Abstract
Purpose: To evaluate the effect, usage, and user-experience for SayBananas!, a Mario-style mobile game providing Australian children access to high-dose individualised speech therapy practice. Method: Participants were 45 rural Australian children with speech sound disorders (SSD; 4;4–10;5 years) with internet access. This mixed-methods study involved: (a) recruitment, (b) eligibility screening, (c) questionnaire, (d) online pre-assessment, (e) SayBananas! intervention using motor learning principles (4 weeks, 10–15 target words), and (f) online post-assessment and interview. Usage and performance were automatically monitored. Result: Most participants were highly engaged with SayBananas! completing a median of 44.71 trials/session (∼45% of the 100 trial/session target, range 7–194). After intervention, participants made significant gains on treated words and on formal assessment of percentage of consonants, vowels, and phonemes correct. There was no reliable change for parent-rated intelligibility or children’s feelings about talking. The number of practice sessions was significantly correlated with percent change on treated words. On average, children rated the app as “happy/good/fun” providing detailed drawings of playing SayBananas!. Families provided high ratings of engagement, functionality, aesthetics, and quality. Conclusion: SayBananas! is a viable and engaging solution for rural Australian children with SSD to gain access to equitable, cost-effective speech practice. The amount of app use was associated with amount of speech production improvement over a 4-week period.
Publication series
| Name | International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology |
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| Publisher | Informa Healthcare USA |
| ISSN (Print) | 1754-9507 |
Conference
| Conference | Speech Pathology Australia National Conference 2022 |
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| Abbreviated title | Beyond borders |
| Country/Territory | Australia |
| City | Melbourne |
| Period | 22/05/22 → 25/05/22 |
| Other | If nothing else, recent events have demonstrated the ingenuity and resolve required to provide quality speech pathology services. Specifically, challenging and changed times has reminded us to stretch and reach beyond our perceived borders to achieve excellence with our practice, research, information dissemination and client and family engagement. It has also reaffirmed that speech pathologists’ reach and impact is far and wide. Thus, we invite speech pathologists to join us in Melbourne in 2022 to share and discuss how we have gone Beyond Borders with regards to clientele, research, information dissemination. As always, the program will include keynote speakers, leaders at the forefront of Speech Pathology: Professor Gail Gillon, Dr Joanne (Jo) Watson and our Elizabeth Usher Memorial Award Recipient, Professor Miranda Rose. We anticipate a great attendance as we return to our in-person conference, providing our members the much-needed opportunity to network with leaders, make new contacts and build those important relationships which we have all missed. |
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