Commercialization of a language assessment application : the case of Maltese children

Abstract

Malta is one of the few officially bilingual countries. Bilingualism creates both opportunities and problems. Parents have to choose the language they children will study in and which language they will speak at home. When children are raised in two completely different languages, in this case Maltese and English, they can develop a Speech Sound Disorder (SSD). Individuals with SSD have trouble saying certain sounds. Approximately 7 percent of Maltese children do not succeed in developing spoken language as expected. This negatively affects their communication skills and future opportunities. The LAMC was created to identify discrepancies in language development and to evaluate children’s progress after therapy. Currently, the LAMC is administered in person by clinicians without the use of digital technology. A patient’s diagnosis, progress, treatment, and final results are marked down and stored on paper. The study sets out specific guidelines, ideas, strategies, lists, and solutions to commercialize the LAMC. The study reviews various security, storage, pricing, and marketing strategies. The study also includes a qualitative interview consisting of 22 exploratory questions that were posed to 9 clinicians, individually. The clinicians are between the ages of 20 – 50, one male, eight female, and were sampled at random. The main objectives of this qualitative interview are to establish the pricing strategy for the tool and the features to be included in the tool. The interview was used to gather data about pricing, payment, service, and utility needs of the clinicians who will be using the tool. These dimensions were chosen because they play a significant role in determining the pricing structure and the financial feasibility of the project. The interview yielded the following results. The clinicians need a downloadable, platform agnostic, application that can monitor progress and generate results. It must be offered with a pay as you go pricing strategy or as a subscription service. The clinicians are able to dedicate between 65 euro on average, per annum, for the tool. Revenues generated from 100 paying clinicians are not enough to cover the development of the tool, support, maintenance, marketing, or legal fees. Thus, four recommendations are given. 1) The stakeholders can cancel or shelve the project due to the costs and the small market size of 100 clinicians. 2) The stakeholders can use crowdfunding websites like Kickstarter and ZAAR.com.mt, locate angel investors, and use any funding programs available by the Government of Malta and the European Union. 3) The stakeholders could also look at other larger markets where Speech Sound Disorder is prevalent. 4) The stakeholders could attempt to lobby the Maltese government to completely fund the tool.