Sada: Auditory Discrimination Therapy Program
Alamoudi, Arwa . 2012
The sense of hearing is of paramount importance as it is the first tie to the world around us and our first
method of acquiring the skills to pronounce words. Accordingly, hearing loss deprives us from this experience
and integration into our society. Based on that, this project involves developing an assistive technology for
people with special needs to help improve auditory skills of children with auditory-related problems and learning
difficulties, and assist them in effective communication by providing training techniques in Modern Standard
Arabic (MSA) and two local dialects. In this paper, we describe the background, motivation, and nature of the
problem that this assistive technology, called Sada ‘صدى’, addresses. The novelty of this system is the contribution
towards Arabized technology for supporting speech and language pathologists in our local context as well as
the approach adopted in the design cycle. In this project, we rigorously followed the User Centered Design
ISO 13407 standard in the analysis and design of the system. Furthermore, we describe the analysis, design,
implementation and testing phases conducted in this project, as well as local and global impact of our system.
In recent years, there has been proliferation of technology solutions available for users with special needs. However,
there remains a scarcity in assistive technologies for native Arabic speakers, especially people with disabilities. In the
field of speech therapy, aural rehabilitation often involves complex programs to rehabilitate disorders of the auditory
system. Examples of disorders include cochlear implants, ADHD, APD, Dyslexia, and Autism. This system provides
interactive games for children in Arabic with two Saudi local dialects, which will be available for use outside the
clinics at home. The goal is to develop a system to improve the auditory skills of children with auditory discrimination
difficulties. Sada is envisioned to extend rehabilitation therapy beyond clinics and provide effective solutions for
improving their auditory skills in home environments. The system is comprised of three types of activities for child
users which include auditory discrimination, articulation, and auditory attention. Complex algorithms have been
developed to ensure motivation and engagement of the child in the therapy program. Presentation of Arabic words
in activities is based on randomization of selection from a pool of words which were pre-categorized based on the
weight of the Arabic word. For auditory discrimination training for Arabic letters, categories were used based on the
classification in Cops program developed for Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs).
Usability engineering and usability testing are concepts that continue to evolve. Interesting research studies
and new ideas come up every now and then. This paper tests the hypothesis of…
Children with Specific Learning Difficulties (SpLDs) and auditory discrimination problems provide much greater challenges to user-centered design than more traditional user groups [1, 2].…
The sense of hearing is of paramount importance as it is the first tie to the world around us and our first
method of acquiring the skills to pronounce words. Accordingly, hearing loss…