Below are some of our selected research papers in which we have validated our speech therapy games, remote therapy system, treatment methods, AI tools and speech sound disorder assessment techniques.
Speech-driven mobile games for speech therapy
A Longitudinal Evaluation of Tablet-based Child Speech Therapy with Apraxia World.
Hair, A., Ballard, K.J., Markoulli, C., Monroe, P., Mckechnie, J., Ahmed, B., Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2021). ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS), 14(1), 1-26
J. McKechnie, B. Ahmed , R. Gutierrez-Osuna, E. Murray, P. McCabe, K.J. Ballard, (2020). Journal of Communication Disorders, 87, 106026
Speech-driven mobile games for speech therapy: User experiences and feasibility.
Ahmed, B., Monroe, P., Hair, A., Tan, C.T., Gutierrez-Osuna, R., & Ballard, K.J. (2018). International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(6), 644-658.
Ballard, K.J., Etter, N.M., Shen, S., Monroe, P., & Tan, C.T. (2019). American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 28, 818-834.
Visual feedback of acoustic data for speech therapy: Model and design parameters.
Ferguson, S., Johnston, A., Ballard, K.J., Tan, C., & Perera-Schulz, D. (2012). Proceedings of the 7th Audio Mostly Conference: A Conference on Interaction with Sound, pp. 135-140.
Evaluating Automatic Speech Recognition for Child Speech Therapy Applications.
Hair, A., Ballard, K.J., Ahmed, B., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2019). ASSETS 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, pp. 578–580.
Apraxia World*: A Speech Therapy Game for Children with Speech Sound Disorders
Hair, A., Monroe, P., Ahmed, B., Ballard, K.J., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2018). Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 119-131). ACM: New York, NY, USA. (*Apraxia World has been renamed Go Bananas as it can be used for children with any type of speech sound disorder, including childhood apraxia of speech)
Bringing advanced speech processing technology to the clinical management of speech disorders
McAllister, T. & Ballard, K.J. (2018). International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 20(6), pp. 581-582.
Flappy Voice: An Interactive Game for Childhood Apraxia of Speech Therapy
Tian, L., Aryal, S., Ahmed, B., Ballard, K., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2014). Proceedings of the ACM CHI-PLAY 2014 Conference, Toronto, ON, Canada.
Remote speech therapy systems
McLeod, S., Ballard, K.J., Ahmed, B., McGill, N., Brown, M.I., (2020). Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups (SIG17: Global issues in Communication Sciences and Related Disorders), 5(6), 1805-1808
Preliminary Results From a Longitudinal Study of a Tablet-Based Speech Therapy Game
Hair, A., Markoulli, C., Monroe, P., McKechnie, J., Ballard, K.J., Ahmed, B., and Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2020). Proceedings ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Development of a remote therapy tool for childhood apraxia of speech
Parnandi, A., Karappa, V., Lan, T., Shahin, M., McKechnie, J., Ballard, K., Ahmed, B., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2015). ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS) – Special Issue (Part 2) of Papers from ASSETS 2013, 7(3), Article No. 10.
Architecture of an automated therapy tool for childhood apraxia of speech
Parnandi, A., Karappa, V., Son, Y., Shahin, M., McKechnie, J., Ballard, K., Ahmed, B., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2013). Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. (Full paper).
Treatment of childhood speech disorders
Speech motor programming intervention.
Ballard, K.J. & Robin, D.A. (November, 2020). In L. Williams, S. McLeod, & R. McCauley (Eds.) Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing Co
Principles of motor learning in treatment of motor speech disorders.
Maas, E., Robin, D.A., Austermann-Hula, S.N., Freedman, S.E., Wulf, W., Ballard, K.J., & Schmidt, R.A. (2008). American Journal of Speech Language Pathology. 17, 277-298.
A Systematic Review of Treatment Outcomes for Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech.
Murray, E., McCabe, P., & Ballard, K.J. (2014). American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 23, 486-504.
Murray, E., McCabe, P., & Ballard, K.J. (2015). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 58(3), 669-686.
Thomas, D., McCabe, P., Ballard, K.J., & Bricker-Katz, G. (2018). Developmental Rehabilitation, 21(6), 391-401.
Telehealth delivery of Rapid Syllable Transitions (ReST) treatment for Childhood Apraxia of Speech.
Thomas, D., McCabe, P., Ballard, K.J., Lincoln, M. (2016). International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 51(6), 654-61.
Automated analysis of disordered speech
Hair, A. Zhao, G., Ahmed, B., Ballard, K.J., Gutierrez-Osuna, R., (2021), Proceedings Interspeech
McKechnie, J., Shahin, M., Ahmed, B., McCabe, P., Arciuli, J., Ballard, K.J., (2021). Brain Sciences, 11(11), 1408-1418
Shahin, M., Zafar, U., Ahmed, B., (2020) IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing.
Anomaly Detection based Pronunciation Verification Approach Using Speech Attribute Features.
Shahin, M., Ahmed, B., (2019) Speech Communication, 111, 29-43.
Verification of Disordered Speech Using Speech Attribute Features.
Shahin, M., Ahmed, B., Ji, J.X.,Ballard, K. (2018) Anomaly Detection Approach for Pronunciation. Proceedings. Interspeech 2018, 1671-1675.
Classification of Bisyllabic Lexical Stress Patterns in Disordered Speech Using Deep Learning.
Shahin, M., Ahmed B., Gutierrez-Osuna R. (2016) Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, Shanghai.
Tabby Talks: An automated tool for the assessment of childhood apraxia of speech.
Shahin, M., Ahmed, B., Parnandi, A., Karappa, V., McKechnie, J., Ballard, K.J., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2015). Speech Communication, 70, 49-64.
Shahin, M., Ahmed, B., McKechnie, J., Ballard, K.J., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2014). Proceedings of the 2014 INTERSPEECH International Conference, Singapore.
Assessment of speech sound disorders
Developmental motor speech disorders.
Ballard, K.J. & McCabe, P. (2013). In L. Cummings (Ed) Cambridge Handbook of Communication Disorders, Chapter 21. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.
Carrigg, B., Baker, E., Parry, L., & Ballard, K.J.(2015). Perspectives on School-Based Issues, 16, 37-49.
Carrigg, B., Baker, E., Parry, L., & Ballard, K.J. (2016). Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. doi: 10.1093/arclin/acw077
Differential diagnosis of children with suspected childhood apraxia of speech.
Murray, E., McCabe, P., & Ballard, K.J. (2015). Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 58(1), 43-60. doi: 10.1044/2014_JSLHR-S-12-0358.
Shriberg, L.D., Ballard, K.J., Tomblin, J.B., Duffy, J., Odell, K.H., & Williams, C.A. (2006). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49, 500-525.