Childhood Motor Impairment and Assisted Communication

描述(由申请人提供)：使用辅助通信设备的严重言语障碍儿童依赖于他们的感觉-运动能力来激活他们设备上的按钮或传感器。如果这样的孩子在熟练使用肢体方面也有缺陷，那么他们的沟通能力就会进一步受到限制。我们建议测量与信息和通信速率直接相关的上肢运动功能的组成部分。我们假设运动障碍是导致沟通速度下降的一个重要因素，如果改变通讯设备上按钮的数量和间距来反映儿童的信息传递能力，沟通速度可以得到改善。 为了检验这一点，我们提出了以下具体目标：1.测量10名6-18岁严重言语交流障碍和手臂运动障碍的儿童接触不同大小不同数量的按钮所需的时间。数据将根据菲茨定律和希克斯定律从信息率的角度进行分析，并计算出每个孩子的最佳按钮间距和数量。运动时间和反应时间对信息率的贡献将与墨尔本上肢功能测试的表现进行比较。信息率还将与20名年龄相近的控制组受试者的表现进行比较。2.设计一个触摸屏计算机界面，该界面针对每个有障碍的儿童的测量动作进行优化，并根据儿童的实际词汇量统计数据随机选择一系列单词，将该儿童在界面上的表现与他们当前的设备进行比较。将两个设备上的通信速率与特定目标1预测的最大运动信息速率进行比较，以确定运动障碍对整体通信能力的贡献。 如果这些实验成功，它们将产生重要的试点数据，用于评估运动障碍的单独因素对沟通的影响，并将为为严重言语和运动障碍的个别儿童设计沟通接口设备提供一种新的方法。

DESCRIPTION (provided by the applicant): Children with severe disorders of speech who use assistive communication devices become dependent upon their sensory-motor abilities to activate buttons or sensors on their devices. If such children also have deficits in the skilled use of their limbs, then their communication abilities are further limited. We propose to measure the components of upper extremity motor function that relate directly to information and communication rate. We hypothesize that motor disability is an important contributor to decreased communication rate, and communication rate can be improved if the number and spacing of buttons on a communication device are modified to reflect the child's information transfer abilities. To test this, we propose the following specific aims: 1. Measure the time required to contact different numbers of buttons of different sizes in 10 children age 6-18 years with severe disorders of verbal communication and impairments of arm movement. The data will be analyzed in terms of information rate according to Fitts' Law and Hicks' Law, and the optimal spacing and number of buttons will be calculated for each child. The contribution of movement time and reaction time to information rate will be compared to performance on the Melbourne test of upper extremity function. The information rate will also be compared to the performance of 20 control subjects of similar ages. 2. Design a touch-screen computer interface that is optimized for the measured movements of each child with impairment, and compare the child's performance on the interface to their current device using a sequence of words randomly selected according to the statistics of the child's actual vocabulary. Compare the communication rate on the two devices to the maximum motor information rate predicted from specific aim 1 to determine the contribution of the motor impairment to overall communication ability. If these experiments are successful, they will generate important pilot data for assessing the effect of separate elements of motor disorders on communication, and they will provide a new methodology for the design of communication interface devices for individual children with severe speech and motor impairments.