Adaptive auditory and phonological apparatus and method

Abstract

An interactive phonological and auditory skills improvement system is provided. The system includes a microprocessor, a display connected to the microprocessor, and a speaker connected to the microprocessor. Phonological game logic is run on the microprocessor, the phonological game logic provides at least one audible sound through the speaker and a phonological test regarding said at least one sound. A user responds to the phonological test which is graphically displayed on the display screen using an input device. Auditory game logic is also run on the microprocessor. The 10 auditory game logic provides at least one audible sound through the speaker and an auditory test regarding said at least one sound. The a user must respond to the auditory test using the input device. The auditory test is also graphically displayed on the display screen.

1 - 9 . (canceled)  
   
   
       10 . A phonological skill training apparatus stored on a portable media device for execution by a computer system, the apparatus comprising: 
 a sound recall game to-train the user's ability to recall, in order, a series of sounds presented to the user;    a sound recognition game to train a user's skill at recognizing one or more of long vowel sounds, short vowel sounds and consonant sounds;    a sound counting game that trains a user's skill at recognizing number of sounds presented to the user;    a blending game that trains a user's skill at blending two or more smaller solid units into a larger sound unit;    a sound unit distinguishing game that trains a user's skill at distinguishing two sounds units, the sound units including one or more of vowels and consonants; and    a rhyming game that trains a user's skill at identifying rhyming and non-rhyming words.    
   
   
       11 . A phonological skill training apparatus that is executed by a computer system, the apparatus comprising: 
 one or more sound awareness games for increasing the skill of the user in different sound awareness skill areas; and    wherein the sound, awareness games further comprise a sound recall game that trains the user's ability to recall, in order, a series of sounds presented to the user wherein the training is adaptive and the difficulty of the training is changed.    
   
   
       12 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion to increase the number of sounds to be recalled by the user.  
   
   
       13 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the sound recall game further comprises a game portion that generates a varying amount of background noise in order to change the difficulty in recalling the series of sounds.  
   
   
       14 . The system of  claim 11 , wherein the sound recall game further comprises a game portion that presents a picture with a sound and wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that conceals the picture for each sound until after that sound has been presented to the, user.  
   
   
       15 . The system of claim  1 l, wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that changes the types of sounds presented to the user, the types of sounds progressively becoming more difficult to recall.  
   
   
       16 . A phonological skill training apparatus that is executed by a computer system, the apparatus comprising: 
 one or more sound awareness games for increasing the skill of the user in different sound awareness skill areas; and    wherein the sound awareness games further comprise a sound recognition game to train a user's skill at recognizing one or more of long vowel sounds, short vowel sounds and consonant sounds wherein the training is adaptive and the difficulty of the training is changed.    
   
   
       17 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion to change the type of the sound from sounds more easily perceived to sounds less easily perceived, the difficulty of the perception of the sound based on the inherent acoustic and phonetic properties of the sound.  
   
   
       18 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprising a game portion that presents the sound in isolation to the user, and, if the user correctly identifies the sound in isolation, instructions for presenting the sound in a word to the user.  
   
   
       19 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that requests the user to identify the position of the sound within a word.  
   
   
       20 . The system of  claim 16 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that changes the type of the sound from sounds more easily perceived to sounds less easily perceived, the difficulty of the perception of the sound based on the inherent acoustic and phonetic properties of the sound.  
   
   
       21 . A phonological skill training apparatus that is executed by a computer system, the apparatus comprising: 
 one or more sound awareness games for increasing the skill of the user in different sound awareness skill areas; and    wherein the sound awareness games further comprise a sound counting game that trains a user's skill at recognizing number of sounds presented to the user wherein the training is adaptive and the difficulty of the training is changed.    
   
   
       22 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that alters the time between each sound to change the difficulty of the game.  
   
   
       23 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that eliminates feedback to the user in order to increase the difficulty of the game.  
   
   
       24 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that presents different types of sound to increase the difficulty of the game.  
   
   
       25 . The system of  claim 21 , wherein the sound counting game further comprises a word sound counting sub-game that presents a word to the user and having the user count the smaller sounds units within the word.  
   
   
       26 . The system of  claim 25 , wherein the word sound counting game further comprises a game portion that changes the difficulty of the game by eliminating the auditory feedback to the user during the training.  
   
   
       27 . The system of  claim 25 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that decreases the size of the sound units within the word to be counted by the user.  
   
   
       28 . A phonological skill training apparatus that is executed by a computer system, the apparatus comprising: 
 one or more sound awareness games for increasing the skill of the user in different sound awareness skill areas; and    wherein the sound awareness games further comprise a blending game that trains a user's skill at blending two or more smaller solid units into a larger sound unit.    
   
   
       29 . The system of  claim 28 , wherein the sound counting game further comprising a game portion that changes the difficulty of the game by changing the time between the smaller sound units.  
   
   
       30 . The system of  claim 29 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that changes the number of smaller sound units.  
   
   
       31 . The system of  claim 29 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portions that changes the number of similar response choices.  
   
   
       32 . The system of  claim 29 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that changes the size of the smaller sound unit.  
   
   
       33 . The system of  claim 32 , wherein the smaller sound units further comprise two or more of syllables, sounds and words and where the larger sound units comprise one or more of words and compound words.  
   
   
       34 . A phonological skill training apparatus that is executed by a computer system, the apparatus comprising: 
 one or more sound awareness games for increasing the skill of the user in different sound awareness skill areas; and    wherein the sound awareness games further comprise a sound unit distinguishing game that trains a user's skill at distinguishing two sounds units, the sound units including one or more of vowels and consonants, wherein the training is adaptive and the difficulty of the training is changed.    
   
   
       35 . The system of  claim 34 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that acoustically enhances the sounds of at least one of the vowels and consonant-vowel combinations by changing one or more frequency components of the sounds.  
   
   
       36 . The system of  claim 34 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that changes the type of the sound from sounds more easily perceived to sounds less easily perceived, the difficulty of the perception of the sound based on the inherent acoustic and phonetic properties of the sound.  
   
   
       37 . A phonological skill training apparatus that is executed by a computer system, the apparatus comprising: 
 one or more sound awareness games for increasing the skill of the user in different sound awareness skill areas; and    wherein the sound awareness games further comprise a rhyming game that trains a user's skill at identifying rhyming and non-rhyming words wherein the training is adaptive and the difficulty of the training is changed.    
   
   
       38 . The system of  claim 37 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that changes the level of background:noise introduced with the words.  
   
   
       39 . The system of  claim 37 , wherein the difficulty changing further comprises a game portion that has the user identify non-rhyming words and means, if the user identified the non-rhyming words, for having the user identify rhyming words.