Introduction – People suffering from Autism Speech Disorder have difficulty in communicating with anyone. This makes them socially secluded. There are augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices that these people use to communicate in restrictive ways. AAC can be aided or unaided. The aided systems use different charts and pictures to help ASD people communicate or they use pre-recorded voice of other persons . These aided devices help them to make others understand what they want to say. But at the same time it discourages them to speak by allowing them to use visual aids for communication.
The purpose of this proposal is to secure funding for the research and design of an AAC application that works with the help of cognitive speech recognition technology. Cognition techniques work by simulating human thought process. When used effectively it can work the way human works. The application should be able to pick up speech pattern of the individual and relay recognizable normal speech to others. The speech pattern recognition will then encourage the individuals to speak close to recognizable speech. It can also be enhanced so that it can interpret questions that are supposed to be answered by the AAC individual and give cues for answers. Like if the question is “Would you like to have a cup of coffee?” the device should be able to give answer cues as: “You can answer it as yes or no”.
The aid should be able to graduate itself according to the level of speech disorder. The degree of speech disorder is different for different patients. When the application itself can be customized, it will challenge the individual with the next level of speech correction.
Cost effective – It’s not a separate device. It will come up as an android app.
Customizable – The application can be customized according to the level of speech disorder and will support different languages
Speech hint – The application will help individuals to speak as they will interpret the questions and hint at possible answers.
Government Insurance Claim Saved – The AAC devices are insured and government pays the insurance in some countries. When instead of the devices this application will be used, it will reduce government cost.
User Friendly Interface – Since this is an application, the UI can be customized according to the need of the individual. Mostly, autistic disorder is also associated with other physical disorders. The UI can have assistive keyboards to help individuals for selection and data input.
Research Methodology:
The method used to analyze the relationships is using a Survey and conducting in-depth interviews to gather as much information as possible. The methodology defined by Cavana (2001) for case study research will be utilized .
Literature study – Research AAC aided devices, Autism speech Disorder and Speech Recognition technology.
Construct Hypotheses – Hypothesize the condition post cognition and speech recognition augmentation.
Prepare Survey / Interview
Conduct pilot Survey / interview – Select Area wise ASD individuals, their family members and educational institute for survey.
Refine Survey / Interview – Propose new cognitive speech recognition to the selected group and get feedback.
Conduct remaining interviews
Analyze and verify material
Test Hypotheses – Establish the hypothesis
Works Cited
Cavana, Robert Y, Brian L. Delahaye and Uma Sekaran. Applied business research : qualitative and quantitative methods . Queensland: John Wiley & Sons, 2001. Print.
Novita Children's Services. "TYPES OF AUGMENTATIVE AND ALTERNATIVE COMMUNICATION (AAC)." 25 July 2011. Novita. Document. 5 April 2016.
