AI-Assisted Treatment for Residual Speech Sound Disorders
ConditionSpeech Sound Disorder
Trial statusRecruiting
Trial phaseNot applicable
Trial typeInterventional
Biological sexAll
Age9-17
SponsorSyracuse University
About this trial
The goal of this randomized-controlled trial is to determine how artificial intelligence-assisted home practice may enhance speech learning of the "r" sound in school-age children with residual speech sound disorders. All child participants will receive 1 speech lesson per week, via telepractice, for 5 weeks with a human speech-language clinician. Some participants will receive 3 speech sessions per week with an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-clinician during the same 5 weeks as the human clinician sessions (CONCURRENT treatment order group), whereas others will receive 3 speech sessions per week with an AI-clinician after the human clinician sessions end (SEQUENTIAL treatment order group.
Eligibility criteria
This trial accepts healthy volunteersQualifiers
Must speak a rhotic dialect of American English as a dominant language.
Must have begun learning English by at least the age of 3 years.
Must be between 9;0 to 17;11 years of age.
Must have reported difficulty with /ɹ/ production.
Disqualifiers
Must have no known history of autism spectrum disorder, Down Syndrome, cerebral palsy, intellectual disability, permanent hearing loss, epilepsy/antiepileptic medication, or brain injury/neurosurgery/stroke.
Must not have diagnosis of attention deficit disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Tourette's, or Obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Must have no orthodontic appliances that block the roof of the mouth (e.g., palate expanders).
Must not have current cleft palate, fluency disorder, or voice disorder.
Trial design
Design model
Parallel
Treatments tested in this trial
Speech-Language Pathologist-led Speech Motor Chaining
BehavioralSessions begin with Pre-practice to elicit the /r/ sound. During Structured Practice, the same utterance is practiced several times in a row (with systematic increases in difficulty based on performance). Our web-based software manipulates the principles of motor learning, including feedback prompts for the clinician, the complexity of the utterance, and the variability in the practice trial; the software will analyze the clinician's rating to increase the difficulty of practice when the child is more accurate. Randomized Practice will also be guided by the software and includes all linguistic levels that were produced correctly during Structured Practice, with items presented in random order. A trained speech-language pathologist is involved in all practice trials to provide feedback throughout the session.
Artificial Intelligence-led Speech Motor Chaining (CHAINING-AI)
BehavioralSessions include Structured Practice and Randomized Practice using our web-based software with an Artificial Intelligence clinician to address the /r/ sound. Within a practice session, participants speak into a microphone, and the audio file is sent to a server to be analyzed by a classifier, which returns a binary accurate/inaccurate rating of productions in a fashion similar to SLP judgment. Our web-based software manipulates the principles of motor learning, including feedback prompts, the complexity of the utterance, and the variability in the practice trial. The software will analyze the child's accuracy as determined by the classifier to increase the difficulty of practice when the child is more accurate.
Treatment groups
26 Participants
are divided into 2 treatment groupsGroup A: CONCURRENT treatment orderExperimental treatment 2 interventions
Group B: SEQUENTIAL treatment orderExperimental treatment 2 interventions
Trial outcomes
Primary outcomes
1
Change in percent correct for the /ɹ/ sound in untreated words, rated by blinded listeners.
To assess generalization of treatment gains to untreated words, participants will read a word list eliciting /ɹ/. Stimuli in each list will be presented individually in randomized order. Individual words will be isolated from the audio record of each word probe and presented in randomized order for perceptual rating by trained listeners who are blind to treatment condition and time point (but will see the written representation of each target word). We will use the change in percent correct as our primary measure of perceptually rated accuracy.
Time frame
Before the initiation of treatment and again 5 weeks later.Secondary outcomes
1
Retention of percent correct for the /ɹ/ sound in untreated words, rated by blinded listeners.
To assess generalization of treatment gains to untreated words, participants will read a word list eliciting /ɹ/. Stimuli in each list will be presented individually in randomized order. Individual words will be isolated from the audio record of each word probe and presented in randomized order for perceptual rating by trained listeners who are blind to treatment condition and time point (but will see the written representation of each target word). We will use the change in percent correct as our primary measure of perceptually rated accuracy. The timeframe of 10 weeks differs from the primary outcome of 5 weeks, and assesses longer-term retention and captures the effects after both groups have received both interventions.
Time frame
Before the initiation of treatment and again 10 weeks later.2
Change in percent correct for the /ɹ/ sound in untreated words, rated by blinded listeners.
To assess generalization of treatment gains to untreated words, participants will read a word list eliciting /ɹ/. Stimuli in each list will be presented individually in randomized order. Individual words will be isolated from the audio record of each word probe and presented in randomized order for perceptual rating by trained listeners who are blind to treatment condition and time point (but will see the written representation of each target word). We will use the change in percent correct as our primary measure of perceptually rated accuracy. This timeframe compares the rate of improvement with Chaining-AI for the SEQUENTIAL group and the retention after a 5 week break for the CONCURRENT group.
Time frame
After 5 weeks of treatment and again 10 weeks later.3
Survey evaluating impacts of speech disorder on participants' social, emotional, and academic well-being.
This survey asks parents and participants to report the impact of speech disorder on their child's/their social, emotional, and academic well-being along a 5-point scale. A higher score indicates a greater degree of negative impact of speech disorder on social, emotional, or academic well-being.
Time frame
Before the initiation of treatment and again 5 weeks later.4
Change in percent correct for the /ɹ/ sound in practiced words, rated by blinded listeners.
Participants will read word list eliciting /ɹ/ in practiced words to assess acquisition. Stimuli in each list will be presented individually in randomized order. Individual words will be isolated from the audio record of each word probe and presented in randomized order for perceptual rating by trained listeners who are blind to treatment condition and time point (but will see the written representation of each target word). We will use the change in percent correct as our primary measure of perceptually rated accuracy.
Time frame
Before the initiation of treatment and again 5 weeks later.Sponsors and contacts
Click on the lead sponsor to view all of their trials.
Syracuse University
Lead sponsor
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Collaborator
State University of New York - Upstate Medical University
Collaborator
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD)
Collaborator
Source ClinicalTrials.gov