A mobile application and system architecture for online speech training in Portuguese: design, development, and evaluation of SofiaFala

Online Speech Therapy (OST) systems are assistive tools that provide online support for training, planning, and executing specific speech sounds. The most traditional OST systems are mobile applications, mainly supporting English and Spanish languages. This paper describes the development of a mobile assistive application for speech training –SofiaFala is freely available and provides support for Portuguese. The app builds upon computational modules that support speech therapy for people with neurodevelopmental disorders, including Down Syndrome. Specifically, the development of SofiaFala was iterative, involving target users actively. Speech-language pathologists as well as parents, caregivers, and children with speech disorders, mostly with Down Syndrome, contributed to the app development. This paper also describes the design of SofiaFala and the app functionalities. Also, we discuss usage workload and findings from an experimental study. In addition to analyzing the related work, we explain how we (i) elicited SofiaFala features; (ii) developed the software architecture of the app, seeking to connect speech-language pathologists’ and patients’ activities (including therapy session planning and home training exercises); (iii) evaluated SofiaFala through a field study involving target users; and (iv) addressed key challenges along the implementation process. SofiaFala provides integrated features that aim to maximize communication effectiveness, enhance language skills among users, and ultimately improve the quality of life of people with speech impairments.