Speech-Language Pathology Alum’s Mission is to Improve Stuttering Around the World

Sean Hennessey

Date

February 26, 2025

Topics

Outcomes & Career Paths

Erich Reiter’s SAY-IT Labs is using a voice-activated game to increase speech therapy access to patients – and knowledge to SLPs

Erich Reiter hopes gaming can help stem the amount of people who stutter, and he’s already taken some impressive steps to make that a reality around the world.

Start with SAY-IT Labs, the Belgian-based company at the intersection of speech recognition technology and speech-language pathology. The 2016 graduate of the Masters in Speech Language Pathology program is the company CEO with a global goal.

“We want to be a solution for people around the world,” said Reiter. “If you’re a person who stutters, this is about having access and learning about what they can do to improve their fluency. There are 80 million people around the world who stutter — and the vast majority of them do not have access to speech-language therapy.”

So, Reiter and his team are providing access through an app being used in more than 30 countries, one that combines speech recognition technology and speech pathology.

“Our app allows a child to do motor practice anytime they want, not just during a 30-minute speech therapy session,” explained Reiter on the benefit. “The idea of a video game is that you’re a character in a game, just like you would play any video game. But instead of using your hands as a joystick, your voice is the joystick.”

Enter Stutter Stars, an app filled with games that are designed to target the parts of the brain involved in speech timing, rhythm, initiation of speech, prosody, and mindfulness. In Stutter Stars, a voice becomes the superpower, and the user is at the center of the universe. Through the character Zumi, users are guided through the Lalabi Islands, with each island representing a skillset to work on. Similar to a speech therapy session between a speech-language pathologist and a client, teaching strategies are used at the beginning of each island.

On Zen Island, Zumi runs through a lush landscape where proper motor production of specific prompted words helps vegetation grow. For every word, there is audio assistance in how to say the word. On the island of Phonation Village, Zumi executes stunts with his skateboard when words are correctly produced using an easy onset strategy. Similar themes are on the islands of Pitch Heights, Slowness Swamp, and Chunking Ship; each visit teaches a unique fluency technique which has its own challenges, but with help along the way whenever necessary so that Zumi can advance.

“In a game, we'll climb a beanstalk, and how do you climb a beanstalk?” asks Reiter, rhetorically. “You have to say the words by changing your pitch. If you’re very good at changing your pitch, you'll climb the beanstalk really quickly. If not, you'll have ample opportunities to practice while being supported by the resident helper character. We add a bunch of video game elements that are playful, that get a kid engaged. And by the time they're done, they've practiced 30 to 40 hours independently on a series of different motor techniques commonly taught by fluency specialists. If you want to get good at anything, you'll need repeated practice and video games are just a fantastic way to do this.”

SAY IT Labs’ proprietary artificial intelligent (A.I.) technology mimics the guidance and feedback of a speech language pathologist (SLP) during a session by providing instant feedback and player-performance guidance during the game.

While geared toward children, the game can also be used by adults who are hesitant to practice in front of people.

“A lot of people who stutter will tell me, ‘You know, I become timid practicing around people,’” noted Reiter, who speaks Spanish, French, Dutch, Flemish, German, and Romanian. “’But when I can practice on my own and only be judged by a computer, it allows me that moment to practice, and that judgment doesn't really feel as harsh.’”

Along with audio demonstrations on how certain words should sound and tips to avoid stuttering, Stutter Stars provides nuggets of information such as, “Did you know that stuttering happens because the timing of our vocal cords misfires?” and that Charles Van Riper, the father of the speech language pathology field, also stuttered.

Eric Discusses His Projects

Phone App — Stutter Stars, the app that was co-created by MGH Institute alumnus Erich Reiter, on an iPhone (available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store)

two men sitting at table — Dr. Lukas Latacz (r) and MGH Institute alum Erich Reiter, co-founders of SAY-IT Labs, after a panel session in preparation for the finals of the Social Innovation Tournament in Stockholm, Sweden

Man speaking to audience — Reiter speaking in Todi, Italy about social impact of using A.I.-based video games to support the treatment of stuttering.

Man with award next to woman — Reiter (r), whose company’s mission is to create accessible speech therapy via A.I. based video games around the world, taking first place at the European Social Innovation Forum in Brussels, Belgium

man with award next to woman on left — Reiter after SAY-IT Labs took first place at the Brain Innovation Pitch competition in Brussels, Belgium.

two men talking to audience — Reiter (l) and SAY-IT Labs co-founder Dr. Lukas Latacz taking questions at the Social Innovation Tournament in Stockholm, Sweden.

Cover art of app — The poster of Stutter Stars, the app designed to help stop stuttering around the world. The app was co-created by Erich Reiter, a 2016 speech-language pathology graduate of the MGH Institute.

The Beginning and the MGH Institute

Reiter’s career began as a speech recognition engineer when he worked for Nuance Communications, the original makers of SIRI, for ten years. Seven years into this career, an unexpected life experience presented itself.

“A really close friend of mine had a diagnosis of ALS and a couple of years into that, he couldn't talk anymore,” recalled Reiter. “And this is where I was introduced to the field of speech-language pathology. As an engineer. I'd never heard of this field. There seemed to be a disconnect between the artificial intelligence and speech recognition work that I was doing, and the field of speech-language pathology itself. But my curiosity was huge.”

Reiter dropped his career in speech recognition and enrolled in the MGH Institute’s Master of Science in Speech-Language Pathology.

“There were just so many benefits about the MGH Institute, more than just the intensity of the classes — there was the quality of the teachers, the quality of the mentorship, the exposure to incredible labs and institutions, and I know that what the IHP offers in Boston itself is just world class,” said Reiter. “To me, I was aiming for excellence.”

After graduating in 2016, Reiter worked for Bilinguistics, a company that focused on bilingual education.

“It just opened up my eyes to the need,” said Reiter. “If you have a speech language pathologist for just English speakers, there's already a big need. And then, if you add in children who speak another language, the needs are even greater.”

The lightbulb moment came when Reiter assessed his reach.

“When I would give my therapy sessions, I was always so limited in time as to what I could offer my clients, and that always pained me because I thought I could do more. The idea of creating video games that would combine some sort of intelligent machine with the speech therapy that I would deliver would be amazing.

“With technology, there’s just a huge opportunity. If I wanted to help a hundred kids as an SLP, I could. But with technology, I could probably help a million.”

In 2019, he and Dr. Lukas Latacz started SAY-IT Labs. They’ve spent the past five years creating speech recognition technology that has been trained and adapted specifically for people with various speech disorders, like stuttering. A few months ago, the Stutter Stars app was launched and today, it has about 3,000 users; the mission is to help those who stutter and the SLPs who are trying to help them.

“There's less than a thousand SLPs in the United States who truly understand the neurology of what happens when people stutter — this is a subspecialty within the field,” Reiter points out. “So, there's a major knowledge gap on treatment. We want to help SLPs learn. Stutter Stars is more than just a video game; we add a lot of facts about the science, and we have a lot of infographic videos about why we practice rate of speech, why we practice rhythm, and why we practice pitch changes. We show those in the game. So, our goal is to educate people who want to learn more, but our primary goal is to offer access for kids or adults.”

Guiding Reiter through his research, perspective, and priorities are the building blocks created at the MGH Institute during the Speech Language Pathology program.

“I'm grateful that I learned so much about this space at the IHP. What I learned has stuck with me when I go to conferences; when I talk about speech pathology to anybody, I truly feel like I know what I'm talking about,” said Reiter, fondly. “I’ve been stimulated to keep up with the latest evidence. I believe that anything we do should be based on research and the IHP instilled that big time in the work that we do. The quality of education, camaraderie of my cohort, staple of excellence, and the confidence to pursue something in our field that matters — I can thank the IHP for all of those things.”

Success and The Future

The success of SAY-IT Labs is beyond what Reiter could have expected: Innovation and Brain Research Award Winner; keynote speaker at the European Clinical Specialization in Fluency Disorders; Everis Belgian Innovation Award finalist; presenter at Oxford disfluency conference; presenter at the World Congress on Stuttering and Cluttering.

The five-year old venture recently won the 15th annual Milken-Penn GSE Education Business Plan Competition (EBPC) in New York City; along with the $40,000 grand prize, the recognition will bring a megaphone to what Reiter and SAY-IT Labs are doing.

“It's a dream come true,” said Reiter. “I mean, when there's hundreds of people applying for a global award spearheaded by one of the most esteemed universities in the world, and your name gets called, it's really something. The award can serve as an opportunity to let people know the world of AI is thinking about this field to complement the speech therapy services that speech therapists do extremely well.”

As for the future, SAY-IT Labs will be piloting articulation, early literacy, and phonemic awareness games within the next few months, so more apps are on the way. And he’s putting out the word for SLPs to use his software.

“If there are SLPs who have larger caseloads of children with articulation needs and they want to pilot some of our more mature software, that'd be great,” concluded Reiter. “If we can help those SLPs who can see the benefits of pushing the envelope of AI and video games, we would be entirely grateful to work with them.”

Speech-Language Pathologists interested in working with SAY-IT Labs can reach Erich Reiter at: erich [at] sayitlabs.com (erich[at]sayitlabs[dot]com)

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