Computer Speech and the Remediation of Reading and Spelling Problems

TL;DRAbstract

A high-quality speech synthesizer (DECtalk, by Digital Equipment Corporation) is very intelligible to children with reading disabilities. Linking the DECtalk to a microcomputer yields a “talking computer” that provides a powerful tool for research and remediation of reading and spelling problems. Two clear and related findings about children with “specific reading disability” (dyslexia) have emerged from previous research: 1) deficits in word recognition primarily cause these children's problems in reading comprehension, and 2) inherited deficits in analytic language processes underlie their difficulties in word recognition. These two findings suggest that speech support for words in text could help these children. In several studies at the University of Colorado, children with reading problems have read stories and books on talking computers for about 30 minutes a day, usually for 3–4 days per week during most of a semester. The children's word recognition and phonological decoding ha

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