Writing and Voice Recognition Software

connie my son has problems very like yours, his IQ is 140 and he writes several years below his grade level, believe me I am watching voice recognition closly and waiting to pounce, but whats out there right know just cant cut it. my son has been useing co-writer in conjunction with write out loud with some success but it is a slow laborous process to write even with these tools, the tools them selves are very time consuming to use as you search through drop lists and then listen repeatedly to a canned computer voice repeat as you check for accuracy. The voice software avalable, takes a lot of time to train, and when the childs voice begins to change the computer no longer understands them, not to mention that the computer still cant tell the difference between to, too and two, between there, their and hear and here. the times comming but its not here yet;(

Have you looked in to Kidspiration or Inspiration.

It is not voice recognition. But, it helps kids to organize there writing. The website in www.inspiration.com

Good Luck

I believe the key to voice recognition software is the level of interest and motivation of the child.

I bought Dragon Naturally Speaking (Standard - the most basic edition, I think) a year ago for our dyslexic 11-year-old son. If he makes the effort to speak clearly, (and retrain it when it gets things wrong), it actually works pretty well. But because we are using it to do homework and he is resentful of me wanting him to use this rather than depending on my to scribe, he is pretty grumpy at the outset and he won’t speak up or speak clearly. We will try it again when school starts back up because if he makes the effort, it will really give him some independence from me.

We bought it for $40 on Ebay. For that price, it was worth a shot. My 13 year old son uses it sometimes for homework just because of the novelty of it and he’s actually got it working pretty well. And it works okay for me, too.

NOTE: We had to upgrade our RAM. It was a little too slow at 56K. Also have to close virtually everthing down except Dragon and what ever app you are recording into.

We’ve bought many of those programs but have had no great luck with any. People speak well of them and anything is worth trying. My own son has speech issues as well which make recognizing his words harder than it would be for another child.

I let my dyslexic-dysgraphic son dictate to me. Fortunately I type fast and can keep up with him fairly well. It takes time but it’s been a big help to him in staying on top of his homework and being successful in school.

My son (12) installed himself and uses Dragon Systems’ Point & Speak.

www.dragonsys.com
www.naturalspeech.com

To make the program operational involved his speaking into a microphone for about two hours (not at one stretch) from a prepared script, so that the program could learn his voice, inflection, and pronunciation. He did the input voluntarily and now uses the program all the time.

Hi Connie,
I, too, have watched voice recognition software very closely as
my sons are being intensively remediated. I’ve read numerous
reports on the subject (ld online might have one of them). My
daughter who is not ld fiddled with dragon for teens but I think
that that product was too much of a rush deal (to get on the market)…that was about two years ago.
I agree with the other writer above in that at age 11 this is probably not the time to use it due to inevitable voice changes
coming in about 3-4 years. It does take determination upon the part of the user to train…they need to be motivated to use it.
For now our sons (and dad too who likes it) are using
Texthelp! (Read & Write - $240!!!). This helps them with spelling, word prediction, will read text in software, on internet, etc. My husband uses it to correct his spelling (horrendous) when he sends out little emails to clients.
Of course, the best solution so far is MOM. I can spell check,
type fast, correct grammar, etc. and I am free.
Donna

Sara,

My son does best dictating to me as well. However, I am not always available when he is ready to “dictate”. Fortunately I had an old transcribing machine stored in the basement that takes the little mini cassettes. I bought my son a portable dictaphone and several blank tapes. This way he can dictate when he likes and doesn’t have to wait for me to be available. When he has finished a piece he gives me the tape to transcribe. I think the cost of a transcriber and dictaphone are probably less or equal to voice recognition software (and you probably could get it used). An added benefit is that without the anxiety of having to worry about the mechanics of writing, my son feels free to write creatively and not only for school assignments. Audio books and dictaphone are definitely mother’s helpers in this world of busy schedules.

Connie,
I’m certainly not an expert in this area, but I have limited experience using voice recognition with LD students. It can work for students who will commit to the training process and use it regulary. It could enable your son to write more complex,descriptive sentences. Essentially, he would be writing with the same vocabulary he uses in speech. Dragon Naturally Speaking Version 5, seems to be the program of choice at present. You can learn more and get questions answered by experts at the Speak2Write listserv. http://www.edc.org/spk2wrt