Digital games for rehabilitation of speech disorders: A scoping review

Digital games are among the treatment methods for speech disorders that serve purposes other than mere entertainment. These games have been used for different speech disorders at any age. This study aims to review articles that have used digital games for rehabilitating speech disorders.

This study was a scoping review. PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science were searched on February 28, 2022, to access the articles on digital games used in rehabilitation of speech disorders without any date restrictions. The search strategy was as follows: ("video game [MeSH term]" OR "computer game" OR "mobile game" OR "serious game" OR gamification [MeSH term]) AND ("speech pathology" OR "speech therapy [MeSH term]" OR "speech disorder [MeSH term]" OR stuttering [MeSH term]). Original interventional and observational studies in English were included. The data were extracted from the relevant articles, including the first author's name, year of publication, country, target group, participants, mobile device/computer-based, type of game design, language level, number of sessions, and outcome. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.

Of 693 retrieved articles, 10 articles were included in this study. Digital games were used for different speech disorders such as apraxia (20%), dysarthria (10%), articulatory hypokinesia in Parkinson's disease (10%), dysphonic disorder (10%), hearing disability (10%), phonological impairment (10%), and speech disorder in autism (10%). Most of the articles (60%) used a mobile device-based game. Phonemes (30%), words (30%), and sentences (20%) were the most frequently used language levels in designing digital games. All the reviewed articles reported the positive effect of digital games on speech and the patients' motivation in therapy.

Digital games can improve patients' speech and motivation in therapy. Although studies showed the positive impact of digital games on speech disorders, personalized speech therapy should be considered in designing these games.