Emerging Speech Tools

Our group reported on the article, Emerging Speech Tools and Technologies, which was published in volume 12, issue 9 of the journal, Language Learning and Technology. The article, written by Robert Godwin-Jones, was a fairly comprehensive overview of computer-based speech software. This article supports the 10 Recommended Computing Skills for SLPs, as it addresses speech software in treatment, using the computer as a diagnostic tool, and using the computer as an instructor.

The article gave a brief history of the emergence of speech analysis software, beginning in the 1970s. The authors then traced the earliest speech software models to their present state. The feature that was most striking about the evolution of speech software is its multi-faceted use today. Initially, computer-based speech technologies analyzed speech to aid the hearing impaired. Currently, however, there are many speech technology applications, including foreign accent modification training, foreign language learning, speech recognition software suited to provide articulation treatment and acoustical speech analysis. These variants of computer-based speech software give SLPs an array of broad-based tools that they can use to customize treatment for their patients. As this article illustrated, that means not only using the technologies available for their designed use, but also for novel uses that dovetail with the original intentions of the manufacturers. The result is that SLPs have both more resources as well as more sophisticated resources with which to work.