Robot-Assisted Therapy for Children with Delayed Speech Development: a Pilot Study

Zhanatkyzy, Aida; Turarova, Aizada; Telisheva, Zhansaule; Abylkasymova, Galiya; Sandygulova, Anara

doi:10.1109/ro-man46459.2019.8956257

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 7 publications

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“…In addition to the development of web-based technologies to aid speech and language therapy, emerging research into AI and robotics has also begun to open up new application areas. Robotics and AI have already been widely explored in education and therapy settings, for example, in speech therapy (Qi et al, 2023;Zhanatkyzy et al, 2019), and in education and assistive technologies for older persons (Chew et al, 2021;Su et al, 2022;Garcia-Sanjuan et al, 2017). Over the past decade, applications of robots for children have also been explored to improve the educational experience of those with disabilities (Ioannou and Andreva, 2019), as classroom aids (Kradolfer et al, 2014), and in language education for children with dyslexia (Mcvey et al, 2022).…”

Section: Robot-assisted Education and Speech Therapymentioning

confidence: 99%

Robot-Assisted Language Education and Speech Therapy for Children with Cleft Lip and Palate

Najm,

Chew,

Bentley

2023

ECEL

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Cleft lip and palate (CLP) is a congenital anomaly that can have detrimental effects on an individual's ability to produce certain sounds, including bilabial sounds such as /m/ and alveolar sounds such as /n/, as well as sounds that require closure between the nasal and oral cavities, such as sounds ending in /-ɪŋ/. While surgical intervention can assist in correcting anatomical irregularities, consistent speech and language therapy sessions are often necessary to overcome obstacles associated with speech production. The research problem addressed in this study is the interruption of regular therapy, as evidenced by the discontinuation of services during the COVID-19 pandemic, which can lead to setbacks in progress and an increase in the risk of developmental delays in children. To explore the potential of educational robots to address this problem, this paper (i) investigates the user requirements, usability considerations, and attitudes to speech therapy robots, from the perspective of parents and carers of children with CLP, (ii) presents an experimental prototype for CLP language education and speech therapy using a humanoid robot, named Robot Lily, based on input from prospective users; and (iii) evaluates the prototype Robot Lily on a subject with CLP. The robot has been programmed to interact with the child in a naturalistic manner, using the same language and gestures employed by human speech and language therapists. The robot can respond to inquiries, practice articulation and pronunciation, aid the child with speech fluency, provide feedback, and encourage continued speech exercises. The primary interactions between a child with CLP and Robot Lily were observed and evaluated, with the robot shown to provide a unique opportunity to acquire speech and language abilities in a captivating and interactive manner. Compared to web-based applications, speech education assistant robots like Robot Lily may offer children a more appealing, engaging, and practical solution; and be remotely controlled by humans for specialized interventions at home, thereby circumventing the challenges encountered during COVID-19. These findings and methods have been used to develop an integrated model for ethical robotic speech therapy utilizing machine learning, which is expected to help meet the growing demand for speech therapy services.

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Section: Robot-assisted Education and Speech Therapymentioning

confidence: 99%

Robot-Assisted Language Education and Speech Therapy for Children with Cleft Lip and Palate

Najm,

Chew,

Bentley

2023

ECEL

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Utilizing an Emotional Robot Capable of Lip-Syncing in Robot-Assisted Speech Therapy Sessions for Children with Language Disorders

Esfandbod

Rokhi

Meghdari

et al. 2022

Int J of Soc Robotics

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This study scrutinizes the impacts of utilizing a socially assistive robot, the RASA robot, during speech therapy sessions for children with language disorders. Two capabilities were developed for the robotic platform to enhance children-robot interactions during speech therapy interventions: facial expression communication (containing recognition and expression) and lip-syncing. Facial expression recognition was conducted by training several well-known CNN architectures on one of the most extensive facial expressions databases, the AffectNet database, and then modifying them using the transfer learning strategy performed on the CK+ dataset. The robot’s lip-syncing capability was designed in two steps. The first step was concerned with designing precise schemes of the articulatory elements needed during the pronunciation of the Persian phonemes (i.e., consonants and vowels). The second step included developing an algorithm to pronounce words by disassembling them into their components (including consonants and vowels) and then morphing them into each other successively. To pursue the study’s primary goal, two comparable groups of children with language disorders were considered, the intervention and control groups. The intervention group attended therapy sessions in which the robot acted as the therapist’s assistant, while the control group only communicated with the human therapist. The study’s first purpose was to compare the children’s engagement while playing a mimic game with the affective robot and the therapist, conducted via video coding. The second objective was to assess the efficacy of the robot’s presence in the speech therapy sessions alongside the therapist, accomplished by administering the Persian Test of Language Development, Persian TOLD. According to the first scenario, playing with the affective robot is more engaging than playing with the therapist. Furthermore, the statistical analysis of the study’s results indicates that participating in robot-assisted speech therapy (RAST) sessions enhances children with language disorders’ achievements in comparison with taking part in conventional speech therapy interventions.

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Robot-Assisted Therapy for Children with Delayed Speech Development: a Pilot Study

Cited by 2 publications

References 7 publications

Robot-Assisted Language Education and Speech Therapy for Children with Cleft Lip and Palate

Robot-Assisted Language Education and Speech Therapy for Children with Cleft Lip and Palate

Utilizing an Emotional Robot Capable of Lip-Syncing in Robot-Assisted Speech Therapy Sessions for Children with Language Disorders

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