EFFECTS OF LISTENER TRAINING ON INTELLIGIBILITY OF AUGMENTATIVE AND ALTERNATIVE SPEECH IN THE SECONDARY CLASSROOM

This study examined whether intelligibility of augmentative and altern ative communication synthesized speech in a regular secondary classroo m setting improved following listener training. Previous research in t he area of intelligibility of synthesized voices has been limited to t he study of individuals in a clinical setting. Previous research in th e area of listener training in the classroom has been limited to the a cceptance of augmentative and alternative communications users by stud ents in mainstream environments. Our hundred and twenty secondary stud ents in regular classroom settings participated in this study. The int elligibility of three synthesized voices by unfamiliar listeners witho ut listener training was compared with the intelligibility of the thre e synthesized voices by unfamiliar listeners following listener traini ng using a 2 x 3 design. Results of this study revealed that intelligi bility for the selected synthesized voices (Echo II with Keytalk, Voca Lite 170 with Smoothtalker, male voice and DECtalk, female voice) sign ificantly (p < .01) improved following listener training.