Developing a reading tutor: Design and evaluation of dedicated speech recognition and synthesis modules

When a child learns to read, the learning process can be enhanced by significant reading practice with individual support from a tutor. But in reality, the availability of teachers or clinicians is limited, so the additional use of a fully automated reading tutor would be beneficial for the child. This paper discusses our efforts to develop an automated reading tutor for Dutch. First, the dedicated speech recognition and synthesis modules in the reading tutor are described. Then, three diagnostic and remedial reading tutor tools are evaluated in practice and improved based on these evaluations: (1) automatic assessment of a child’s reading level, (2) oral feedback to a child at the phoneme, syllable or word level, and (3) tracking where a child is reading, for automated screen advancement or for direct feedback to the child. In general, the presented tools work in a satisfactory way, including for children with known reading disabilities.