Home Technology 8. Software for aphasia: MossTalk Words® (MTW)
Chapter
Licensed
Unlicensed Requires Authentication

8. Software for aphasia: MossTalk Words® (MTW)

Become an author with De Gruyter Brill
Explore this Subject How to publish with us
Speech and Language Technology for Language Disorders
This chapter is in the book Speech and Language Technology for Language Disorders
Ruth Fink and Deborah Dahl8 Software for aphasia: MossTalk Words® (MTW)Abstract:Chapter 8 continues the discussion on software for aphasia with an in-depth description and discussion of MossTalk Words, a computer-assisted treatment that incorporates a speech recognition feature. The authors share their experience as software developers of this research product and then expand the discussion to other software and apps that use speech technologies to aid and support everyday communication, including text to speech and speech to text technologies. The chapter provides a glimpse of how speech technologies are used in research, clinical and real life settings to reduce barriers and improve communication for people with aphasia.8.1 About MossTalk Words: a computer-implemented treatmentMossTalk Words® (MTW), developed by Fink, Brecher, Montgomery and Schwartz (2001), provides extensive practice in word comprehension and production using multimodality cues and feedback. MossTalk’s two main treatment modules, Cued Naming (CN) and Multimodality Matching (MMM) were modeled after treat-ments that are typically used by clinicians and have been shown to be effective in non-computerized experimental studies (e.g. word-picture matching (Howard, Patterson, Franklin, Orchard-Lisle & Morton 1985a, b); hierarchical cueing (Line-baugh & Lehner 1977; Thompson, Raymer & Le Grand 1991)). As such, they are designed to address both semantic and phonological deficits.The program was designed to assist speech and language pathologists in efficiently selecting and delivering therapy exercises and tracking results. It was also designed for independent home use by language-impaired individuals and provides hours of practice in comprehending and producing words, phrases, and sentences. The system uses a large, easily customized vocabulary of words and pic-tures that is presented in multimodalities (auditory, visual). Exercises can be deve-loped and accessed through several interfaces, each designed for a particular user.The interface shown in Fig. 8.1 begins the selection process. The standardinterface allows clinicians to quickly select the module (core vocabulary, CN, or MMM) and the particular exercise they wish to work on. When users select a vocabulary category (e.g. animals, objects, actions, mixed category), the program automatically presents a random set of words from the selected cate-gory. The custom interface allows the clinician (or family member) to pre-select
© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Ruth Fink and Deborah Dahl8 Software for aphasia: MossTalk Words® (MTW)Abstract:Chapter 8 continues the discussion on software for aphasia with an in-depth description and discussion of MossTalk Words, a computer-assisted treatment that incorporates a speech recognition feature. The authors share their experience as software developers of this research product and then expand the discussion to other software and apps that use speech technologies to aid and support everyday communication, including text to speech and speech to text technologies. The chapter provides a glimpse of how speech technologies are used in research, clinical and real life settings to reduce barriers and improve communication for people with aphasia.8.1 About MossTalk Words: a computer-implemented treatmentMossTalk Words® (MTW), developed by Fink, Brecher, Montgomery and Schwartz (2001), provides extensive practice in word comprehension and production using multimodality cues and feedback. MossTalk’s two main treatment modules, Cued Naming (CN) and Multimodality Matching (MMM) were modeled after treat-ments that are typically used by clinicians and have been shown to be effective in non-computerized experimental studies (e.g. word-picture matching (Howard, Patterson, Franklin, Orchard-Lisle & Morton 1985a, b); hierarchical cueing (Line-baugh & Lehner 1977; Thompson, Raymer & Le Grand 1991)). As such, they are designed to address both semantic and phonological deficits.The program was designed to assist speech and language pathologists in efficiently selecting and delivering therapy exercises and tracking results. It was also designed for independent home use by language-impaired individuals and provides hours of practice in comprehending and producing words, phrases, and sentences. The system uses a large, easily customized vocabulary of words and pic-tures that is presented in multimodalities (auditory, visual). Exercises can be deve-loped and accessed through several interfaces, each designed for a particular user.The interface shown in Fig. 8.1 begins the selection process. The standardinterface allows clinicians to quickly select the module (core vocabulary, CN, or MMM) and the particular exercise they wish to work on. When users select a vocabulary category (e.g. animals, objects, actions, mixed category), the program automatically presents a random set of words from the selected cate-gory. The custom interface allows the clinician (or family member) to pre-select
© 2015 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Munich/Boston

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Acknowledgments v
  3. Contents vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. 1. Overview of speech and language technologies 7
  6. 2. Overview of developmental language disorders 43
  7. 3. Technology for assessment and remediation of developmental language disorders 51
  8. 4. Technology for task assessment, classroom accommodation, and communicative assistance of developmental language disorders 105
  9. 5. Conclusions and caveats about developmental language technology 119
  10. 6. Overview of acquired aphasia and disorders of word retrieval 125
  11. 7. Software for aphasia: computer-assisted treatment of word retrieval deficits in aphasia 135
  12. 8. Software for aphasia: MossTalk Words® (MTW) 141
  13. 9. Speech technology for aphasic sentence production disorders 155
  14. 10. Evaluating speech and language applications for language disorders 195
  15. 11. Conclusions 203
  16. Authors’ biographies 207
  17. Index 211
Readers are also interested in:
https://doi.org/10.1515/9781614516453-010

Chapters in this book

  1. Frontmatter i
  2. Acknowledgments v
  3. Contents vii
  4. Introduction 1
  5. 1. Overview of speech and language technologies 7
  6. 2. Overview of developmental language disorders 43
  7. 3. Technology for assessment and remediation of developmental language disorders 51
  8. 4. Technology for task assessment, classroom accommodation, and communicative assistance of developmental language disorders 105
  9. 5. Conclusions and caveats about developmental language technology 119
  10. 6. Overview of acquired aphasia and disorders of word retrieval 125
  11. 7. Software for aphasia: computer-assisted treatment of word retrieval deficits in aphasia 135
  12. 8. Software for aphasia: MossTalk Words® (MTW) 141
  13. 9. Speech technology for aphasic sentence production disorders 155
  14. 10. Evaluating speech and language applications for language disorders 195
  15. 11. Conclusions 203
  16. Authors’ biographies 207
  17. Index 211
Sign up now to receive a 20% welcome discount
Institutional Access
How does access work?
Have an idea on how to improve our website?
Please write us.
© 2025 De Gruyter Brill
Downloaded on 24.9.2025 from https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781614516453-010/html?srsltid=AfmBOoru_tCXSWurZNMgDzFjFzwyu6Grp9b_BFjYEi6Tunvr3QXjZ0QP
Scroll to top button