Effectiveness of ‘Let’s Talk Now’ Mobile App in Assisting Dysarthric Children to Communicate
Subashini Annamalai1, AzizahChe Omar2
1Subashini Annamalai, Universiti Utara Malaysia.
2AzizahChe Omar, Universiti Utara Malaysia.
Manuscript received on 24 March 2019 | Revised Manuscript received on 03 April 2019 | Manuscript Published on 27 April 2019 | PP: 49-56 | Volume-7 Issue-6S2 April 2019 | Retrieval Number: F10090476S219/2019©BEIESP
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© The Authors. Blue Eyes Intelligence Engineering and Sciences Publication (BEIESP). This is an open access article under the CC-BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Abstract: Dysarthric children suffer from a neurological disorder that damages the motor speech articulation. These children could not have an accurate and smooth communication with their family and friends as they have difficulties in speaking out the words. A mobile app named ‘Let’s Talk Now (LeTaNo) was designed and developed to assist the dysarthric children aged 3 to 7 years old to communicate. This app is expected to function as an early assistive technology intervention to help the dysarthric children to correspond and enable them to be understood by others.The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of the LeTaNo app in assisting the dysarthric children to communicate. This study involved 30 respondents who are related to dysarthria namely therapists, parents, and teacher of dysarthric children. The LeTaNo mobile application was then evaluated using a questionnaire named Mobile App Effectiveness Questionnaire (MAEQ). The findings described that all of the respondents agreed that the LeTaNoapp is usable and suitable in helping the communication between dysarthric children and people. It helps the dysarthric children to interact at the initial stage independently and become their ‘voice’ to communicate with people around them.
Keywords: LeTaNo; Dysarthria; Children; Early Intervention; Mobile App.
Scope of the Article: Mobile Applications and Services for IoT