Background
Language disorders affect up to 5% of all children and account for close to 20% of children with disabilities who receive special education. Language disorders make communication difficult for children, either by hampering their ability to understand others speaking to them, or by affecting their capacity to form their own thoughts into words, or both. Diagnosis, rehabilitation, and follow up, at the home setting via gaming, is an important tool to facilitate the treatment of children suffering from language disorders.
Our Innovation
The research group developed a tablet-based, patient operated app, offering a dynamic diagnosis of language comprehension disorders following brain damage in adults. This tool will now be extended to evaluate and classify type and severity of language impairment in children as well, and can support the creation of a treatment plan through an iterative process.
The Advantages
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Automatic and self-operated, in the home setting
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Game like and fun
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Evidence based
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Diagnosis is carried out on precise quantitative analysis, and revised on a continuous basis
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Modular – simple to add new modules and Languages to support additional settings
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Multi-lingual – designed to accommodate versions in different languages
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Well founded on science and knowhow accumulated over years of research in linguistics, neuroscience, and language acquisition
The Opportunity
The technology addresses a large market by appealing to all children with language disorders; allowing for diagnosis and classification, as well as the creation of a treatment plan and follow up on progress andan update of treatment. The core technology has already been tested in adults with language disorders incurred from post stroke/head trauma aphasia, but is not specific, and will now be adjusted to work with children.
Main Milestones Planned During Development Plan
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A fully functional diagnostic module in Hebrew (perhaps in Arabic), within 6 months
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A blueprint for a therapy module in Hebrew (perhaps in Arabic), within 12 months
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Development of game like interface (gamization) – within an additional 6 months
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Development of kits for additional languages (ca. 3 additional months per language)
