Model to Help Patients See How to Sound Out Words From: UT Dallas News - 06/10/2010 By: Debra Brown University of Texas at Dallas (UTD) researchers working on the Visual Speech Project are creating a realistic computer animation of a patient's tongue and lip movements during speech production that will enable them to use their sense of sight to visualize the movements of their mouth during speech. The animation enables patients to compare their movements to those of an animated model, which will help them see the changes they must make in order to produce a sound correctly. "Speech movements of the tongue are hidden by the cheeks and lips and therefore difficult for a patient to truly visualize," says UTD's Jennell Vick. The researchers are collecting base-line data on adult talkers with and without cerebral palsy by placing small sensors on the participant's tongues. "We also need to identify and test the different tongue and lip movements that are common with a variety of disorders," Vick says. An expected benefit of using animation is being able to exaggerate the speech movements in order to make the differences more obvious to the patient. Read the entire article at: http://www.utdallas.edu/news/2010/6/10-3921_Model-to-Help-Patients-See-How-to-Sound-Out-Words_article.html http://www.physorg.com/news195374181.html Links: Speech Machine May Help Kids With Cerebral Palsy http://www.physorg.com/news170953066.html Jennell Vick http://www.asha.org/careers/professions/profiles/vick.htm