helps brother in his pronounciation skills?

Question

I had a 14 year old brother who suffer from dyslexia. He had difficulty in both reading and writing, so my dad gave him a special class with professional teachers. Now, he can read slowly (we're very proud of him) but his pronounciation is still very weak. Some suggest us to send him to drama classes, to improve his speech. Any suggestion would be highly appreciated. thanks;)

Answer 1

Be very careful sending your brother into a potentially uncomfortable position that might make him see his pronunciation more as a weakness than as a challenge. Drama classes seem like a large jump, and they may or may not help.

My first thought was to get him started using Dragon NaturallySpeaking (http://www.nuance.com/naturallyspeaking). It is a voice recognition program that lets a person talk to their computer, and the computer will either type or perform a function, depending on what was said.

The real plus to a program like that is that he will need to practice speaking clearly for it to perform well. The downside is that it is very hard to get the voice recognition "trained" to a person's voice - at very, very best it can achieve 98% accuracy, but is usually between 88-92%.

The second program that may help is Kurzweil - and it's probably the better bet (but it's more expensive). This software was initially for low vision, but it has been found to help a lot with learning disabilities involving vocabulary and english learning. Your brother could have Kurzweil read out loud items on the computer, and it has some very good built in vocabulary and pronunciation tools for those with learning disabilities. You can also purchase a scanner and scan in documents to be read back to you.

Because the computer "voices" nowadays are so much better than they used to be, Kurzweil has come a long ways. Check out there site at http://kurzweiledu.com/.

Whatever you decide to do, be happy knowing that your concern for your brother is phenominal - that is surely a huge help to him.

Good luck!

Answer 2

Send him to a speech language therapist for articulation therapy. They will also be able to help with his dyslexia. Speech therapy is the best way to target his articulation so he will feel more comfortable speaking in public. Drama classes may be too embarassing.

Answer 3

He doesn't seem ready for this yet. Many schools offer free speech therapy. Speak to your district's administrator or the school Principal's office to find out if such a program exists in your area.