Speech Buddies are a series of
speech therapy
Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...
tools to remediate articulation and
speech sound disorder
A speech sound disorder (SSD) is a speech disorder affecting the ability to pronounce speech sounds, which includes Articulatory phonetics, speech articulation disorders and Phoneme, phonemic disorders, the latter referring to some sounds (phoneme ...
s using the teaching method of
tactile feedback. Speech Buddies were created by Articulate Technologies, Inc., in
San Francisco, California
San Francisco, officially the City and County of San Francisco, is a commercial, Financial District, San Francisco, financial, and Culture of San Francisco, cultural center of Northern California. With a population of 827,526 residents as of ...
. Speech Buddies and Speech Buddy are
trademark
A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...
s of Articulate Technologies, Inc. They are
FDA
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...
-listed
medical device
A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...
s.
There are five different Speech Buddies, each one addressing an individual sound: R, S, L, CH or SH. These tools try to teach the correct
tongue
The tongue is a Muscle, muscular organ (anatomy), organ in the mouth of a typical tetrapod. It manipulates food for chewing and swallowing as part of the digestive system, digestive process, and is the primary organ of taste. The tongue's upper s ...
placement when trying to produce the sounds.
Preliminary research results from a single-blind
randomized controlled trial
A randomized controlled trial (or randomized control trial; RCT) is a form of scientific experiment used to control factors not under direct experimental control. Examples of RCTs are clinical trials that compare the effects of drugs, surgical ...
suggest that they may increase the speed at which a child can learn to correct their speech sound disorder.
Unknown
References
External links
* {{Official website, www.speechbuddy.com
Speech and language pathology
Special education