A serious game for speech training in dysarthric speakers with Parkinson's disease: Exploring therapeutic efficacy and patient satisfaction.

Background: The increasing need for speech therapy due to our ageing population raises the demand on therapeutical resources. To meet this demand, innovative delivery of speech training is required. eHealth applications may provide a solution, as intensified and prolonged training is only possible and affordable in patients' home environment.

eHealth Apps Replacing or Complementing Health Care Contacts: Scoping Review on Adverse Effects.

Background: The use of eHealth has increased tremendously in recent years. eHealth is generally considered to have a positive effect on health care quality and to be a promising alternative to face-to-face health care contacts. Surprisingly little is known about possible adverse effects of eHealth apps.

Intuitive visualizations of pitch and loudness in speech.

Visualizing acoustic features of speech has proven helpful in speech therapy; however, it is as yet unclear how to create intuitive and fitting visualizations. To better understand the mappings from speech sound aspects to visual space, a large web-based experiment (n = 249) was performed to evaluate spatial parameters that may optimally represent pitch and loudness of speech. To this end, five novel animated visualizations were developed and presented in pairwise comparisons, together with a static visualization.

Evaluating the feasibility and the potential efficacy of e-learning-based speech therapy (EST) as a web application for speech training in dysarthric patients with Parkinson's disease: a case study.

Objective: As a Web application for speech training, e-learning-based speech therapy (EST) is assumed to have potential for neurological patients who aim at independent speech training in their home environment. This article reports a case study of a patient with dysarthric speech due to Parkinson's disease (PD) who enrolled in a 4-week intensive speech training through EST. The primary goal was to investigate the feasibility and the potential efficacy of EST as a Web application for speech training in dysarthric patients with PD.

E-learning-based speech therapy: a web application for speech training.

Abstract In The Netherlands, a web application for speech training, E-learning-based speech therapy (EST), has been developed for patients with dysarthria, a speech disorder resulting from acquired neurological impairments such as stroke or Parkinson's disease. In this report, the EST infrastructure and its potentials for both therapists and patients are elucidated. EST provides patients with dysarthria the opportunity to engage in intensive speech training in their own environment, in addition to undergoing the traditional face-to-face therapy.