Development of Speech Enabled Communication Tool in Kannada for Clients with Speech Impairment

Abstract

Introduction and Background: Cerebral palsy is a non-progressive neurogenic disorder marked by paralysis, weakness, incoordination, or any other abnormal motor function caused by pathology in the brain's motor control regions. Speech-language problems in individuals with cerebral palsy occur depending on the degree and location of the brain injury and impede their communication. Even in the case of persons with dysarthria, the speech difficulties are due to lack of muscle tone or poor control and co-ordination of muscles required for speech production. The speech of individuals with dysarthria is difficult to understand and is characterized by slow rate, slurred, weak and imprecise articulation, and speech is often interrupted by frequent breathing.

Communication aids play an essential role in social rehabilitation, which directly support the inclusion and participation of people with cerebral palsy/dysarthria within society. For the successful rehabilitation or full participation of a person with cerebral palsy, the communication aid must be easy to operate and is not restricted to a specific place but should be available to clients even during their mobility periods. Most of the available ones are from western countries that suits the requirement of western consumers. The problems of those imported communication aids from western countries are; language barrier (mostly they are in English), not relevant Icons used for the Indian context, very expensive, difficult for servicing, not suitable for Indian socio-cultural scenario and so on.

In this context, the present project is aimed to develop a prototype communication aid in Kannada language for severe speech impairment clients who have cerebral palsy/dysarthria. The secondary objective of the project is to evaluate the functionality of the developed prototype communication aid in clients with speech impairment. The tertiary objective is to incorporate the suggestions from the users (in field testing) into the developed prototype communication aid and to make it into affordable, accessible to clients with speech impairment who speak Kannada language.

Methods: The study was carried out in four phases. In phase one, adaptation and selection of icons/symbols was done across six communication contexts. Food/dining needs; Personal needs; Entertainment needs; Snacks/refreshment needs; Educational/academic needs and Toileting needs are the six context selected in the present study. In second phase, the prototype version of the communication tool was assembled. It has majorly two parts namely, Handheld device (transmitter unit); and Centralized Receiver unit. Five children with speech impairment participated in the field testing phase (phase 3) by using the developed prototype for five consecutive days. The device was installed at five participants’s homes. The caregivers were taught how to utilise the gadget with clients who had speech impairments. Feedback was obtained from the caregivers, and incorporated them in the final version of the communication tool in the fourth phase of study.

Results: The developed prototype has an LCD display unit and provide voice output in sentence level in Kannada language. The orthography related to each of the icon/symbol is also displayed. The designed device is a portable one, weighed about less than two kilograms with dimensions of 8 inches in length and 10 inches in breadth. Positive feedback, along with minor suggestions were received from the caregivers and was also incorporated in the final version of the communication tool.

Conclusions: The present study revealed several points of interests; Firstly, the developed voice output communication tool can improve communication effectively in individuals with speech impairment (particularly in children with cerebral palsy) on a everyday scenario. Secondly, if the developed speech-enabled communication aid can be made available for commercial purposes, it would be first of its kind to cater to the needs of individuals with speech impairments in the Kannada language. Further, this communication aid will improve the overall quality of life of persons with speech impairment.