Now, a new software BookieMonster that helps kids to read!

Now, a new software BookieMonster that helps kids to read!
PTI Jul 22, 2011, 12.52pm IST
WASHINGTON: Here's some good news for worried parents - researchers have come up with an innovative way to help children learn to read.
A team of Waikato University has developed a software, " BookieMonster", which they claim acts as a reading coach for kids - in fact, it computerises a proven method of learning tuition, dubbed "repeated reading" using computer-generated voices and speech recognition.
Children using the software listen to text being read aloud by the computer, following the words as they are progressively highlighted on-screen in time with the voice, similar to karaoke, say its developers.
WASHINGTON: Here's some good news for worried parents - researchers have come up with an innovative way to help children learn to read.

A team of Waikato University has developed a software, "BookieMonster", which they claim acts as a reading coach for kids - in fact, it computerises a proven method of learning tuition, dubbed "repeated reading" using computer-generated voices and speech recognition.

Children using the software listen to text being read aloud by the computer, following the words as they are progressively highlighted on-screen in time with the voice, similar to karaoke, say its developers.

After hearing a text read to them a few times, they then read it back to the computer via a microphone.

The software recognises their speech and provides the same progressive text highlighting that they received while being read to.

The students now have a working prototype and are setting up trials in local schools. Ultimately they hope to see their software distributed via existing initiatives in developing nations where literacy in some places is as low as 50 per cent, say the researchers.

It also has the potential to assist in teaching a second language, they say.

Friday, July 22, 2011: Here's respite for all the worried parents who have troubles in making their kids learn to read. A team of researchers from Waikato University has developed a software called BookieMonster, which they claim acts as a reading coach for kids - in fact, it computerises a proven method of learning tuition, dubbed "repeated reading" using computer-generated voices and speech recognition.

Its developers say that children using the software listen to text being read aloud by the computer, following the words as they are progressively highlighted on-screen in time with the voice, similar to karaoke. After hearing a text read to them a few times, they then read it back to the computer via a microphone.

The software recognises their speech and provides the same progressive text highlighting that they received while being read to.

The researchers reveal that the students now have a working prototype and are setting up trials in local schools. Ultimately they hope to see their software distributed via existing initiatives in developing nations where literacy in some places is as low as 50 per cent.