EVALUATION OF STUDENT
for potential use of speech recognition 
(detailed information)

IMPORTANCE OF EVALUATING STUDENT'S POTENTIAL FOR USE OF SPEECH RECOGNITION

Since voice input is a relatively new and complex technology, requiring intensive training, support and specialized technology, it is essential to have very specific and structured assessment methods in order to determine which students would be most suited to this technology.

Given the extent of training, support and investment required, it is important that we identify students accurately before embarking on trials and training of speech recognition. The use of speech recognition can be an extremely positive and beneficial experience for both student and educational team. Likewise, it can also be an extremely negative and frustrating experience with extensive time and effort wasted if the program does not work well for a specific student.

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GENERAL ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY EVALUATION

Before starting any kind of evaluation or investigation into a student's potential use of speech recognition, an overall assistive technology assessment is essential.  The use of a specific technology such as speech recognition, should not be implemented in isolation.  It should be used as part of an overall assistive or alternative technology plan based on a comprehensive and detailed assessment of the student's needs and challenges.  If the student has difficulty with producing written work, there are many different methods, techniques and technologies available to assist with their writing.  Even if speech recognition would be a good solution for a student, it is important that the wide range of options available is explored before tackling the challenge of learning how to use speech recognition.

The general assistive technology and writing assessment is detailed and is beyond the scope of this speech-recognition evaluation.  Excellent, detailed assistive technology assessment resources are available at the following web sites:

www.qiat.org

www.wati.org

www.wati.org/materials/assessments.html

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CUSTOMTYPING.COM SPEECH RECOGNITION EVALUATION OF STUDENT
The use of a structured criteria and evaluation system is essential. The evaluation provided by customtyping.com is an example of the type of evaluation which would be performed prior to deciding whether to start a trial of speech recognition for a specific student.

Speech recognition is the process of turning speech into actions or text on the computer, replacing or minimizing the need for keyboard or mouse control. It has tremendous potential and benefit for many, many students with disabilities. The technology has improved rapidly, and as it becomes more accurate and more affordable, it opens the door to improved potential for more students than ever before. However, it is important to continually remember that it is not a 'plug and play' technology. It requires extensive training and many hours of support and practice. It also needs ongoing patience, perseverance and persistence before the outcomes of improved performance and independence will be evident.

Click here to go the the student evaluation form.
(In order to store information for specific student/s, you will need an account for each student member.)

Click here to go to the sample student evaluation form.  (sample copy for viewing if you do not have an account.  You can view it, fill it out and print, but not save information.)

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HOW DOES THIS CRITERIA AND EVALUATION FORM WORK?
Over the past 12 or so years that speech recognition has made an appearance in the educational field, there has been much talk about which students might or might not be appropriate for this technology. Many people have discussed pre-requisite criteria which a student should possess before they would be able to cope with speech recognition.

As the technology itself has changed and advanced, the criteria have changed. There are no standards in terms of the criteria and prerequisite needs, however people using speech recognition in education have documented their ideas of what is important in terms of student performance prior to the introduction of speech recognition.

The evaluation and criteria items on this form provided by customtyping.com will provide a basis for determining if participation in a trial using speech recognition would be beneficial for a student.  This evaluation system provides a live, online form which can be accessed through the student's account or through the teacher's administration account. 

Click here to go the the student evaluation form.
(In order to store information for specific student/s, you will need an account for each student member.)

Click here to go to the sample student evaluation form.  (sample copy for viewing if you do not have an account.  You can view it, fill it out and print, but not save information.)

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INDEPENDENCE VS. ASSISTANCE
This evaluation method aims at providing the broadest approach possible to determine which students would benefit from speech recognition. We do not only focus on students who have the potential to be independent. We also provide information about students who could use speech recognition with some assistance, but still experience greater levels of overall independence in producing written work or using the computer.

As you will see on the form, for each skill level or criteria item, three options are available. The scale is as follows:

1 = Yes / Good - this skill is present, developed and functional.
2 = Developing - this skill may not be present or functional currently, however it is developing and there is good potential that the student will master the skill.
3 = No / Poor - this skill is not present or not developed.


For each item on this evaluation form, check off 1, 2 or 3 to indicate the functional levels for each of the categories.

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MAKING DECISIONS BASED ON THIS EVALUATION
Deciding whether a student has the potential to cope with speech recognition has become a more complex process as the programs have improved. In previous years, there were many students who were not considered good candidates for speech recognition if they had a reading levels of lower than a third-grade level, or if they had difficulty with articulation or pronunciation of words, or lower cognitive functioning.

Experience in the field shows that more students are coping with newer versions of speech recognition. Students who may previously not have coped due to cognitive, reading or speech problems, are now able to cope as the program's accuracy levels have increased. In addition, the use of add-on programs for screen reading and assistance with editing have made a difference in making speech-recognition accessible to students with more challenging reading problems

Another aspect to consider are the requirements for independent versus assisted use of speech recognition. If a student is expected to be fully independent with the use of speech recognition and production of written work, then it is to be expected that performance on these criteria items would be significantly higher than for those students who would be given some assistance while using the program.

The Independent speech-recognition user: (score = mostly 1's)
If we look at the continuum of student performance based on the amount of assistance they receive, on a general day-to-day basis in their educational environments, there is a huge variance in amount and type of assistance received or levels of independence. It appears, as educators have considered the requirements that students need in order to cope with speech recognition, that most people view the use of speech recognition to be a technology which students would use independently following a period of training. People considering students for the use of speech-recognition naturally expect that students would use this program independently.

For those students who do have the potential to become independent uses of speech-recognition and who would demonstrate a significant improvement in performance and outputs, the goal of independence is highly appropriate.

Evaluation Form: On the evaluation of student form, the student who obtains mostly level 1 scores will be the student that has the most potential to be independent in the use of speech recognition as well as to use the program effectively.

The speech-recognition user requiring some assistance: (score = mostly 2's)
Let's consider the middle of the road student here. These are the students that would obtain mostly scores of 2 on the evaluation form. For those students where the use of speech recognition is borderline, we have historically been reluctant to use speech recognition as an option for them. Considering how difficult and challenging the implementation of speech recognition has been, it is understandable that we would have been reluctant to try these programs with students who have not exhibited excellent potential for coping independently.

However, the technology is changing extremely rapidly, and is exploding in terms of growth and development. Every year, new developments in hardware and software make speech-recognition more and more accessible to a wider range of individuals. It has become more cost effective and more accurate.

As a result, this criteria and evaluation form has been expanded to include a greater variety of students which may have the potential to cope with the program. In my opinion, we should be looking to include students who may or may not have the potential to become fully independent in the use of speech recognition. For those students who may not become independent using speech recognition, however who may have the potential to produce increased volume and complexity of written work even if some assistance is provided, speech recognition may be an appropriate educational tool. For those students who dictate to a teacher assistant for the purposes of producing written work, providing a speech input program is a significant step towards a greater level of independence in production of written work. A teacher assistant providing assistance for a student while using speech recognition, rather than writing the students work down, is in essence empowering the student in the production of their own work, moving towards the goal of greater independence. In addition, an essential consideration here, is that a student who starts using speech recognition with assistance currently , will see improvements in the program over time. They will most certainly move towards greater independence and in some cases full independence as they become more efficient at using the program, combined with natural improvements in the program over time.

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CRITERIA AND EVALUATION ITEMS:

Click here to go the the student evaluation form.
(In order to store information for specific student/s, you will need an account for each student member.)

Click here to go to the sample student evaluation form.  (sample copy for viewing if you do not have an account.  You can view it, fill it out and print, but not save information.)

WORK HABITS / BEHAVIORAL
This is one of the very first parts of the evaluation. The student's approach to work, and his emotional/behavioral characteristics are an essential component in determining if he has the potential to cope with a demanding program such as speech recognition. As has been discussed extensively in these training pages, speech recognition can only be successful for those who are willing to be patient and who are willing to invest the effort required to be successful.

The students approach and attitude towards work can be considered one of the most important prerequisites to success in the use of speech recognition. Having said that however we showed take into account students who may have become discouraged and demotivated as a result of long-term difficulty with reading, writing and learning. I have observed on many occasions, students who may have previously been reluctant writers, becoming excited about writing and learning while using speech recognition. A student who was previously unable to write or produce written work due to problems with learning disabilities, physical disabilities or other challenges, may achieve significantly through using a different medium for producing written work or for learning.

Using speech recognition takes away the mechanical aspects of typing or handwriting, and so providing this program for a student who has difficulty keyboarding or using a pen can make a big difference in their emotional and behavioral approach to work.

If a student exhibits poor frustration tolerance or lower levels of patience, the likelihood is that speech recognition will be not only challenging but too much of a frustrating experience for the student to persevere.

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COGNITIVE SKILLS
Proficiency in the use of speech recognition requires good levels of concentration, memory and other cognitive skills. In order for a student to use speech recognition independently, good cognitive skills are essential for memorizing commands as well as making effective use of correction strategies.

Users who exhibit borderline or questionable memory skills and concentration may be able to cope with the program given a modified or reduced commands set combined with assistance and reduced expectations in terms of the complexity of voice commands used. As you will note in the speech-recognition curriculum provided on customtyping.com, the commands used in stage three are a basic set of commands that all speech-recognition users should learn and master. Given the accurate use of these basic Stage Three commands, users can produce basic written documents.

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READING and WRITING
Students who read at a third-grade level or higher, and who achieve scores of 1 on most of the items on the evaluation form, have extremely high potential for using speech recognition independently. In addition those students who are able to accurately isolate word recognition errors and make corrections / edit their work will do well with speech-recognition.

Others, who have difficulty isolating errors and making corrections may still be able to use speech recognition but would need to make use of screen reading programs or assistance from a teacher for the editing process. Dragon NaturallySpeaking (preferred and professional versions) have speech to text built in to the program, however this does not read all parts of the NaturallySpeaking program. A more effective program for speech output / screen reading while using NaturallySpeaking is KeyStone ScreenSpeaker.  This program will read the enrollment text as well as the correction list to the student.  It also offers a host of other features for students who have difficulty with reading.

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BASIC COMPUTER SKILLS
In order for a student to be independent in using NaturallySpeaking, they would require a good working knowledge of basic computer functions such as opening and closing programs, window management, copying and pasting etc.

A student who requires assistance with basic computer functions would most likely be one who would also require assistance with speech recognition.

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CONSISTENCY of SPEECH
Consistency of speech and pronunciation is one of the most important prerequisites for success in using speech recognition. As speech recognition programs have improved over the years, more and more people with articulation and pronunciation problems have experienced success in using the program. Current versions of the program seem to cope with a wider variety of speech patterns than previous versions. However a constant requirement over the years has been the need for consistency in speech patterns. As long as any user is able to say words and phrases in the same or similar manner each time, speech recognition programs can learn to recognize individual patterns of speech. For those users with more unusual speech patterns and articulation, additional training of the program may be required. However as the voice file is built and developed, the user's own unique, individual speech patterns are learned. The most important aspect here is that the words and phrases are said in the same way each time.

The user's voice quality, such as volume and pitch, and breath control should also be taken into account. Although many users on ventilators/respirators are extremely successful using speech recognition, they have learnt to control breathing and speaking so that their speech is consistent and breath sounds are controlled.

The bottom line in terms of speech, is that it should be intelligible and consistent, but it need not be perfect in terms of articulation, pronunciation and quality.

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LANGUAGE
Determining the need for language prerequisites is less important since it is not essential for a student to have the skills of being able to organize thoughts, plan and formulate ideas in order to verbalize them for speech recognition. Since the process of writing using speech recognition is very different to keyboarding or handwriting to produce written thoughts and ideas, students using speech recognition for the first time might find it very difficult to organize their thoughts and ideas and verbalize them with a speech-recognition program. However, it is important prior to embarking on a trial of speech recognition, to evaluate the students current functional skills with a view to deciding if the student has potential to not only learn how to use speech recognition but also how to use the process of dictation and verbalization for producing written work. As any trainer has noted while teaching students how to use speech recognition, the very process of using speech input can be a powerful training tool for developing organization of thoughts and formulation of ideas. Speech recognition itself can be used during the entire writing process including pre-writing, writing and editing strategies. Hence, while evaluating student's abilities to organize thoughts, formulate ideas and verbalize, bear in mind that even if these skills are not strong, the use of speech recognition may in effect be a teaching tool to help with improving these skills.

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SUPPORT and TRAINING
An essential consideration in determining the need for a speech-recognition trial, is documenting who would be available for support and training. Implementation of speech-recognition successfully requires a tremendous amount of planning, training, support, record keeping and follow up. Even if a student possesses all of the functional skills required to be a successful speech-recognition user, if support and training is not adequate, the likelihood is that the student will not succeed. In making the decision to start a trial and training period with a student, the people who would be responsible for initial training, planning and also follow up should be documented on this evaluation form. Once the decision has been made to start at trial and training. With the student, then a full action plan should be written up which would include not only the people available for support and training but also the logistics and practical day-to-day information regarding how training and use of the program would be implemented in the educational environment and at home.

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SUMMARY
Evaluating whether a student has potential to use speech recognition is not a black-and-white process. We can never, through a one-time evaluation, make a determination of whether a student would be able to use speech recognition or not. We can, however, gain a fairly accurate idea of whether a student has the potential to use the program. We can also decide on whether a student has the potential to use speech recognition independently or with assistance. For those students who achieve mostly a score of 1 on each of the criteria items, the likelihood is that they will use speech recognition effectively and independently, following a good structured training program. For those students who mostly achieve 2's, there is a good likelihood that they could cope with speech recognition with some assistance.  The levels of assistance would possibly be decreased over time.

For students who are functioning at a lower than third grade reading level, the use of screen reading programs is essential. You may find a student achieves scores of mostly 1's on the evaluation form, however it has a severe reading deficit. This kind of student would still cope very well with using speech recognition, however would need to use a program such as KeyStone ScreenSpeaker for screen reading. This program will read everything on the screen, including the correction box in Dragon NaturallySpeaking.

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