Speech Therapy Animation and imaging Resource (STAR)

Speech and Language Therapy training and practice is dominated by approaches involving listening to sounds, feeling the movements of the speech organs and verbal descriptions of how speech sounds are produced. However, recent research involving use of visual information about hidden speech organ movement in particular (e.g. tongue movement) has shown that visual approaches to speech therapy can be game changing, providing breakthroughs after years of conventional therapy. One of the main advantages of visual approaches is that viewing dynamic imaging of the hidden speech organs has been shown to be a more intuitive method of demonstrating target speech articulations, particularly for children, avoiding complex, abstract descriptions of how speech organs move.

Several technologies can be used to reveal the hidden speech organs. Ultrasound Tongue Imaging (UTI), using standard medical ultrasound machines, has emerged as a promising therapy tool, allowing users to view target tongue movements and compare them to their own. Magnetic Resonance Imaging provides a more comprehensive view, showing all parts of the vocal tract, but is not suitable for use in day-to-day therapy. Costs, training and accessibility prevent the general use of these technologies in Speech Therapy clinics; however, clinical and phonetic researchers have collected a large number of UTI and MRI video recordings of both disordered and non-disordered speech. These represent a valuable training/therapeutic resource, but cannot be accessed in their current form, as most UTI/MRI datasets can be viewed only using expensive and technically-sophisticated specialist software. UTI and MRI reveal a greater variety of strategies for speech-sound production than are generally considered, and therefore provide a greater number of strategies for Clients to try. The benefit for Speech Therapy Clients is a better understanding of tongue movement and placement in speech-sound production, a more intuitive means of understanding vocal-organ movement and visual input, which can be particularly useful for those who learn more effectively through visual demonstration.

This project will create bespoke resources for Speech Therapists' training and use in Clinic; the Speech Therapy Animation and imaging Resource (STAR). Existing vocal-tract-imaging recordings from six different clinical and non-clinical speech-research projects will be made available online, in the most accessible formats and user-friendly interfaces. Additionally, MRI recordings of speech will be used to create accurate, simplified vocal-tract animations for use by paediatric Speech Therapy Clients, in Clinic and at home. These animations will show how the vocal organs move in the production of speech sounds. STAR will consist of two Web sites; one for Speech Therapists' training, reference and continuing professional development, and the other for use by paediatric Clients and their families, in Clinic, and at home.

The training site will contain vocal-tract animations and explanations of UTI and MRI technology and recording processes. It will contain much needed databases of UTI videos of disordered and non-disordered speech, showing a variety of speech-errors and disorders, as well as normative speech-sound production in a variety of English accents.

The clinical site will contain clear and informative animations explaining how the vocal tract works and showing speech-sound production in different syllable positions. It will also contain interactive animated homework exercises to facilitate aspects of practise homework set by Therapists in Clinic.

STAR will make available these resources at a time when the need for remote quality clinical teaching has never been greater. The research strand of our project will be to work with the SLT community and Clients, to assess how best to deliver remote and/or blended training and therapy, which meets the challenges of the current and post-COVID-19 environment