VITHEA: On-line therapy for aphasic patients exploiting automatic speech recognition

Aphasia is an acquired communication disorder that affects speech and language functionalities at varying degrees. The recovery of lost communication functionalities is possible through frequent and intense speech therapy sessions. The aim of the VITHEA -Virtual Therapist for Aphasia Treatmentproject is to exploit speech and language technology (SLT) to facilitate the recovery process of Portuguese aphasic patients, more concretely to recover lost word naming abilities. The proposed system has been designed to behave as a virtual therapist that simulates ordinary speech therapy sessions and, by means of automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology, validates patients performance.