The language explorer

The challenge

Language sample transcription and analysis is fundamental in the evaluation of the naturalistic language of children and adults. Speech and language therapists however simply do not have the time to carry out this important work. The challenge is to design, develop and evaluate tools that enable clinicians to elicit, transcribe and analyse story retell language samples.

The technology

Therapy Box has worked with children to design an engaging storytelling app that 94% of parents reported was easy to use at home. A crowdsourcing campaign resulted in over 4000 people sharing their language samples which have helped us build and refine a product ready for clinical evaluation in the NHS.

Designing a data collection app for citizen science

In order to obtain the 600 samples we would need to test and train the app, we needed to design and develop an app that could be easily deployed on the AppStore and PlayStore and downloaded by parents around the country. 
The app needed to be able to work offline but to upload the data when online later and work on a range of mobile phones and tablets so that we could have participants from all backgrounds involved. 
Instructions needed to be clear for parents and for children and we needed to be able to quickly explain the purpose of the project and how their participation would make a difference!

Designing a data collection app for use by children

We worked with children, parents and clinicians to design an app that could be used to elicit a story retelling sample from children remotely.  We needed to make sure that the theme was universally recognised and that boys and girls would be engaged.​After lots of work with children, a treasure quest was decided to be fun and internationally appropriate.  The main characters of a boy and a dog are familiar and the supporting cast of a tortoise and birds were also identifiable for children. We tested the voices and the sound effects, the rewards and the colours - to make sure the app would be motivating for children starting at four and going right up to 8! 

Aims

1.  Design and develop an engaging app that can be used by children across the UK to gather data about how children retell stories
2.  Compare how the technology analyses language with the expert research associates at Newcastle University
3.  Test the app with children and clinicians in three NHS sites around the country
4.  Deliver a UKCA marked app.

In 2020 we embarked on a challenge to gather samples of children across the UK retelling the treasure themed story within the Language Explorer app. We needed 600 children aged from four to eight, covering a range of socio-economic groups and from around the country. We were so pleased to reach this target. Following that the Research Associates at Newcastle University have transcribed and analysed the samples by hand, which has been compared with features in the tool as well as being used to train machine learning models.We have started our first in-clinic sessions using Language Explorer. There are currently three sites participating in the evaluation of the app within this project - Bristol, Newcastle and Hackney. Clinicians at each of the three sites will use the app with the children who use their service and we will compare the performance of the children to their performance on standardised assessments. We are also asking the clinicians, children and parents what they think about Language Explorer. 

Designing a data collection app for citizen science

In order to obtain the 600 samples we would need to test and train the app, we needed to design and develop an app that could be easily deployed on the AppStore and PlayStore and downloaded by parents around the country. The app needed to be able to work offline but to upload the data when online later and work on a range of mobile phones and tablets so that we could have participants from all backgrounds involved. Instructions needed to be clear for parents and for children and we needed to be able to quickly explain the purpose of the project and how their participation would make a difference!