Computerized System for Phonemic Awareness Intervention

描述(由申请人提供)：音素意识，被定义为“……注意、思考和运用口语中的个别声音的能力”(国家扫盲研究所，2000)，被认为是识字的必要技能。这些障碍造成的经济和生活质量损失是巨大的，这不仅是因为阅读困难与未来就业能力之间的联系，还因为阅读困难与一系列精神障碍之间可能存在进一步的联系(Goldston等人，2007年)。这表明，除了常规的学前或小学课程可以教授的内容之外，还需要对音素意识进行干预。这种干预通常以与专业人员(例如，言语语言病理学家)进行1-1次会议的形式提供。然而，为了应对费用问题和难以获得这些服务，并认识到频繁干预会议的重要性，计算机化干预系统的使用正变得越来越普遍。这些计算机化的干预系统一直在稳步改进。然而，一个显著的缺点仍然是他们的反应方式受到限制，通常包括儿童使用触摸屏或定点设备从一组图片中进行选择。通过将系统处理的音素识别技能限制在那些可以通过“图片点击”获得的技能上，这些系统可以教授的内容受到限制。我们建议通过利用当前低成本触摸屏计算机(例如苹果的iPad)能够处理的、儿童通过视频游戏和互联网应用程序越来越熟悉的“拖放”和其他触摸响应模式来解决这一限制。许多当前系统的第二个缺点是它们的用户界面(例如，视觉布局、节奏)通常不能适应儿童的个体特征。鉴于音素意识问题在广泛的神经发育障碍中普遍存在，包括自闭症谱系障碍和发育性语言障碍，个人调整可能是解决个人神经认知弱点的关键，例如记忆、注意力、视觉扫描、知觉运动协调和处理速度方面的问题。我们建议将个人可调性的多个维度合并到系统中。我们的具体目标是创建一个新的视听反应处理模块，用于对单词中的音素进行排序；将该模块纳入一个可单独调整的、自适应的(即，难度水平随着儿童的进步而动态调整)干预系统中；并以20名特征良好的发展性语言障碍或自闭症谱系障碍儿童(此外，他们也符合语言障碍的标准)为参与者对该系统进行评估。 公共卫生相关性：用于音素意识训练的计算机干预系统受到限制，因为它们通常使用“图片点击”作为反应方式，而且不能根据儿童的神经认知强项和弱项的个人特征进行单独调整。该项目将通过创建和评估一个计算机化的“音素排序辅导”系统来解决这些限制，该系统结合了一个新的“拖放”反应处理模块，并且可以根据儿童的神经认知特征进行单独调整。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Phonemic awareness, defined as "... the ability to notice, think about, and work with the individual sounds in spoken words" (National Institute for Literacy, 2000), is considered a necessary skill for literacy. The financial and quality-of-life costs of these impairments are significant, not only because of the link with reading difficulties and hence with future employability, but also because there may exist further links between reading difficulties and a range of psychiatric disorders (Goldston et al., 2007). This argues for phonemic awareness intervention beyond what can be taught in a regular pre-school or elementary school curriculum. Such intervention is typically provided in the form of 1-1 sessions with a specialized professional (e.g., a Speech Language Pathologist). However, responding to cost concerns and to poor access to these services and also recognizing the importance of frequent intervention sessions, usage of computerized intervention systems is becoming more common. These computerized intervention systems have been steadily improving. However, one significant drawback continues to be their restricted response modalities, typically consisting of the child using a touch screen or a pointing device to select from a set of pictures. By confining the phonemic awareness skills that the system addresses to those that can be tapped into via "picture-point-and-click", these systems have a restricted scope of what they can teach. We propose to address this restriction by taking advantage of "drag- and-drop" and other touch response modalities that current low-cost touch screen computers (e.g., Apple's iPad) are capable of processing and that children are increasingly more familiar with via video games and Internet applications. A second drawback of many current systems is that their user interface (e.g., visual layout, tempo) is typically not tunable to the individual characteristics of the child. Given the prevalence of phonemic awareness issues in a broad range of neurodevelopmental disorders, including Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Language Disorder, individual tuning may be critical to address individual neurocognitive weaknesses, such as problems in memory, attention, visual scanning, perceptual motor coordination, and processing speed. We propose to incorporate multiple dimensions of individual tunability into the system. Our specific aims are to create a new audio-visual response-processing module for sequencing phonemes in words; to incorporate this module in an individually-tunable, adaptive (i.e., difficulty levels are dynamically adjusted as the child progresses) intervention system; and to evaluate this system with as participants 20 well- characterized children with Developmental Language Disorder or with Autism Spectrum Disorder (who, additionally, also meet criteria for a language disorder). PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Computerized intervention systems for phonemic awareness training are limited in that they typically use "picture-point-and-click" as response modality, and also are not individually tunable to a child's individual profile of neurocognitive strengths and weaknesses. The project will address these limitations by creating and evaluating a computerized "Phoneme Sequencing Tutor" system that incorporates a new "drag-and-drop" response-processing module and is individually tunable to a child's neurocognitive profile.