Speech therapy is built on human connection and communication. But traditional therapy can be expensive and difficult to access. A major challenge is helping patients use the skills they learn in a clinic during their everyday lives.
Not getting enough practice holds patients back, a problem that new technology is helping to solve. With the U.S. market expected to reach $8.37B by 2032, tools like AI, VR, and wearables support the work of therapists, making care more personal and easier to access.
Source: Fortune Business Insights
Technology is taking therapy beyond the standard one-on-one session. It gets around old problems by handling administrative tasks automatically and creating new, immersive ways for people to practice.
AI is a very useful technology for speech therapy because it can be used for everything from diagnosis to customizing treatment. AI-based diagnostic tools can look at vocal qualities like pitch and intensity. This gives therapists data-driven assessments that work alongside their own judgment to improve accuracy. One of AI’s best features is its ability to automate routine work and develop individualized therapy materials.
Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are already using generative AI like ChatGPT to write custom stories, create word lists for certain sounds, and translate information for caregivers. Some have even built custom AI models, like the “SLP Goal Writer,” to make goal-setting easier.
Neural networks are the foundation for a new kind of clinical tool. A study in the American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, for example, described a tool called ChainingAI. It uses a specific type of neural network to predict a clinician’s assessment of a patient’s speech. The system runs drill-based practice automatically, which lets a patient complete many practice trials without a clinician needing to be present the entire time.
One of the biggest hurdles in speech therapy is “generalization” – taking skills from the clinic and using them in the real world. Virtual reality speech therapy addresses this by putting patients in realistic, computer-generated settings where they can practice safely and repeatedly.
Using VR, therapists can run simulations of scenarios like shopping at a busy supermarket, ordering coffee, or giving a presentation. This is particularly helpful for lessening speech-related anxiety and building a person’s confidence. For children, the game-like elements of VR make exercises more engaging than older methods, which is key for keeping them focused, especially those with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).
A usability study of a VR application called SIM:Kitchen involved adults with communication disorders. The users described the experience as enjoyable and realistic. They noted that it offered a “clean space” without real-world distractions, which allowed them to practice communicating without feeling anxious.
Fear levels drop with repeated VR training exposure.
Source: AnxietyHub
Wearables take therapy out of the clinic and introduce new ways to communicate. This is especially true for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC), which gives people with complex communication needs (CCN) methods to support or replace their speech.
Many high-tech AAC devices have often been bulky, screen-based systems mounted on wheelchairs, which can feel awkward and offer little privacy. A study in Springer details a wearable AAC (wAAC) system using Microsoft’s HoloLens 2 mixed reality glasses. This system shows a communication board in the person’s view, and they can select words using eye-gaze tracking or a Brain-Computer Interface (BCI).
The study showed this was a practical approach, with the eye-gaze feature proving highly accurate and getting positive user reviews.
Real scene from a trial showing the AAC system labeling real-world objects for communication.
Source: Springer
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the move to telehealth in speech therapy, and it’s here to stay. The use of virtual healthcare grew 38 times during the pandemic, and telepractice is now a standard option. It gets rid of geographic hurdles for people in rural or underserved communities, provides flexible scheduling, and cuts down on costs associated with travel and facility use.
Source: McKinsey & Company
This approach is popular with everyone involved. A study by the COVID-19 Healthcare Coalition found that 60% of SLPs consider telehealth easy to use, and 68% intend to keep offering it.
Technology helps make speech therapy more engaging, effective, and available to everyone.
Game-like exercises and immersive settings make practice feel less like a chore. Mobile apps and VR environments use interactive challenges to keep patients, especially kids, motivated and practicing consistently.
Technology allows for much more practice, which leads to better results. The ChainingAI study, for instance, showed its AI-guided system provided an average of 95.5 practice trials in a session, compared to just 51.81 in typical school settings. All five participants who used the system showed significant skill improvement on untreated words.
Telehealth and remote tools mean that quality care isn’t restricted by a person’s location or mobility. This flexibility helps therapy fit into busy lives and allows SLPs to support populations that were previously hard to reach.
AI enables very specific, personalized treatment plans. These systems can track a patient’s progress in real-time, note small improvements, and change exercises based on performance. The ability to analyze large amounts of data helps personalize treatment and can allow SLPs to make faster diagnoses. Understanding this data takes special skill, which is why analytics services are valuable for turning raw numbers into meaningful clinical information.
Creating these tools requires that clinicians and engineers work together closely to turn therapeutic principles into secure and useful technology.
Making a tool like ChainingAI or the SIM:Kitchen VR app is more involved than standard app development. It means building custom software that functions as a clinical instrument, grounded in proven therapeutic strategies and designed with the user in mind.
Software development firms build and incorporate the complex algorithms that power these tools. This involves building the neural networks for speech analysis, creating the engines for conversational agents, and establishing data pipelines for real-time progress tracking. A strong grasp of current data analytics, like those in Data Trends 2025, is critical.
Patient health information is sensitive and needs top-level protection. Developers are responsible for creating platforms that meet regulations like HIPAA and GDPR. This includes using strong encryption, secure data storage, and controlled access, often relying on enterprise-level cloud security protocols.
Rather than replacing clinicians, effective solutions use tech as an assistant. With a human-in-the-loop model, the SLP takes charge of assessments and treatment, while technology handles repetition and analytics.
Whispp, an app from a Dutch startup, is a great example of this technology in action. It was built to help people with speech disorders get their voice back. The app’s AI-powered technology converts whispered or vocally-impaired speech into a clear, natural voice in real time, allowing people to have understandable phone and video calls.
The technology is very effective for certain conditions. For instance, people who stutter severely can reduce their stutter by an average of 85% just by whispering. This is due to a neurological shift that happens during whispering, which also helps people with spasmodic dysphonia speak with greater ease.
Whispp doesn’t use the common speech-to-text (STT) systems that often have a two-to-three-second lag, which can kill a conversation. It uses a direct audio-to-audio AI model instead. This method processes speech with extremely low delay, handling audio in 20-millisecond pieces for a real-time stream. It provides a solution for the roughly 300 million people globally who struggle to speak but have maintained good articulation.
Bringing advanced clinical tools to life requires knowledge of both healthcare regulations and modern software. Kanda Software guides healthcare innovators through this complex process.
Talk to our experts to discover how Kanda can help you transform your innovative ideas for speech therapy into secure, reliable assets.
Technology is changing speech therapy for the better. Tools like AI, VR, and wearables allow clinicians to provide care that is more personalized, accessible, and effective. They help bridge the gap between the clinic and real-world situations, which boosts patient outcomes and confidence.
The future is bright–SLPs equipped with smart tools will more successfully help people speak and be heard.
