The Ability of Virtual Reality Technologies to Improve Comprehension of Speech Therapy Device Training

TL;DR

This study assesses virtual reality's effectiveness in speech therapy device training, finding VR viable but less effective than traditional methods for knowledge acquisition, with mixed participant preferences.

Contribution

It introduces VR as a teaching tool in speech therapy and compares its effectiveness to traditional lectures, highlighting areas for further research.

Findings

VR is a viable learning tool in speech therapy.

Participants scored lower with VR compared to traditional videos.

Half of the VR group preferred VR over traditional lectures.

Abstract

This study evaluates the usage of virtual reality (VR) technologies as a teaching tool in oral placement therapy, a subset of speech therapy. The researcher distributed instructional videos using traditional lecture and modified three-dimensional video to prompt responses. Data was gathered with a two-part Google Form: In "Section 1: Knowledge Test" participants were asked to determine how well they received the information displayed to them. In "Section 2: Opinion Test" participants were asked diagnostic and subjective questions via Likert scale ranging from 1 ("Strongly Disagree") to 5 ("Strongly Agree") to determine how well they enjoyed viewing the information displayed to them. Averages for Section 1 were 92.00% for the control group (viewing 2D, unmodified video) and 77.88% for the experimental group (viewing 3D, VR video). Almost all participants answered at least 60% of the questions correctly. Averages for 2D and 3D participants were 4.53/5 and 3.82/5, respectively for "positive" prompts. Exactly 50% of participants experiencing VR video preferred the method to a traditional lecture. This study determines that virtual reality is viable as a learning tool, but knowledge obtained is not necessarily as high as using traditional lecture. Further experimentation is required to determine how well oral placement therapists respond to physically interacting with a model instead of only viewing it. Copies of the Google Form used to collect responses, all raw data, and a flowchart outlining each step used to construct the 3D video can be found in the Appendix.