Utilizing New Technologies for Children with Communication and Swallowing Disorders: A Systematic Review

Communication and swallowing abilities have proven to be essential components of our daily lives. People with communication and swallowing disabilities find it challenging to maintain relationships with family, friends, and social acquaintances, as well as to achieve social and academic goals. Innovative technology application in Speech and Language Pathology (SLP) is gaining attention. Digital and mobile technologies in health are continuously evolving, staging new opportunities from telepractice to monitoring, assessment and intervention procedures. This study focuses on reporting on the technical approaches and advances intended to support the clinical procedures and management of communication and swallowing disorders, with the potential to alleviate accessibility issues and improve the quality of SLT services for the pediatric population. The results of the systematic review demonstrated mostly utilization of telepractice procedures, use of smart systems, social robots, machine learning, speech processing, virtual reality and AAC. Future research is necessary to gain deeper knowledge on the use of new clinical digital approaches in the health care of children with communication and swallowing disorders to (i) support the children’s and families’, and (ii) suggest a positive economic impact according to current digital trends.