Organisation profile: SPECO

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The aim of the project is to develop a new audio-visual pronunciation
teaching and training method and a software system for hearing and
speech-handicapped persons to help them to control their speech
production. A teaching method is drawn up for progression from the
individual sound preparation to practice of the sounds in sentences.
The software system is planned to be built from different modules. The
basic part is a general language-independent measuring system and
database editor. This database editor makes it possible to construct
modules for all participant languages and for different speech
disabilities. Two modules are planned for its construction in all
languages, one of them being for teaching and training vowels for
hearing-impaired children, the other one is for correction of
misarticulated fricative sounds. These are the most common forms of
articulation disorders.

The system helps patients to discover how to control their speech
organs by simultaneously comparing the visual patterns (speech
pictures) of the normal acoustic speech signal with the defective one.
In the system the patient can see and hear the speech pattern at the
same time.