Automatic assessment of phonological processes for speech therapy and language instruction

摘要

A computer-based system generates alternative pronunciations for a test word or phrase corresponding to specific phonological processes that replace individual phonemes or clusters of two or more phonemes with replacement phonemes. The system compares a user's pronunciation with a list of possible pronunciations that includes the base (i.e., correct) pronunciation of the test target as well as the different alternative pronunciations to identify the pronunciation that best matches the user's. The system identifies the phonological process(es), if any, associated with the user's pronunciation and generates statistics over multiple test targets that can be used to diagnose, in a speech therapy context, the user's specific phonological disorders.