Combining Lexical Resources for an Interactive Language Tool

Children who are deprived of language play are likely to experience impaired linguistic development and this can in turn inhibit communicative and social skills (Donahue & Bryan 84). A software tool which will permit a child with language and/or speech impairments to explore language in an enjoyable way, by manipulating words and phrases into simple jokes, is being built to address this issue. The automated joke-construction is based on the ideas used in the JAPE program, which could form simple punning riddles broadly similar to those in published joke books (Binsted et al. 97). JAPE was a rather basic prototype, with no real user interface, almost no facilities for guiding the joke-construction, and a response time (hours) wholly unsuitable for an interactive system. Following the philosophy of user-centred design (Vredenburg et al. 02), an extensive consultation was undertaken with domain experts (speech and language therapists) and potential users to ascertain what a joke-building system for children with disabilities should provide (O’Mara et al. 04, Manurung et al. 05).