Speech Sampler: Research Data Standardization Tool

Contributor: Jamie L. Perry, PhD, CCC-SLP

A speech sampler was developed and piloted to standardize between research sites the process for collecting speech data and intra-oral observations. The speech sampler developed is a computer program that runs on a personal computer and walks through a series of screens that include: the collection of demographic data (patient age and sex), the collection of data related to an intraoral examination to record any presence of abnormalities in the oral cavity that could impact speech; the collection of speech recordings which involve a neutral dialect speaker repeating the Americleft Speech Stimuli and visual prompts for the child to repeat each speech stimuli while the computer simultaneously records and stores the child’s speech; and lastly there is a display movie that was specifically designed for pediatric speech MRI (clinical or research). Using published child behavioral adaptations, the training portion of the video also helps provide a visual for what to expect in the MRI. The goals and benefits of this are as follows: 1. Create a standardized means to present speech stimuli using dialect neutral speaker to a child while simultaneously recording the speech. 2. Create a standard way of collecting demographic data, oral mech data, and speech data and automating the collection and storage of data into a coded or patient id (medical number) in a file (destination chosen by the examiner). 3. Removes the need for this standard testing to be performed by a speech-language pathologist (standard method) and allows it to be collected by any person and then later examined by the SLP.