A STUDY ON THE
FEASIBILITY AND EFFECTIVENESS OF USING A CANTONESE SPEECH-TO-TEXT
TECHNOLOGY IN FACILITATING THE WRITTEN COMMUNICATION OF CHILDREN WITH
DYSLEXIA
Chan CW, Cheng KY, Lam CC, Ho TF
Working Party
on Specific Learning Disabilities (SLD), The Hong Kong Society of Child
Neurology and Developmental Paediatrics
Fourteen Hong Kong
children with dyslexia, aged 9 to 14, and three children without dyslexia,
aged 10 to 15, were trained to use a Cantonese speech-to-text input technology
as a tool for dictating Chinese characters into word processing
applications. The aim of this
study was to explore the feasibility and effectiveness of using this
technology in facilitating written communication of children with dyslexia.
In the six training sessions, participants were familiarized with the use
of the input device and guided to personalize the associated speech
template, input specially-designed reading texts into the computer, and
complete two oral pictorial composition exercises. These sessions were conducted
with the help of parents and volunteer workers. Usefulness of the technology
was evaluated with regard to both the written product and to process
factors. Participants' written output was analyzed for recognition accuracy
rate for different types of writing tasks. Through analysis of structured
feedback from helper observations, parent questionnaires, and child
interviews, difficulties encountered and factors noted to contribute to
success in the training and trial processes were studied. Results indicated
high individual variability in the effectiveness of using this tool.
Implications for the improvement of this Cantonese speech-to-text
technology as well as its potential application for facilitating the
learning of children with dyslexia at home and school will be discussed.