Evaluation of "Speech System" and "Skill": An Interaction Paradigm for Speech Therapy

Speech therapy is the medical field in which speech impairments are treated. They concern the inability of individuals to adequately enunciate words, construct, elaborate and appropriate sentences when speaking, and overall lack linguistic skills. Although speech impairments can emerge throughout different stages of life, the most common period of time in which they are encountered is childhood. The professionals in this medical field use to treat these impairments with the employment of therapies that are carried out over an extended period of time. This research work aims at proposing and evaluating through a user study a new interactive paradigm that involves ”Speech System”, a web-application, and ”Skill”, a skill for Amazon Alexa. The objective consists in determining the practical feasibility of the solution and investigate the consequences that the use of technology brings to the world of speech therapy. The advantages and disadvantages of the interactive paradigm in question are explored and discussed to define the direction of the next steps in this field.