Note: Descriptions are shown in the official language in which they were submitted.
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BACKGROUND OF INVENTION
(a) Field of Invention
The present invention relates to an improved
speech therapy teaching aid wherein a chart is provided
having a series of time frames of equal time intervals
on which is illustrated a pic-torial display of a human
mouth and an alphabetical display of the sound coincid-
ing with the illustrated movements of the mouth.
(b) Description of the Prior Art
Several systems have been heretofore provid~d
to teach speech~ However, these systems are extremely
complex and costly and a great many have proven unsatis-
factory. Further, such known systems have limited
applications and cannot teach speech or lip reading to
the deaf. For example, U.S. patent 4,213,836 teaches a
speech therapy system comprising a series of complex
mouth, tongue and lip positions as well as a code to
represent nasality, inspirations, aspirations, etc.
Such system is complex and does not, like other known
sys~ems, provide a time base associated with mouth
movement to pronounce a sound to teach points of emphasis
in a sound, length of syllables, pacing, pauses and
timing.
SU~ARY OF INVENTION
It is a feature of the present invention to
provide a speech therapy teaching àid ~hich overcomes
the disadvantages of the prior art.
Another feature of the present inventicn is to
provide a speech therapy teaching aid comprising a chart
having a series of time frames of equal time intervals
in which a pictorial illustration of mouth movement and
positions and an alphabetical display of a sound to be
made by following such mouth movements. ~`
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Another feature of the present invention is to
provide a sound carrying element to allow the pre-
recorded sounds to be audibly reproduced in conformity
with the sound alphabetically and graphically displayed
on the chart.
A further feature of the present invention is
to provide a speech therapy teaching aid which is designed
for use by speech therapists or pathologists as part of
an ongoing therapy in the training or retraining of
individuals in reference to speech or language problems.
It is simple and can be used, in some cases, by the
patient, without the assistance of a speech therapist.
Another feature of the present invention is
to provide a novel method of making a chart for speech
therapy from a pre-recorded sound, word or phrase, and
to provide a display of the mouth movements for pronounc-
ing the exact sound, word or phrase as recorded. The
chart also contains an alphabetical display of the sound,
word or phrase over a precise time sequence.
According to the above features, from a broad
aspect, the present invention provides a speech therapy
visual teaching aid comprising an elongated rectangular
chart having vertically extending segments disposed side
by side along the length of the chart. Each segment
corresponds to a precise equal time interval as indicated
by a time scale displayed in association with the
segments to form time frames. Each time frame has an
illustration of the human mouth to graphically display
the lips, tongue and jaw positions of the~mouth in making
a sound alphabetically displayed in an alphabet receivlng
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portion of the time frames. The sound is constituted
by one or more words which words are displayed with one
or more alphabet characters disposed in the alphabet
receiving portion of the time frames in association
with the illus~rations and the time scale. The words
are spaced apart by one or more time frames representa-
tive of the lapse time of the words.
According to a further broad aspect of the
present invention there is provided a method of making
a chart for speech therapy. The method comprises the
steps of recording on a sound track a sound to be taught.
The sound is then transferred from the sound track to a
large format magnetic tape or optical film. The sound
is then split in predetermined equal time intervals~
The sound is then analyzed on the magnetic tape or optical
film at each of the time intervals to determine the
variations in sound and to determine corresponding varia-
tions in graphical representations of positions to
reproduce the sound. The graphical representations of
positions are then produced onto time frames of a chart,
each frame having a pictorial display of the lips, tongue
and jaw positions of the mouth. The sound is then
alphabetically displayed in the time frames in synchronism
with the pictorial displays of the mouth. The time
intervals are also visually displayed.
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BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DPAWING
A preferred embodiment o~ the invention will
now he described with reference to the example thereof
as illustrated by the accompanying drawing which is an
illustration of the therapy teaching chart of the
invention~
DESCRIPTIO~ OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
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As shown in the drawing, the speech therapy
teaching aid comprises a chart 10 which is of elongated
rectangular form having vertically extending segments
which define a series of time frames 11 of equal time
intervals. These time frames are disposed side by side
along the length of the chart. Each segment has a
poxtion 12 in which there is illustrated the human mouth
to pictorially display the lips, tongue and jaw positions
of the mouth in producing a sound which is alphabetically
displayed in a top portion 13 of the chart. As illus-
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trated, the sound is a sentence "I ~NT ~ELEEV IT"~
The words in this sentence are spaced apart by one or
more time frames representative of the lapse time of
said word. For example the word "I" has a time lapse
of three time frames, thus three twelfths of a second
time duration, in this case.
As herein shown, each of the time frames 11
are of a one-twelfth of a second duration. This time
duration has been found satisfactory for breaking down
a sound into its component parts for analysis. It is
pointed out that the invention is not restricted to
this specific time duration of the frames, as the sound
can be broken down into different time intervals.
However, if the time frames become much shorter or
longer, the teaching aid would not be as efficient and
may be even inoperable.
Although not shown, there is further provided
a sound carrying element, such as a magnetic tape
cassette on which is recorded the sound information of
portion 13 of the chart and this sound is audibly
reproduced to the patient learning to pronounce the
phrase displayed in portion 13 of the chart. The time
base of the chart is synchronized to the reproduced
sound, as will be described later. Thus, the patient
undergoing the therapy may listen to the sound track
and at the same time tries to duplicate that sound by
reading the sentence in portion 13 of the chart and
moving his lips, tongue and jaw as illustrated in the
portion 12 of the chart.
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For teaching the dea~ lip reading or speech,
the audible reproduction of the sound is of no value.
~owever, it is preferable in such cases to also i:llus-
trate on the chart a time scale such as 14 thereby
providing the precise time sequence -For the pronuncia-
tion of sounds, words or phrases visually displayed on
the chart. The sequential illustration of the mouth
movements graphically illustrates the progression of
the tongue, lips and jaw in the pronunciation of the
given sound(s~ appearing in portion 13 of the chart~
Thus, the time scale 14 in combination with the progres-
sion of mouth movements together with the alphabetical
representation of the sound(s) at specific intervals of
the time scale teaches points of emphasis, length of
syllables, pacing, pauses and timing. Pauses may be.
illustrated, when desired, by showing a closed mouth
illustration, such as at 11'.
The speech therapy teaching chart 10 was
developed specifically for use by speech therapists or
pathologists as part of an ongoing therapy in the
training or retraining of individuals in reference to
speech, language problems, and communication in general.
It can also be used ideally by the patient, after some
basic training, without the assistance of the speech
therapi.st. It can be seen that the chart 10 relays
the maximum information to the patient in the most
unconfusing way and helps the patient to recall the
ideal juxtaposition of lips, tongue and jaw and is a
. system that is ideally used for speech rehabilitation.
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The method of making the chart consists in
recording a sound to be taught, such as the phrase
appearing in portion 13 of the chart 10, on a sound
track. The sound from the sound track is then trans-
ferred to a magnetic tape or optical film for analysiswhereby to determine the variations in sound and the
corresponding variations in mouth movement to produce
that sound. The analysis for the magnetic tape or
optical film is made over or under a magnetic sound
head or optical sound head, respectively. A device
which is segmented in precise fractions of a second
determines the precise location in time on the sound
track of the beginning and end of each time frame in
relation to the recorded sound. The sound head is
connected to a speaker to determine the start and end
of the sound.
The period or duration of the sound is then
split in predetermined equal time intervals, herein
one-twelfth of a second. A graph is then made with
time frames equal to one-twelfth of a second and in
each frame there is pictorially illustrated, in a first
portion 12 thereof, the mouth position showing the lips,
tongue and jaw position for that precise one-twelfth of
a second period during the complete time period to
produce the sound, word or phrase. ~n alphabetical
display of the sound, word or phrase is also provided
in a second portion 13 of the chart and in synchronism
with the time scale 14 and the pictorial illustration
of the mouth. These mouth illustrations may be provided
as drawings or photographs. It is also conceived that
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the chart lO may be filmed and transmitted on a ~ideo
display screen and can be a very long chart moving
across the screen. The chart may also be provided as
a film projected on a screen in synchronism with a sound
track.
In order to assure the accuracy of the picto-
rial mouth illustrations in synchronism with the sound
track, these illustrations are then transferred onto a
video film and the film is run in a projector together
with the sound track and verified for its accuracy~
Thus, the chart reproduced is shown to be extremely
accurate.
It is within the ambit of the present inven-
tion to cover any obvious modifications of the preferred
embodiment described herein, provided such modifications
fall withln the scope of the appended claims. For
example, the graphics which are herein shown as a full
frontal of the human face can also be a cross-section
of the face arranged specifically to show the ideal
positions of tongue, lips and jaw. Also, the alphabeti-
cal representation in the portion 13 of the chart may be
represented phonetically as is the case with the spelling
of the word "BELEEV". This helps to illustrate the
emphasis in the pronunciation of syllables in certain
words.
