Speech training devices for profoundly deaf children

Prelingually, profoundly deaf children have great difficulty achieving intelligible speech. Even after intensive therapy, their speech is deficient in voice pitch, rhythm, stress and intonation, as well as segmental phonetic characteristics. To facilitate the speech training of these children, we are developing two interrelated personal computer (PC) based systems: a school system and a home system. In the school system, speech production is monitored by microphone, electroglottograph, and pneumotachograph. The home system uses only microphone input. Both systems use video displays for providing feedback and reinforcement. The school system allows diagnosis, training by game playing, and specification of games to be played on the home system. The home system provides directed speech practice between therapy sessions.