Abstract:
A study based on several digital signal processing (DSP) techniques to
be used in the development of a computer-based speech trainer for
hearing impaired children is presented.
Children with congenital hearing impairments have difficulties in
speaking, and even in making the basic sounds associated with speech.
Speech therapists use specialized training methods to train such children.
The dearth of qualified speech therapists and other facilities hinder the
speech development of many children in need of such training in most of
the third world countries. The speech trainer described in this
dissertation was developed as an alleviation to the above problem.
The training tool developed, will aid a child with initial guidance from an
adult, to master the pronunciation of initial sounds taught in a speech
therapy programme, in a game-like environment, with only a PC having
multimedia facilities.
Three DSP techniques were studied for application to the trainer. The
objective was to identify whether an utterance by a trainee was
acceptable or not compared to an utterance by a normal person. The
three techniques were based on spectral analysis, for mam analysis and
neural networks. The results with the spectral technique were found to be
superior and were selected for use in the development of the training
tool.//
In its current status, the training tool can guide children in pronouncing
the five vowel sounds, the first step in a speech therapy course
