Enhancing Speech and Language Therapy through AI (ESTA) is a collaborative project between researchers in National College of Ireland’s School of Computing and the Clinical Speech and Language Studies department in Trinity College Dublin. ESTA received funding from Science Foundation Ireland as part of the OurTech National Challenge Fund.

ESTA’s aim is to create a digital solution to improve the efficiency and quality of speech and language therapy for children.

The first “Concept” phase of the project ran until November 2023, and involved engaging with stakeholders including speech and language therapists and family members of children receiving speech and language therapy. A special thanks goes out to all NCI and Early Learning Initiative staff for their participation and help in sharing the project. This phase highlighted the challenges and opportunities for improvement in the service.

Following a presentation to a panel of international experts, ESTA have successfully progressed into the next “Seed” phase of the project. This will involve building a digital platform to help connect speech and language therapists and families outside the clinic. The goals for ESTA’s platform are to support parents in carrying out home practice, enable communication between the therapist and family, and track the child’s progress in therapy.

As a response to many stakeholder’s keen interest in keeping up-to-date on ESTA’s progress, you can now sign up to receive regular email newsletters.