Knowledge Master and the speech therapist (logopedist)

Speech therapy is the discipline that deals with the process of human communicative interaction, seen as an intentional and meaningful  exchange of messages between two or more aware/conscious individuals, intended to exchange knowledge. Logopedia looks for comfort, easiness and correctness of people to foster their adequate educational and social role. Knowledge management is an extremely important subject for the speech therapist, that can use its principles and technologies to make learning and/or rehabilitation of linguistic communication functions more effective. The knowledge cycle on which the linguistic dimension is based from the expressive and cognitive viewpoint cannot stop at the simple data transmission: data are the "coarse/rough" material, and often overabundant of information. Even information, it is, selected and organized data, is not enough to guarantee effective communication. Communication must be based and orientated to knowledge "transmission", intended as an organized cognitive semantic structure.

Concept maps (semantic networks) are a simple and intuitive model for meaningful communication of ideas, and for knowledge organization and its  visual-spatial representation (in simple words, for active knowledge management). The way knowledge is represented in concept maps, considered by cognitive psychology as equivalent  to that in which the human mind organizes and stores it, undoubtedly places this technique among the most updated strategies and among the most evolved  educational tools, and makes of it and ideal tool for visual, active and collaborative learning.

Knowledge Master® (KM) offers the tools that permit the creation of concepts or ideas in the form of a map; but KM also permits working in an integrated environment for structuring ideas, with documents associated to its structure. The presence of advanced automation permits the access to tutorial functions that ease the dialog with represented knowledge and an easy access to the most important structures. Being multimodality an fundamental attribute of human communication, the active voice service (available in several languages) augments the level of communication with the user. When working with visual representation of ideas, it becomes evident how every idea is related to the others. Thinking and learning become active instead of passive. The deepest level of knowledge is uncovered, and it's easier to see  where are the deficiencies that hinder understanding. Besides Knowledge Master's fundamental contribution to teachers that must face the challenge of specific learning disabilities, KM becomes an extremely useful instrument also for the logopedist's activity.

To complement the specific linguistic rehabilitation work  with a structural cognitive component on the basis of conceptual knowledge, KM offers: The possibility of conceptualizing the fundamental principles of language and communication though expressly created maps, to foster the functional use of linguistic communication; automatic assessment questions; Cognitive use of voice and spell check can integrate with education and with  linguistic reeducation suggesting the correct pronunciation of letters and words; KM's multimedia interface permits the contemporary use of voice, images and associated documents and programs to support understanding of contends, perceived through a richer and and different channel  in comparison with reading or passive listening; The possibility of creating simple maps orientated to (regarding) phonetic and/or semantic differences of some concepts and to make them perceived thorough visual and auditive channels, makes evident the fundamental relationship existing between sound and meaning and the word-sound relationship; The possibility of exporting the the map to many other external formats, to use them elsewhere or with other strategies. The possibility of adapting KM to specific requirements. Knowledge Master is, indeed, a versatile instrument: It's for the user to decide its use and to adapt it to the specific needs of the patient: children and/or adults with language disorders children wit specific learning disabilities/impairments children with ADDH children and/or adults affected by hypoacusia children and/or adults affected by disorders in which the computer interface eases establishing contact (autism/Asperger) seniors affected by cognitive and/or cognitive-linguistic disorders

Moreover, Knowledge Master Corp strenuously works in the development of Knowledge Master to make it more effective in favoring knowledge and knowledge management in common and pathological situations.