Below are some of our selected research papers in which we have validated our speech therapy games, remote therapy system, treatment methods, AI tools and speech sound disorder assessment techniques.


Speech-driven mobile games for speech therapy


A Longitudinal Evaluation of Tablet-based Child Speech Therapy with Apraxia World.

Hair, A., Ballard, K.J., Markoulli, C., Monroe, P., Mckechnie, J., Ahmed, B., Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2021). ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS), 14(1), 1-26


The Influence of Type of Feedback During Tablet-Based Delivery of Intensive Treatment for Childhood Apraxia of Speech

J. McKechnie, B. Ahmed , R. Gutierrez-Osuna, E. Murray, P. McCabe, K.J. Ballard, (2020). Journal of Communication Disorders, 87, 106026


Speech-driven mobile games for speech therapy: User experiences and feasibility.

Ahmed, B., Monroe, P., Hair, A., Tan, C.T., Gutierrez-Osuna, R., & Ballard, K.J. (2018). International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 20(6), 644-658.


Feasibility of automatic speech recognition for providing feedback during tablet-based treatment for apraxia of speech plus aphasia.

Ballard, K.J., Etter, N.M., Shen, S., Monroe, P., & Tan, C.T. (2019). American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 28, 818-834.


Visual feedback of acoustic data for speech therapy: Model and design parameters.

Ferguson, S., Johnston, A., Ballard, K.J., Tan, C., & Perera-Schulz, D. (2012). Proceedings of the 7th Audio Mostly Conference: A Conference on Interaction with Sound, pp. 135-140.


Evaluating Automatic Speech Recognition for Child Speech Therapy Applications.

Hair, A., Ballard, K.J., Ahmed, B., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2019). ASSETS 21st International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility, pp. 578–580.


Apraxia World*: A Speech Therapy Game for Children with Speech Sound Disorders

Hair, A., Monroe, P., Ahmed, B., Ballard, K.J., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2018). Proceedings of the 17th ACM Conference on Interaction Design and Children (pp. 119-131). ACM: New York, NY, USA. (*Apraxia World has been renamed Go Bananas as it can be used for children with any type of speech sound disorder, including childhood apraxia of speech)


Bringing advanced speech processing technology to the clinical management of speech disorders

McAllister, T. & Ballard, K.J. (2018). International Journal of Speech-Language Pathology. 20(6), pp. 581-582.


Flappy Voice: An Interactive Game for Childhood Apraxia of Speech Therapy

Tian, L., Aryal, S., Ahmed, B., Ballard, K., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2014). Proceedings of the ACM CHI-PLAY 2014 Conference, Toronto, ON, Canada.


Remote speech therapy systems


Supporting children with speech sound disorders during COVID-19 restrictions: Technological solutions

McLeod, S., Ballard, K.J., Ahmed, B., McGill, N., Brown, M.I., (2020). Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups (SIG17: Global issues in Communication Sciences and Related Disorders), 5(6), 1805-1808


Preliminary Results From a Longitudinal Study of a Tablet-Based Speech Therapy Game

Hair, A., Markoulli, C., Monroe, P., McKechnie, J., Ballard, K.J., Ahmed, B., and Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2020). Proceedings ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems


Development of a remote therapy tool for childhood apraxia of speech

Parnandi, A., Karappa, V., Lan, T., Shahin, M., McKechnie, J., Ballard, K., Ahmed, B., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2015). ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing (TACCESS) – Special Issue (Part 2) of Papers from ASSETS 2013, 7(3), Article No. 10.


Architecture of an automated therapy tool for childhood apraxia of speech

Parnandi, A., Karappa, V., Son, Y., Shahin, M., McKechnie, J., Ballard, K., Ahmed, B., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2013). Proceedings of the 15th International ACM SIGACCESS Conference on Computers and Accessibility. (Full paper).


Treatment of childhood speech disorders


Speech motor programming intervention.

Ballard, K.J. & Robin, D.A. (November, 2020). In L. Williams, S. McLeod, & R. McCauley (Eds.) Interventions for Speech Sound Disorders. Baltimore, MD: Brookes Publishing Co


Principles of motor learning in treatment of motor speech disorders.

Maas, E., Robin, D.A., Austermann-Hula, S.N., Freedman, S.E., Wulf, W., Ballard, K.J., & Schmidt, R.A. (2008). American Journal of Speech Language Pathology. 17, 277-298.


A Systematic Review of Treatment Outcomes for Children with Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

Murray, E., McCabe, P., & Ballard, K.J. (2014). American Journal of Speech Language Pathology, 23, 486-504.


A randomized controlled trial for children with childhood apraxia of speech comparing Rapid Syllable Transition Treatment and the Nuffield Dyspraxia Programme- Third Edition.

Murray, E., McCabe, P., & Ballard, K.J. (2015). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 58(3), 669-686.


Parent experiences of variation in service delivery of rapid syllable transition (ReST) treatment for childhood apraxia of speech.

Thomas, D., McCabe, P., Ballard, K.J., & Bricker-Katz, G. (2018). Developmental Rehabilitation, 21(6), 391-401.


Telehealth delivery of Rapid Syllable Transitions (ReST) treatment for Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

Thomas, D., McCabe, P., Ballard, K.J., Lincoln, M. (2016). International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, 51(6), 654-61.


Automated analysis of disordered speech


Assessing Posterior-Based Mispronunciation Detection on Field-Collected Recordings from Child Speech Therapy Sessions

Hair, A. Zhao, G., Ahmed, B., Ballard, K.J., Gutierrez-Osuna, R., (2021), Proceedings Interspeech


An Automated Lexical Stress Classification Tool for Assessing Dysprosody in Childhood Apraxia of Speech

McKechnie, J., Shahin, M., Ahmed, B., McCabe, P., Arciuli, J., Ballard, K.J., (2021). Brain Sciences, 11(11), 1408-1418


The Automatic Detection of Speech Disorders in Children: Challenges, Opportunities and Preliminary Results.

Shahin, M., Zafar, U., Ahmed, B., (2020) IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing.


Anomaly Detection based Pronunciation Verification Approach Using Speech Attribute Features.

Shahin, M., Ahmed, B., (2019) Speech Communication, 111, 29-43.


Verification of Disordered Speech Using Speech Attribute Features.

Shahin, M., Ahmed, B., Ji, J.X.,Ballard, K. (2018) Anomaly Detection Approach for Pronunciation. Proceedings. Interspeech 2018, 1671-1675.


Classification of Bisyllabic Lexical Stress Patterns in Disordered Speech Using Deep Learning.

Shahin, M., Ahmed B., Gutierrez-Osuna R. (2016) Proceedings IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing, Shanghai.


Tabby Talks: An automated tool for the assessment of childhood apraxia of speech.

Shahin, M., Ahmed, B., Parnandi, A., Karappa, V., McKechnie, J., Ballard, K.J., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2015). Speech Communication, 70, 49-64.


A Comparison of GMM-HMM and DNN-HMM Based Pronunciation Verification Techniques for Use in the Assessment of Childhood Apraxia of Speech.

Shahin, M., Ahmed, B., McKechnie, J., Ballard, K.J., & Gutierrez-Osuna, R. (2014). Proceedings of the 2014 INTERSPEECH International Conference, Singapore.


Assessment of speech sound disorders


Developmental motor speech disorders.

Ballard, K.J. & McCabe, P. (2013). In L. Cummings (Ed) Cambridge Handbook of Communication Disorders, Chapter 21. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge, UK.


Persistent speech disorder in a 22 year old male: communication, educational, socio-emotional, and vocational outcomes.

Carrigg, B., Baker, E., Parry, L., & Ballard, K.J.(2015). Perspectives on School-Based Issues, 16, 37-49.


Cognitive, linguistic, and motor abilities in a multigenerational family with childhood apraxia of speech.

Carrigg, B., Baker, E., Parry, L., & Ballard, K.J. (2016). Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology. doi: 10.1093/arclin/acw077


Differential diagnosis of children with suspected childhood apraxia of speech.

Murray, E., McCabe, P., & Ballard, K.J. (2015). Journal of Speech Language and Hearing Research, 58(1), 43-60. doi: 10.1044/2014_JSLHR-S-12-0358.


Speech, prosody, and voice characteristics of a mother and daughter with a 7;13 translocation affecting FOXP2.

Shriberg, L.D., Ballard, K.J., Tomblin, J.B., Duffy, J., Odell, K.H., & Williams, C.A. (2006). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 49, 500-525.