Apple Music ‘Saylists’ will help children with speech-sound disorders

Apple Music has partnered with Rothco and Warner Music to develop a series of playlists with over a hundred tracks called ‘Saylists’ in order to help young listeners with speech-sound disorders, according to reports.

According to a report by the BBC, the streaming service and Warner Music have relied on algorithms to identify songs that feature challenging sounds that young children with speech-sound disorders, especially those that repeat the sounds.

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Apple Music has so far added 173 tracks to the playlist and the tracks include Don’t Start Now by Dua Lipa, and Right Now by Fatboy Slim, according to the report. It also states that the algorithm analysed the lyrics of all the music in Apple’s 70 million song catalogue and identified the tracks that would repeat those sounds most often before adding them to the playlist.

A speech sound disorder is also known as an articulation disorder or a phonological disorder and is used to describe the issues faced by children who do not say sounds by the time they reach the appropriate age. Typically sounds like mm, n, h, w, p, b, t, d, k, and g are learnt early on, but some sounds like y, v, s, sh, ch, j, ng, th, z, l, and r are more difficult and are learnt by the age of four along with all other speech sounds, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (or ASHA).

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“Every speech and language therapist wants to keep children engaged during the therapy sessions as well as help them generalise the target sounds, both in school and at home. Saylists provide a fun, new way to practise the sounds I teach them – without feeling pressured or getting bored. Having fun is the first step to learning,” said Anna Biavati-Smith, speech and language therapist.