories aids speech perception in "cocktail party" environments; (ii) visual cues help lattice formation of auditory-phonetic categories to enhance and refine speech identification.

Treatment of velopharyngeal insufficiency in a patient with a submucous cleft palate using a speech aid: the more treatment options, the better the treatment results

BackgroundThe submucous cleft palate (SMCP) is a type of cleft palate that may result in velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI). Palate muscles completely separate oral and nasal cavities by closing off the velopharynx during functional processes such as speech or swallow. Also, hypernasality may arise from anatomical or neurological abnormalities in these functions. Treatments of this issue involve a combination of surgical intervention, speech aid, and speech therapy. This case report demonstrates successfully treated VPI resulted from SMCP without any surgical intervention but solely with speech aid appliance and speech therapy.Case presentationA 13-year-old female patient with a speech disorder from velopharyngeal insufficiency that was caused by a submucous cleft palate visited to our OMFS clinic. In the intraoral examination, the patient had a short soft palate and bifid uvula. And the muscles in the palate did not contract properly during oral speech. She had no surgical history such as primary palatoplasty or pharyngoplasty except for tonsillectomy. And there were no other medical histories. Objective speech assessment using nasometer was performed. We diagnosed that the patient had a SMCP. The patient has shown a decrease in speech intelligibility, which resulted from hypernasality. We decided to treat the patient with speech aid (palatal lift) along with speech therapy. During the 7-month treatment, hypernasality measured by a nasometer decreased and speech intelligibility became normal.ConclusionsSurgery remains the first treatment option for patients with velopharyngeal insufficiencies from submucous cleft palates. However, there were few reports about objective speech evaluation pre- or post-operation. Moreover, there has been no report of non-surgical treatment in the recent studies. From this perspective, this report of objective improvement of speech intelligibility of VPI patient with SMCP by non-surgical treatment has a significant meaning. Speech aid can be considered as one of treatment options for management of SMCP.

Speech Aid Prosthesis: A Non-surgical Approach for the Management of Velopharyngeal Insufficiency

Speech Aid Prosthesis: A Non-surgical Approach for the Management of Velopharyngeal Insufficiency

Learning-Based Reference-Free Speech Quality Measures for Hearing Aid Applications

Objective measures of speech quality are highly desirable in benchmarking and monitoring the performance of hearing aids (HAs). Existing HA speech quality indices such as the hearing aid speech quality index (HASQI) are intrusive in that they require a properly time-aligned and frequency-shaped reference signal to predict the quality of HA output. Two new reference-free HA speech quality indices are proposed in this paper, based on a model that amalgamates perceptual linear prediction (PLP), hearing loss (HL) modeling, and machine learning concepts. For the first index, HL-modified PLP coefficients and their statistics were used as the feature set, which was subsequently mapped to the predicted quality scores using support vector regression (SVR). For the second index, HL-impacted gammatone auditory filterbank energies and their second-order statistics constituted the feature set, which was again mapped using SVR. Two databases involving HA recordings were collected and utilized for the evaluation of the robustness and generalizability of the two indices. Experimental results showed that the index based on the gammatone filterbank energies not only correlated well with HA quality ratings by hearing impaired listeners, but also exhibited robust performance across different test conditions and was comparable to the full-reference HASQI performance.

Using Objective Metrics to Measure Hearing Aid Performance.

The performance of hearing aids is generally characterized by a small set of standardized measurements. The primary goals of these procedures are to measure basic aspects of the hearing aid performance and to ascertain that the device is operating properly. A more general need exists for objective metrics that can predict hearing aid outcomes. Such metrics must consider the interaction of all the signal processing operating in the hearing aid and must do so while also accounting for the hearing loss for which the hearing aid has been prescribed. This article represents a first step in determining the clinical applicability of the hearing aid speech perception index (HASPI) intelligibility and hearing aid speech quality index (HASQI) speech quality metrics. The goals of this article are to demonstrate the feasibility of applying these metrics to commercial hearing aids and to illustrate the anticipated range of measured values and identify implementation concerns that may not be present for conventional measurements. This article uses the HASPI intelligibility and HASQI speech quality metrics to measure the performance of commercial hearing aids. These metrics measure several aspects of the processed signal, including envelope fidelity, modifications of the temporal fine structure, and changes in the long-term frequency response, all in the context of an auditory model that reproduces the salient aspects of the peripheral hearing loss. The metrics are used to measure the performance of basic and premium hearing aids from three different manufacturers. Test conditions include the environmental factors of signal to noise ratio and presentation level, and the fitting configurations were varied to provide different degrees of processing from linear to aggressive nonlinear processing for two different audiograms. The results show that the metrics are capable of measuring statistically significant differences across devices and processing settings. HASPI and HASQI measure both audibility and nonlinear distortion in the devices, and conditions are identified where predicted intelligibility is high but predicted speech quality is substantially reduced. The external signal properties of signal to noise ratio and presentation level are both statistically significant. Hearing loss is significant for HASPI but not for HASQI, and degree of processing is significant for both metrics. A quadratic model for manufacturer showed large effect sizes for HASPI and HASQI, but basic versus premium hearing aid model is not significant. The results presented in this article represent a first step in applying the HASPI and HASQI metrics to commercial hearing aids. Modern hearing aids often use several different processing strategies operating simultaneously. The proposed metrics provide a way to predict the total effect of this processing, including algorithm interactions that may be missed by conventional measurement procedures. The measurements in this article show significant differences between manufacturers, processing settings, and adjustment for different hearing losses. No significant differences were found between basic and premium hearing aid models. Further research will be needed to determine the clinical relevance of these measurements and to provide target values appropriate for successful fittings.

On Dynamic Pitch Benefit for Speech Recognition in Speech Masker.

Previous work demonstrated that dynamic pitch (i.e., pitch variation in speech) aids speech recognition in various types of noises. While this finding suggests dynamic pitch enhancement in target speech can benefit speech recognition in noise, it is of importance to know what noise characteristics affect dynamic pitch benefit, and who will benefit from enhanced dynamic pitch cues. Following our recent finding that temporal modulation in noise influences dynamic pitch benefit, we examined the effect of speech masker characteristics on dynamic pitch benefit. Specifically, the first goal of the study was to test the hypothesis that dynamic pitch benefit varies depending on the availability of pitch cues in the masker and the intelligibility of masker. The second goal of this study was to investigate whether older listeners as a group can benefit from dynamic pitch for speech recognition in speech maskers. In addition, individual factors of hearing loss and working memory capacity were examined for their impact on older listeners' dynamic pitch benefit. Twenty-three younger listeners with normal hearing and 37 older listeners with varying levels of hearing sensitivity participated the study, in which speech reception thresholds were measured with sentences in speech maskers. While we did not find an effect of masker characteristics on dynamic pitch benefit, the results showed older listeners can benefit from dynamic pitch for recognizing speech in speech maskers. The data also suggest that among those older listeners with hearing loss, dynamic pitch benefit is stronger for individuals with higher working memory capacity. This can be attributed to their ability to exploit facilitated lexical access in processing of degraded speech signal.