Improving clinical speech remediation with ultrasound technology

描述(申请人提供)：超声波技术已被证明是治疗语音障碍的一种新工具。它有助于诊断问题，并可以提供视觉反馈，帮助儿童纠正他们在发出语言声音时犯的错误。最近的进展使这种成像技术在价格和易用性方面更容易为临床医生所接受。目前的建议将有助于将研究转化为临床实践，以便更广泛的客户可以开始受益于这些 技术进步。该项目的一部分将测试观察言语障碍儿童使用的舌形类型的有用性。研究发现，一些儿童使用的舌形比较像成人，但并不正确，而另一些儿童则使用“未分化”的舌形--即对不同声音的适应能力有限的舌形。这些未分化的舌形可能表明需要一种不同的治疗方法。我们将测试两种治疗口齿不清儿童的方法。我们希望发现，了解儿童是否使用未分化的形状(如超声波成像所见)将允许选择更好的治疗方案。一个特别难听的声音是/r/，因为我说的是“Right”、“Try”和“Car”。超声波成像可以帮助孩子们看到他们的舌头应该做什么才能得到感知上正确的声音。我们将进一步测试这一反馈程序的要素，以便我们能够为各地诊所实施超声波治疗提供循证指导。对这种方法的进一步支持将来自对发音良好和发音差的儿童的舌头磁共振成像(MRI)。我们将验证舌头的超声波成像与MRI图像，我们还将收集MRI图像，这些图像可以用来为儿童建模合适的舌形。虽然我们来自成人的MRI图像已被证明有助于帮助儿童选择合适的舌形/r/，但我们预计儿童的MRI图像将提供更多信息。改善这种常见声音的清晰度将帮助成千上万的儿童。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Ultrasound technology has been shown to be a new tool in the treatment of speech sound disorders. It helps diagnose problems and can provide visual feedback to help children correct errors they make in producing the sounds of their language. Recent advances have made this imaging technique more accessible to clinicians, both in terms of price and of ease of use. The present proposal will facilitate the translation of the research into clinical practice so that a wide range of clients can begin to benefit from these technological advances. One part of the project will test the usefulness of looking at the types of tongue shapes used by children with speech problems. Research has found that some children use tongue shapes that are relatively adult-like but incorrect, while others use an "undifferentiated" shape-that is, a shape that shows limited accommodation to different sounds. These undifferentiated tongue shapes may indicate that a different kind of therapy is called for. We will test two kinds of therapy on misarticulating children. We expect to find that knowing whether a child uses undifferentiated shapes or not (as seen with ultrasound imaging) will allow the selection of the better treatment program. A particularly difficult sound is that of /r/, as i "right", "try" and "car." Ultrasound imaging can help children see what their tongue should be doing to get a perceptually correct sound. We will further test elements of this feedback procedure so that we can provide evidence-based guidance for implementing ultrasound treatment in clinics everywhere. Further support for the approach will come from magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the tongue in children with good and poor /r/ pronunciation. We will validate ultrasound imaging of the tongue against MRI images, and we will also collect MRI images that can be used to model appropriate tongue shapes for children. While our MRI images from adults have proven useful in helping children pick an appropriate tongue shape for /r/, we predict that MRI images of children will be even more informative. Improving the articulation of this common sound will help thousands of children.