Title: Software for intervention of speech sound disorders in Hindi and English.. Category: Smart Education. Subcategory: Software. Organization: Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Description: Background The majority of individuals with intellectual disability, hearing impairment, cerebral palsy, chronic neurological condition, and speech and language disability present with speech sound disorders characterized by unintelligible speech. These errors may reflect a lack of motor skills to produce a sound, a lack of linguistic knowledge, or deficiencies in both. The Intervention approaches must focus on one or a combination of both skills. Hindi, the national language of India is spoken by over 1 million people, and 43 of the Indian population. Though several training resources are available in English, the resources in Indian languages are limited. A training resource manual titled ÃƒÂÃâšÂÃÅPhonics and phonological processing to Develop Literacy and ArticulationPreliteracy and Articulation drill bookÃƒÂÃâšÂÃâžÂ contains the sounds of Hindi in isolation and in different words across all word positions. The same can be used to develop software for training individuals in perception and production intervention. Given that the majority of the Indian population is in the rural regions and human resources are in the urban regions, this software can help bridge the gap and serve the unserved population. The software can be used to give visual and auditory stimulation and feedback and can help track progress. The training can be more intense with short frequent sessions, and flexible timings. ÃƒâšÃÂ Detailed description Motorbased Intervention generally includes perceptual and production training and both can be incorporated into the same software. Perceptual training also called ear training involves teaching their clients to perceive the distinction between the target and error sounds. Through software, the child can be presented with a variety of correct and incorrect realspeech examples of the target phoneme and can be asked to make judgments about whether the production was correct. The software can also provide visual feedback about the accuracy of the childÃƒÂÃâšÂÃâžÂs judgment. The software can also track the childÃƒÂÃâšÂÃâžÂs success rate to assist the clinician in monitoring progress. Production of a target sound can be done using imitation, phonetic placement, successive approximation shaping, and contextual utilization. All of these can be achieved using the software specifically developed for its use. For eg Imitation Several auditory models of the sound in isolation, syllables, or words can be provided. The child can be asked to watch and listen to the video that shows the 3 dimensional image of the sound word being produced and then can be asked to repeat the same. The clientÃƒÂÃâšÂÃâžÂs production can also be recorded for selffeedback. Phonetic Placement When the client is unable to imitate a target sound, cues or instructions regarding where to place his or her articulators can be provided. Use of camera to serve as a mirror, images showing the placement, and videos showing the placement and movement during articulation can be developed. The videos would be 3 dimensional and could involve sound in isolation and word level. Contextual utilization Involves isolating a target sound from a particular phonetic context in which a client may happen to produce a sound correctly, even though he or she typically produces the sound in error. Eg The child can say ÃƒÂÃâšÂÃÅbright sunÃƒÂÃâšÂÃâžÂ, but cannot produceÃƒÂÃâšÂÃÅsÃƒÂÃâšÂÃâžÂ in other context. Slowly introduce other context through the software and then progress to production ofÃƒÂÃâšÂÃÅsÃƒÂÃâšÂÃâžÂ in isolation. ÃƒâšÃÂ Description of the Solution For instance, the child needs to be taught the pronunciation of the syllable ka. 1. The word ÃƒÂÃâšÂÃÅcatÃƒÂÃâšÂÃâžÂ is projected along with the picture. 2. As we tap the word, kÃƒÆÃÂt is heard. This forms the auditory cue. 3. The placement of the tongue in the oral cavity and as its changes when the syllables ka ÃƒÆÃÂ and t are pronounced is presented on the animation. This provides a visual cue. 4. Production of Isolated syllables eg. ka in this case, can also be shown. 5. The tongue movements inside the oral cavity can be shown in slow motion as well. A total of 213 such words for each phonemedepending on the frequency of occurrence of phoneme in the language , with each word having a maximum of 5 syllables can be shown to explain the articulatory pattern. The software can be developed in both Indian English and in Hindi, based on the data set.