Dragon is going well

Angela - thanks - I just emailed your comments to a friend with a HSer who is supposed to be using it. At what age do you think it is appropriate to start?

Angela,
Excellent. It is always wonderful to hear when technology is working effectively. There are some prerequisites to success with voice recognition and mentioned three of them - 1. appropriate hardware and peripherals, (RAM, processing speed, microphone, etc) latest software and a motivated student. VR can be incredibly successful for many students in helping them demonstrate what they have learned and know when producing quality, independent written work.
congratulations!

I’m curious about the age of your son. I have tried voice recognition software with my daughter but it didn’t recognize her voice. I was later told by a professional that these softwares don’t work well with children because of the higher pitch of their voice. I was told the technology is still 2 years away for use with children. We Tried Voice Xpress and didn’t get past the 1st paragraph that you have to read in order for it to understand your voice.

My son is now almost 16 and his voice seems at his mature level. He is also very verbal and has been using a tape recorder to record stories for about the last year. ( he dictated a 100 page novel last summer). The tape recorder may have been a good step in the direction of dictation. He could pace around his room and stop and start as he pleased. This is at least our third attempt at Dragon. The newer improved program (on sale for $50), plus the new, faster computer have made a big difference. For Dragon now, he doesn’t look at the screen and has water is a straw to sip. He is able to produce much more quantity. We have not tackled correcting within the program which would improve its recognition. We are doing one step at a time within trying to get homework done.
At my school I just tried Co-writer and Write Out Loud. The student I am working with has better spelling than my son, but more difficulty composing. He is doing well and likes Write Out Loud better than co-writer. It reads his sentence back to him and he can check for whether he has worded things correctly. For him Co-Writier and its word prediction is slower, but it helps him spell things correctly the first time. I would try these with my son, but at this point, I feel committed to learning Dragon.

Thanks for taking the time to respond. The student that you are working with at school and is working on Write out Loud and Co-worker, how old is he? I am reluctant to invest in software that might not be able to recognize the higher pitched voice of a 10 year old.

Write Out Loud reads back what the student has written. Co-Writer will give a list of words that the student might be thinking of as he writes the sentence. For example, if the sentence started The man, and the next letter was w, the program would list choices like wants, walks, waits, helping the student decide what to say next and how to spell it. So, neither of these programs allow the student to speak to the computer. You are right to be cautious at age 10. My current student is in 8th grade. I would see if there is a place where you can preview some of this software. Plus pull in some lower tech devices such as a talking spell check or I had a talking American Heritage Dictionary software that would read the word the student looked up out loud. Dictating into a tape recorder takes practice too.

I have a 10 year old daughter who uses Draft Builder. It works pretty good, and has auditory feedback. Spellcheck and reads the paragraphs. She’s been using it about a year. We are getting training on it this Summer.

Also does bibliography notes.

I have an 11 year old boy who uses Dragon quite successfully. The new version has a “teen” section for the voice trainning. We had to work at speaking in phrases, rather than single words. It works well to use Dragon in conjunction with Word which allows for spelling and grammar corrections.

Sherry,
Are you using DNS v.7? How do you like it? I’ve heard that v. 6 had many problems so I’m hoping that v. 7 is a better product because I think the potential of this voice recognition is tremendous for the students with learning issues with whom I work.
Karen

Sherry, thanks for the input. I, too, would like to know exactly what version you are using. I have a 10 year old whose life would be much easier with the use of Dragon.

Sherry, how long did it take to train on Dragon? My friend has it and said the “Dragon people” told her approx. 160 hours.

Leah,
I’m sure you must be mistaken. Dragon Naturally speaking v. 7 can be learned quickly in less than one hour with basic commands. Complete training can be accomplished in 10 to 15 hours depending upon the student’s age, cognitive ability and motivation and trainer’s skills.
karen

Gosh, Karen, I sure HOPE I (SHE) is mistaken. I’m going to have her visit this website and read this and then call those people again.

Thanks - I haven’t looked at it seriously b/c of the amount of time she would need to invest!

I trained my then 11 year old daughter and DNS in about 10 hours, at 15 hours her ability to correct was pretty good. I did it myself first to get the hang of it and it took several hours to get my email messages mostly going my way.

An above poster talked about dictating experience. I think that was a big factor in our success-my daughter is very comfortable dictating-she is very verbal, excellent vocab, etc. Doing the reading was tough-she was often frustrated- but the accuracy difference after the 2nd long one was amazing. It certainly gets better as she corrects.

We also use Word which she has used since 3rd grade, so was familiar with teh spell-check etc.

I tried DNS and ViaVoice-don’t waste your money on anything but DNS. I bought DNS for around $50 which I consider a steal compared to other LD software. We are using a 10 month old computer and windows XP operating system.

Gosh, I’m so glad someone answered this. I think I also am going to look at this for my 10 year old daughter. She does have some minor articulation problems, but I think they can be overcome.

Maybe it’s something we can try over the Summer.