CSLU Toolkit-based Vocabulary Tutors for the Jean Piaget Special Education School
Ingrid Kirschning · 2004
The TLATOA Speech Processing Group at UDLA, Puebla has developed a couple of applications using the CSLU Toolkit to support language acquisition for hearing impaired children of the Jean Piaget Special Education School in Puebla, México. These applications guide the practice of the pronunciation of vowels and a set of simple short words. The present paper describes the application for vowel production, the test plan and the first results as well as experiences of applying speech technology to support language acquisition for children in a public school in Mexico. 1 Language Acquisition and Hearing Disability Hearing is the means by which humans acquire their spoken language (Flores & Berruecos, 1991) and (McAleer, 1995). It is through language that a child learns about the surrounding world, about himself and intellectual development takes place. The hearing impairment can range from a partial to a complete loss of hearing. Hearing impairment or deafness in infants poses a big problem for language acquisition and requires special attention. Although sign language exists it is always preferable that a child, if capable, learns to speak. This is extremely important as the large majority of people including their own parents, teachers and friends may not be able to read or use sign language. This leads to situations where these children are excluded from social groups and miss a large part of their social learning experiences. Therefore it is very important to find the means for these children to learn to express themselves orally