Summary
The SPECO group has finished its work. Over the 3 years of the project the group has devel-oped a new Speech Teaching and Training software system for four languages: Hungarian, English, Swedish, Slovenian. This SPECO System aims to help to develop or correct the speech (articulation, intonation, loudness, rhythm etc.) of children with speech disabilities. It is very important in our system that we present the speech parameters in a way that is under-standable and interesting for young children, while remaining correct from the acoustic-phonetic point of view. The program presents the important cues for different phonemes in sound pictures and emphasizes important parts with amusing drawings to make the pictures understandable for 5 to 6-year-old children. The system is based on up-to-date technology, but we follow the steps of traditional speech therapy in both modules. These are sound prepara-tion, sound development, followed by training in words and automation (meaning the achieve-ment of a reliable production not requiring further instruction). Specific tasks have been con-structed in a specific order involving the teaching experiences of the teachers of a given lan-guage. The trade names of the programs were selected according to the advice of speech therapists:
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The base of the SPECO System is a general language-independent measuring tool, a database editor and the database. The database editor made it possible to construct modules for all par-ticipant languages and for different sound groups.
Created on November 28, 2001