• Charles Sturt University-led research aimed to support parents with children with speech sound disorders (SSD) to deliver individualised speech therapy remotely
• The study assessed use of the Mario-style video game SayBananas! app to identify whether it is a practical and useful resource for speech therapy in rural Australia
• Speech Pathology Week 2022 is from Sunday 21 to Saturday 27 August

Research led by a Charles Sturt University academic examined the innovative ‘SayBananas!’ app that may assist children with speech sound disorders (SSD) and their parents living in less populated areas.

With Speech Pathology Week 2022 (Sunday 21 to Saturday 27 August) this week, the effectiveness study examined the usability and rating of ‘SayBananas!’, a Mario-style video-game providing high-dose individualised speech therapy with rural Australian children.

Researcher leader Professor of Speech and Language Acquisition Sharynne McLeod in the Charles Sturt School of Education said the ‘SayBananas!’ app may provide a viable solution for overcoming the seemingly intractable problem of equitable, timely, and cost-effective access to speech-language pathology support for families living in areas of low population density.

Professor McLeod said the current effectiveness study was designed to assess the usage of the SayBananas! app for children and their parents, and to identify whether this is a practical and useful resource to complement traditional speech therapy in rural Australia.

“Many young children have speech sound disorders where their speech may be unintelligible and negatively impact development of communication, friendships, and academic outcomes,” she said.

“If speech and language difficulties persist beyond preschool or without specialist services, these children face increased risk of long-term social, educational, and vocational limitations.

“Communication is a fundamental human right and it is important that timely and effective speech intervention occurs to reduce the impact on children’s school achievement, ability to make friends, mental health, future life opportunities, and government resources.”

Professor McLeod said there are numerous interventions that have been found to be successful for children with speech sound disorders, and intervention is effective if dosage is high enough.

“Many children in countries such as Australia do not receive sufficient speech-language pathology (SLP) services particularly in the public health system, often as a result of long waiting lists,” she said.

“Children may receive limited speech pathology services, particularly in rural areas. The critical window for early intensive therapy is often missed due to long waiting lists, geographical barriers, and insufficient funding for speech pathology services.”

This effectiveness study examined the usability and rating of SayBananas!, a Mario-style video-game providing high-dose individualised speech therapy, with 45 rural, Australian children with speech sound disorders. Intervention comprised four weeks of SayBananas! practice with 10 to 15 target words using motor learning principles.

Professor McLeod said this research aimed to support parents to deliver individualised speech therapy with SayBananas! with their children remotely supervised by speech pathologists through the Say66 secure web-based portal.

The overarching aim of this mixed methods research study was to examine the effect of the SayBananas! app on the speech of children with speech sound disorders, as well as to document the usage and feedback (usability, accessibility and rating of the content, format, features and functions).

“This effectiveness study demonstrated that SayBananas! is effective for engaging rural Australian children with speech sound disorders by providing opportunities to practice individualised speech targets and improving their speech accuracy,” Professor McLeod said.

“Parent and child feedback about the usability, accessibility and rating of SayBananas! for children in rural Australia was positive.

“This study demonstrated that SayBananas! is effective for engaging rural Australian children with SSD and improving their speech accuracy.

“It provides a viable solution for overcoming equitable, timely, and cost-effective access to speech pathology serves for families living in areas of low population density.”

Innovative parent and child outcome measures were trialled in the current study, and interviews from the parents and children about their insights into the benefits, limitations, and recommendations for future developments will be analysed qualitatively in the future.

This study is a precursor study for a large-scale randomised controlled trial of SayBananas! for children with speech sound disorders and the authors are seeking funding for this research.

A paper titled ‘SayBananas! Equitable access to speech intervention for rural children’ was presented by Professor Kirrie Ballard, at the Speech Pathology Australia National Conference in Melbourne on Tuesday 24 May 2022.

Co-researchers included Ms Grace Kelly, a research assistant at Charles Sturt University. Dr Beena Ahmed (University of NSW) and Professor Kirrie Ballard (University of Sydney) are cofounders of Say66. This research was supported by an AMP Tomorrow Maker award to Professor Kirrie Ballard.