Keyboard

Brief description

• Free software which adds text to speech (in Microsoft Word only)
• It speaks aloud what you are typing

Who could benefit

• People starting to write in sentences but with some spelling and reading difficulties

Brief description

• Keyboard familiarisation tasks
• Spelling exercises
• 80 activities included or create your own
• Results are recorded
• Use standard keyboard or onscreen keyboard
• Prompts provided
• Can be used by lots of different users, each with their own exercise set

Who could benefit

• People needing to practise:
• Keyboard skills
• Spelling skills

Brief description

• Speech recognition program
• As the user speaks into the microphone, the speech is automatically turned into text
• Can read back &/or listen back to what has been typed

Who could benefit

• Someone with good speech & listening skills but compromised spelling &/or reading skills

Comments

• Need to train the program to recognise your speech
• Noise reducing microphones work best
• Requires good cognitive skills to remember commands & adapt speaking rate

Brief description

• Word prediction, speech recognition & screen reader
• The program predicts to aid spelling, gives examples of word useage, reads aloud text on the screen (what you’re typing or what you’re reading).
• Can also use speech recognition to ‘type’ in words.
• Can customise the dictionary to improve prediction
• Screen reader, prediction & speech recognition works within all programs/web pages (e.g. can use within email, social networking sites & web searches)

Who could benefit:

• People who can spell the first 2-3 letters of a word before getting stuck
• People who can spell words but sometimes find it easier to say a word

Comments

• All parts of the program work on PC. Mac users only have access to the word prediction & screen reading parts of the program, not the speech recognition part
• Switch accessible only if using Wivick connection cable
   

Type of exercises:

• Reading/repeating sentences and paragraphs aloud

Developed with SLT: Yes

Theory based: Yes

Record own speaking attempts: No

Correction of own speaking attempts: No

Customisation/personalisation: No

Error handling: None

Prompts/cues given: No

Tutorials: No

Free trial: No

Support: phone or email (in USA)

Comments:

• From 3 word sentences up to 100 word paragraphs
• Listen to sentence, point at words heard spoken and then repeat sentences
• Advised to practise for 30 minutes per day

N.B:
   Program doesn't load to the computer, it requires the CD to run
 

Type of exercises:

• Verbal and written naming of nouns, verbs, adjectives (e.g. people, weather, hobbies, nature, clothes+ customised/personalised vocab  (needs to be able to be pictorially represented))
• Single word and sentence level spoken word finding
• Word level semantics
• Spoken repetition exercises
• The My Words suite of exercises uses the words the user is practising in a range of different exercises in order to intensively work on the same words in different exerise formats (e.g. matching, repetition, naming, spelling)
• Up to 10 levels of exercise, gradually increasing in complexity
• Assessment items provided to gauge start level & vocabulary

Developed with SLT: Yes



Theory based: Yes. Lots of evidence to support this software, some of which is on the research evidence page of this site



Record own speaking attempts: Yes



Correction of own speaking attempts: No



Customisation/personalisation: Yes



Error handling: Yes. Spoken, written, phonemic & video cues given, options reduced & then correct answer provided to copy. Can’t make more than 2 consecutive errors.  Clinician can specifiy degree of accuracy required before the program automatically moves the person onto the next level of exercises or moves them to an easier level of exercise



Prompts/cues given: Yes. Written, spoken, video, phonemic



Tutorials: Yes. Comprehensive, step by step video tutorials provided for each section of the software for both users and clinicians



Free trial: Yes



Support: Free phone support & in-program video tutorials



Comments:

• Sentence level: e.g. incorporating the word ‘tea’ into the sentence ‘I would like a cup of …’
• Assessment stimuli can be used as a start guide and for re-assessment of progress
• Gradual building of skills through graded exercises. User moves on to next level automatically once competent at the previous level (SLT can set the criteria for when to move them on). Equally, if they fail to achieve a certain % the SLT can set the facility to automatically provide an easier level of exercise
• Can remotely update and download exercises & results (with the clinician version of the software)
• There is the facility to write therapy notes within the program if the clinician is doing the exercise with the user
• Personalised vocabulary and photos can be programmed and the clinician can provide the phonemic cue (phonetic keyboard provided) & a video of mouth shapes as well as sentence level examples of the word's use

N.B:

  British accent

 

Type of exercises:

• Semantics
• Sequencing
• Spelling
• Homonyms & synonyms

Developed with SLT: Yes



Theory based: No, based on clinician experience



Record own speaking attempts: N/A



Correction of own speaking attempts:N/A



Easy to use?: No. The user must click on an answer, then click again to input their answer and then click again to move onto the next question.



The internet subscription exercises are very slow to accept the answer making multiple activations possible and therefore potentially confusing.



Customisation/personalisation: No



Error handling: None



Prompts/cues given: Only for one set of exercises



Tutorials: Yes, online



Free trial: Yes but not the complete program



Support: Via Livechat or the supplier can take over the user’s PC. All support takes place 9am-5pm New York time



Comments:

• The online subscription allows access to all the modules available so as the user progresses they don’t need to purchase new modules. It feels like an app when downloaded on an ipad
• The CD version has more functions than the internet version
• Need reading skills (single word and simple sentences)
• Sequencing exercises work on functional, everyday activities (e,g, parking, dressing). They go from 2 step to 5 step sequencing
• Remote access to results is possible as long as the SLT has the user’s login & password.

N.B:

    US terminology/vocabulary

    Voice is American and computer generated

    No visual rewards for correct answers

 

Type of exercises:

• Letter and word recognition.
• Written naming.
• Multiple choice matching tasks and gap filling naming tasks.

Theory based: Not a particular theory base, SLT experience

Error handling: Only for picture naming exercises.

Prompts/cues given: Progress tracking to move the user on if they are getting responses correct. User selectable hints and number of multiple choice options provided.

Support: Free lifetime technical support via phone, email or online livechat

Comments: Have to backspace previous answer before entering new, correct response

Type of exercises:

• Letter and word recognition.
• Written naming.
• Multiple choice matching tasks and gap filling naming tasks.

Developed with SLT: Yes

Theory based: Not a particular theory base, SLT experience



Record own speaking attempts: N/A



Correction of own speaking attempts: N/A

Customisation/personalisation: No



Error handling: Only for picture naming exercises.



Prompts/cues given:

• Spoken semantic cues
• Spoken model cues
• Spoken answers

Tutorials: No



Support: Free lifetime technical support via phone, email or online livechat



Comments: In deluxe version, automatically moves user on if they are getting responses correct but not in this version



N.B: Have to backspace previous answer before entering new, correct response

Type of exercises:

• Multiple choice and gapfiller exercises for generating words that ‘sound like’ or are ‘the opposite to’ or are ‘the same as’

Developed with SLT: Yes

Theory based: Not a specific theory base, SLT experience

Record own speaking attempts: N/A

Correction of own speaking attempts: N/A

Customisation/personalisation: No

Error handling: Gives cues after each wrong answer.

Prompts/cues given: Yes. Says word aloud, gives number of letters in word, gives multiple choices

Tutorials: No

Free trial: Yes

Support: Free lifetime technical support via phone, email or online livechat

Comments:

• Some Americanisms
• Some items are very high level
• Model voice is American

N.B:
   Need spelling skills
   Need whole word reading