Speech Generating Device

An electronic device used in augmentative and alternative communication that produces speech output, either through pre-recorded messages or text-to-speech synthesis. Speech generating devices range from dedicated hardware devices (like the Accent1400) to software applications running on tablets and smartphones (like TouchChat, Proloquo2Go). SGDs enable people with speech impairments to communicate verbally but introduce challenges including communication speed (12-18 words per minute vs. 125-185 for typical speakers), visual attention demands, and limited expressiveness of synthetic speech for conveying emotion, tone, and backchanneling.