Computer game boosts children's' language skills (fwd)

[Phil Cash Cash]

Computer game boosts children's' language skills

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994093

A simple computer program that teaches children to distinguish between
sounds can dramatically boost their listening skills. It can allow them
to progress by the equivalent of two years in just a few weeks, the
game's creator claims.

The game, called Phonomena, was devised by David Moore of the University
of Oxford, UK, as an aid for children with language problems, but he
says his latest trials also show that it can help any child. Other
experts, however, are reserving judgement until independent tests are
carried out.

Phonomena is designed to improve children's ability to distinguish
between different phonemes, the basic sounds that form the building
blocks of language. Up to a fifth of all children are thought to have
problems hearing the differences between some sounds, says Moore, who
heads the UK Medical Research Council's Institute of Hearing Research.

In the game, children have to distinguish between pairs of phonemes such
as the "i" sound from the word "bit" and the "e" from "bet". They are
played one phoneme followed by two more examples, and asked which one
matches the first sound. As the game progresses the phonemes are
gradually "morphed" to make them more and more similar, making it
increasingly difficult to distinguish between them.

With 44 phonemes in English, there are potentially more than 1000
different pairs, but the game concentrates on just 22 pairs of the
commonest and most similar-sounding phonemes.

 Listening ages

In the latest trials, 18 children aged between eight and 10 played the
game three times a week for four weeks. Their language abilities were
compared before and after exposure to the game using a standard
listening test.

The team found a dramatic improvement in their language abilities, with
listening ages up by an average 2.4 years compared with 12 children who
did not play the game. In earlier trials on children with learning
difficulties, the speech and language therapists who tested the game
reported similar improvements.

But Ted Wragg, an expert in education at the UK's University of Exeter,
warns that such trials can produce misleading results. The improvements
could be due to the efforts and attention of teachers and therapists,
rather than the game itself. There is a history in education of people
and companies making claims about learning products that do not stand
up to scrutiny, he says.

Moore says independent tests will be done. But he is convinced that
computer games such as Phonomena that are designed to teach key sensory
skills could make a big difference in education. Even normal computer
games have been shown to improve visual skills, he points out. "In the
future, every child's dream of homework consisting of hours spent
playing computer games may well become a reality."

 Catching a ball

It is a bit like teaching someone to catch a ball, Moore adds. "Sensory
performance is no different from motor performance. As far as we know,
the neural processes driving them both are the same." And just as
playing catch improves hand-eye coordination in other tasks, Moore
thinks the phoneme training boosts children's general language skills.

The advantage of using computers, he says, is each game can be tailored
to a child's abilities. An Oxford-based company called MindWeavers has
been set up to commercialise the game.

Similar computer-based language tools already exist, such as those
developed by Scientific Learning of Oakland, California. But these are
geared exclusively towards children with speech and language problems
and involve intensive training.

"We don't believe you need to do this draconian amount of training for
it to do good," says Moore. He is also exploring the use of phoneme
training as an aid to adults learning a foreign language.

Duncan Graham-Rowe