Enabling profound hearing impaired children to articulate words using lip-reading through software application

Area of Science:

• Speech-Language Pathology
• Special Education
• Assistive Technology

Background:

• Profound hearing impairment presents significant communication barriers for children.
• Developing word articulation is crucial for effective communication and social integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To enhance the word articulation abilities of profoundly hearing-impaired children.
• To mitigate communication barriers through improved speech production.

Main Methods:

• A pre-experimental pilot study involving 20 deaf children (aged 5-8 years) in Islamabad, Pakistan.
• Utilized a specially designed lip-reading software application for word articulation training.
• Participants underwent 125 sessions, with evaluations conducted by a sign-language teacher, speech therapist, and family members.

Main Results:

• All participants demonstrated increased performance in articulating words throughout the sessions.
• A statistically significant increase (p<0.05) in median performance scores was observed from the first to the last assessment.
• The study involved an equal distribution of 10 boys and 10 girls.

Conclusions:

• The lip-reading software intervention successfully improved word articulation in profoundly hearing-impaired children.
• Post-intervention speech was generally comprehensible to inexperienced or lay listeners.
• This technology-based approach shows promise in overcoming communication challenges associated with hearing loss.