silmu
Project Type
Bachelor Thesis
Place
HfG Schwäbisch Gmünd
Supervisor
Prof. Benedikt Groß,
Prof. Michael Schuster
- a P.O.P.T. based home training for childish
pronunciation disorder
silmu is a therapy-accompanying training concept for children with pronunciation disorders. The main element is an interactive book that can be individually adapted to each child by speech therapists. With only 4 pages, many different games can be covered. The games are on an app and new ones can be added constantly, making silmu the ideal companion for the entire duration of therapy.
Overview
Being able to speak, not only means being able to communicate with others, but also to think, to name feelings, and to develop one‘s own identity and personality. If a child does not master the language system as expected in the first 5 years of life, one speaks of a language development disorder. Every eighth child between the ages of five and 14 suffers from such a disorder. To strengthen pronunciation, the children are regularly supervised by speech therapists in therapy sessions. Parallel practice is done at home, and this is where the problems occur. The material is not satisfying, it is a big effort for the speech therapists to find and copy the suitable material. As the parents often do not understand it, it has to be explained to them, which also affects the motivation of the parents to practice with their children.
silmu is designed for children aged four to six. The interactive book is supported audiovisually by an app. To do this, the parents‘ smartphone is clipped into the book. For the child, only the display is visible. The speech therapists, for their part, have an app in which they document the child‘s development. Thus, they influence the exercises that the child performs with silmu.
During the game, the child travels through Canada with the buddy Silmu. On their journey, they can cross obstacles, help characters with various things, compete against others, or cooperate with them. An included sticker book represents the connection to the speech therapist from the child‘s point of view. During the games, stickers can be won, which the child receives from the speech therapist as a reward.
Partner
Vanessa Großmann
Goal
The aim is to improve the learning situation at home
My Role
Research, concept, technical set-up, programming, testing, video editing
Tools
Arduino, Blynk, Adobe - Photoshop, Audition, Premiere Pro
Trailer
Silmu as a supporter
When Silmu speaks during a game, he pulsates and the sound also comes from inside the buddy. This conveys to the child the feeling of really experiencing the adventures together with Silmu. The child can also speak to him. This can help to reduce the inhibition threshold to speak at all.
The Gamebook
The book serves as an interface between the children and the smartphone application. It has four pages that can be used in a variety of ways. These pages can be used to play a variety of exercises at different levels of difficulty. The colorful fields on the book pages act as interaction fields that control the application on the smartphone. There is also appropriate audio feedback, which is played directly from the smartphone.
