SPECO - a multimedia multilingual teaching and training system for speech handicapped children

In the frame of the INCO-Copernicus program of European Commission we have started to develop an audio-visual pronunciation teaching and training method and software system for hearing and speech-handicapped persons to help them to control their speech production. A teaching method is drawn up for progression from the individual sound preparation to practice of the sounds in sentences. The main aim is to develop an audio-visual articulation training and teaching system for all participant languages, these being English, Swedish, Slovenian and Hungarian. The basic part is a general language-independent measuring system and database editor. This database editor makes it possible to construct modules for all participant languages and for different speech disabilities. Two modules are under development for its construction in all languages, one of them being for teaching and training vowels for hearing-impaired children, while the other one is for correction of misarticulated fricative sounds.