Distinctive training methods and evaluation of a multilingual, multimodal speech training system

A multilingual, multimodal speech teaching and training system has been developed for 5-10 years old speech handicapped children, in the frame of the SPECO Project, funded by the EU (Contract no. 977126) in 1999. During the training the patients see the speech pictures of the reference speech and listen to the sound of it at the same time. Thus they use the human visual and auditory feedback during their speech learning beside the tactile sensation. A detailed evaluation examination was prepared at the end of the development of the system. Firstly the opinion of speech therapists from different educational field that had been using the SPECO system in their work for a longer period was collected and summarized. Secondly, an objective evaluation was organized to examine the efficiency of the system. It became clear from the objective experiment and from the collection of the opinion of the speech therapists, that the system is a useful and effective teaching aid.