The PRISMA guidelines ( S1 Appendix) were adapted for the current study as some systematic review methods cannot be directly applied to commercial app stores or app content. There were two main foci: (i) systematically searching and selecting apps, based on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines and (ii) determining optimal methods for quality appraisal of mobile apps for childhood speech disorders using a valid and reliable tool. In this article we provide a new method for searching and appraising mobile speech therapy apps for children. For consumers, there is an urgent need for trustworthy recommendations of clinically beneficial therapy apps for children with speech disorders. For children, families and health professionals, it can be hard to know which apps have therapeutic benefit. Ī large number of mobile apps are now available for children needing speech therapy. Some therapy apps can reduce health professionals’ preparation time and offer features such as automatic scoring and tracking of patient’s progress.
Apps are located on mobile phones, computers or tablets which are usually durable and easy to transport. Health professionals such as medical practitioners and allied health professionals can benefit from the affordability and accessibility of apps. Apps also enable children to continue practising their speech therapy tasks at home, regardless of geographical location, socio-economic status or family circumstances. Home practice time was higher for children in the computer-led mode and children and parents favoured this method. This was demonstrated in a study comparing computer-led and parent-led home therapy for children with speech disorders. For children with speech disorders, apps provide an opportunity for increased practice outside of usual clinical settings. Apps can augment lifestyle interventions such as logging food intake and exercise. For example, it has been shown that asthma, bipolar disorder, obesity and chronic pain can be assisted by mobile apps that promote self-management and optimise therapy adherence. Mobile applications (apps) are accessible, affordable and engaging forms of healthcare. Technology-aided speech therapy and, in particular, mobile health (mHealth) has the potential to improve children’s access to speech therapy. Cost, socioeconomic status and geographical location can also be barriers. For families, accessing speech therapy can be difficult due to workforce shortages of speech language pathologists. Early, effective and efficient speech therapy is important. These children are at risk of social and academic difficulties with persisting consequences into adolescence and adulthood. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Ĭompeting interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. įunding: This work was supported by an Australian Research Training Program Scholarship. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.ĭata Availability: The minimal data set necessary to replicate the study findings is available at Figshare through the following links: Google Play titles: Apple iTunes titles: Marketing descriptions.
Received: Accepted: JPublished: August 9, 2018Ĭopyright: © 2018 Furlong et al. PLoS ONE 13(8):Įditor: Emmanuel Manalo, Kyoto University, JAPAN Citation: Furlong L, Morris M, Serry T, Erickson S (2018) Mobile apps for treatment of speech disorders in children: An evidence-based analysis of quality and efficacy.