Neurofeedback-Enhanced Speech Therapy for Pronoun Comprehension in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) frequently encounter profound challenges in pronoun comprehension, a core deficit impeding social communication and pragmatic language development. Traditional speech therapies often yield limited generalization due to their static nature and overlook underlying neural dysregulation. This paper introduces a novel neurofeedback-enhanced speech therapy system that fuses real-time electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring with adaptive speech recognition to target pronoun errors such as confusions between “I/you” and “he/she.” The architecture employs a 16-channel wireless EEG headset for acquiring mu/beta rhythms, coupled with a fine-tuned transformer-based speech model for pronoun detection, delivering personalized auditory-visual feedback via gamified interfaces. In a randomized controlled trial with 24 ASD children aged 5-10 in Chennai, the system achieved a 32% improvement in pronoun accuracy (p < 0.01) and enhanced frontal-temporal coherence over 12 weeks, surpassing standard ABA protocols by 18%. Adaptive reinforcement learning ensures engagement, while edge computing enables scalability for low-resource clinics. Findings underscore neurofeedback’s potential to drive neuroplasticity in ASD language circuits, offering a scalable, non-pharmacological pathway for inclusive speech interventions. Future extensions include VR immersion and multilingual support for global deployment.