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Last year, CU Boulder Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Center听Assistant Professor Pui Fong Kan received an听ASSETT Development Award to create web based resources for pathologists who treat patients who are multilingual and are having trouble communicating in English.听 Pui Fong explains that having a go-to database to learn more about a patient's primary language can provide helpful insights about the reasons听patients may exhibit difficulty听communicating in听English.

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The Idea

Pui Fong said that student input has made this project possible: "This project started in class.听 I was talking about how the resources available to bilingual speech and language pathologists are limited."听听Allina Roberts, a Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences graduate student, came up to Pui Fong after class that day and said, "We can do this!"听 Roberts introduced Pui Fong to听Wes Song, an aspiring programmer, who happened to be looking for a goodwill project.听听Song听volunteered to develop the website as his class project听for a Refactoru.com web development class.听 Roberts now conducts research for the project.

Pui Fong would like the website to offer comprehensive sound bites of different听languages' syllables, consonants, and dipthongs.听 The team will invite peer institutions to听contribute听their expertise about the languages of the world.听听Pui Fong and her team explained how time consuming and overwhelming it听can be for a clinician when trying to research and听learn about a client's first language.听听Pui Fong's team听envisions that with access to their website, speech therapists will be able to more quickly learn听about听clients'听languages.听 Such knowledge will help therapists determine how to help different speech clients communicate in English.听听Pui Fong explained,听"We are working with a diverse population ... Sometimes [speech patients] make errors in the second language, but they are just in the process of learning two languages; they don't have a problem听..."听听The team would also like the website to听offer some, "... resources about bilingual children."听 The team's听goals are to finish the website and invite other speech therapy clinicians, researchers, and linguists to contribute to it.

Right now, the team is听working on the first phase of the website, and Song is rushing to complete the rest.听听He is setting up the website so that approved users would听be able to add new languages and tables of consonant or vowel sounds.听听Song said that he is incorporating Web 2.0 to make the site听more responsive and easier to use: he is using Javascript, CSS, and HTML to code different parts of the site.

Pui听Fong听views the project as a team effort,听and says,听"We want students to be able to participate and contribute."听 Indeed, also working on the project are: Fan Yin Cheng, a visiting Research Assistant in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, and听Shirley Cheung, an Honors CU Boulder Senior in听Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences.听 Pui Fong appreciates the input that she receives听from her team, "As this project continues I realize that听[Song] has some interesting ideas, like mobile devices."听 The team would like to offer听the website on tablets and iPads for their portability.听 Pui Fong says that she would like to include even more students in the project this year.