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 2 years in just a few weeks, the game鈥檚 creator claims.
The game, called Phonomena, was devised by David Moore of the University of Oxford 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鈥檚 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鈥檚 Institute of Hearing Research.
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In the game, children have to distinguish between pairs of phonemes such as the 鈥渋鈥� sound from the word 鈥渂it鈥� and the 鈥渆鈥� from 鈥渂et鈥�. 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 鈥渕orphed鈥� to make them more and more similar, making it increasingly difficult to distinguish between them. With 49 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.
In the latest trials, 18 children aged between 8 and 10 played the game three times a week for 3 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 Tedd Wragg, an expert in education at the UK鈥檚 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 (快猫短视频, 31 May, p 11). 鈥淚n the future, every child鈥檚 dream of homework consisting of hours spent playing computer games may well become a reality.鈥�
It鈥檚 a bit like teaching someone to catch a ball, Moore adds. 鈥淪ensory performance is no different from motor performance. As far as we know, the neural processes driving them both are the same.鈥� And just as playing catch improves hand-eye coordination in other tasks, Moore thinks the phoneme training boosts children鈥檚 general language skills. The advantage of using computers, he says, is each game can be tailored to a child鈥檚 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. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 believe you need to do this draconian amount of training for it to do good,鈥� says Moore. He is also exploring the use of phoneme training as an aid to adults learning a foreign language.