Digitization of Hindi photo articulation test for speech sound disorders

Interdisciplinary research on Speech Language Pathology is being pursued by several academic research groups, well spread over the globe. While the methodology for face-to-face speech therapy is well established, several mobile-device-based and web-based applications have emerged to assist either the speech language pathologist (SLP) or parents administering the therapy based on instructions of the SLP. Clearly technology is playing a major role in the form of assistive/augmentative technology. Although such tools and technology are widely in use in the West, there has been very little effort in this direction, for Indian languages. This paper describes the digitization of the well established Hindi Photo Articulation Test (H-PAT), used for the assessment of articulation disorders, as a part of the pre-evaluation for Speech therapy. This paper will elaborate on H-PAT in its current form and show how digitization of H-PAT is envisioned to improve the quality of assessment from both the SLP's as well as the patients perspective. Digitized version affords flexibility to the user by means of personalization based on certain parameters. Also, this version accords SLPs better means of organization of work for future reference and monitoring progress.