Speech Recognition a Dyslexia Aid

The Dutch company, Kanteff Speech Processing, has developed an adaptation of ScanSoft Dragon NaturallySpeaking 7, which is specifically intended for children with dyslexia. Easy-to-read training texts enable children to get to work with this software more easily.

The dyslexia add-on was developed after Dutch research showed that children with a reading disability showed great interest in speech recognition software. The add-on lets children train Dragon NaturallySpeaking program with reading material that is easy to understand and gives the program the same input to understand the user as the original material supplied with ScanSoft’s solution.
 
Hans Vergouwen of Kanteff Speech Processing indicates Annemiek Huisbrink made a study of the possibilities of using speech recognition in education. She states that training with the help of speech recognition can be an excellent aid. As early as 1995, Higgens and Rakind did their research which showed that speech recognition offers extra ways to practice reading skills, positively influences sound-character awareness and makes children unconsciously work on improving their phonological skills through their hobbies. All these things indicated an adapted version of Dragon NaturallySpeaking would be ideal for task.
 
Vergouwen activates the Dragon NaturallySpeaking software during a demonstration and then dictates an entire letter in the course of which I notice that Dragon NaturallySpeaking reproduces everything to the letter. The word Axistive is new to the software and is corrected by Vergouwen.
 
Due to months of training, the system hardly any mistakes occur with Vergouwen operating it. For Dragon NaturallySpeaking to get used to the user’s voice takes about three weeks of training. The experience is that it takes children with dyslexia a little longer, because they do not always recognize the program’s mistakes, which have to be corrected so Dragon NaturallySpeaking can learn from them.
 
Kanteff Speech Processing is supplier of Dragon NaturallySpeaking Dyslexia Software in the Netherlands. 

Source: Article “Word Wakker” by Martha Vlastuin in Balans Belang (September 2004)
 
Translation: Vanessa Flier