The STAR articulation therapy app evaluation study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Speech Therapy Apps for Rehabilitation (STAR)- Speech Articulation Therapy app evaluation study
IRAS ID
209465
Contact name
Stuart Cunningham
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Sheffield
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 6 months, 1 days
Research summary
The ability to communicate is one of the most basic human needs. Many people in the UK and worldwide have a range of health conditions which result in a speech impairment and thus difficulty in communicating.
Speech therapy helps improve communication ability and produce benefits in terms of quality of life and participation in society. Articulation therapy is a therapy for improving the speech of people with speech impairment. It is however time-consuming and patients rarely receive sufficient therapy to maximize their communication potential.
The STAR project (Speech Therapy Apps for Rehabilitation) has developed an app called the Speech Articulation Therapy app which the patients can use it with their therapists and/or between therapy sessions. The app was developed in collaboration with clinicians who helped determine what people with speech impairments and their therapists need from an articulation therapy software.
This study aims at evaluating the use of the STAR articulation therapy app as part of a speech therapy programme delivered by professionals who have experience in providing articulation therapy (Speech and language therapists(SLT) and Teachers of the Deaf). The study will involve adult participants who have speech problems due to dysarthria and children with articulation problems due to congenital hearing impairments.
4-8 professional participants and 5-10 patient participants for each condition will be recruited from local services providing articulation therapy within South Yorkshire.
The evaluation will include collecting information on the performance of the speech recognition function of the app and the degree of improvement in articulation made by patient participants at the end of the study and . We also interview participants (professionals and patients) and parents/carers about their experience of using the STAR articulation therapy app.
REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EM/0282
Date of REC Opinion
10 Oct 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion