Why MySpeekie® is different from a conventional AAC keyboard
AssistiveWare explains that Proloquo2Go does not have a phonetic keyboard because English is not phonetic. They argue that a phonetic keyboard oversimplifies the alphabet, as one letter can represent different sounds and one sound can be represented by different spellings.
That is exactly the problem MySpeekie® was built to solve.
MySpeekie® does not use a simple one-sound, one-letter keyboard. It uses Phonemies®, Phonetic Symbols for Kids, in a phonetic keyboard powered by the Ortho-GraphiX® bidirectional word-mapping algorithm. Ortho-GraphiX® understands the many-to-many relationships between phonemes and graphemes in English.
AssistiveWare also says phonetic keyboards may support very early spelling attempts but can interfere once children move beyond simple CVC words.
MySpeekie® works differently. Children are not producing phonetic spellings. They enter speech sounds, and MySpeekie® generates the correctly spelled English word. That means the phonetic keyboard is not replacing English spelling. It is revealing the link between speech and print.
AssistiveWare recommends teaching phonics and word study separately, while using standard A-Z or QWERTY keyboards in Proloquo2Go.
MySpeekie® brings communication, word mapping, spelling and literacy support into one system. Children can communicate any word they want, whether or not they can already read or spell. Because every word is bidirectionally mapped between speech and print, the same technology also supports self-teaching of reading and spelling.
In short: AssistiveWare is right that a simple phonetic keyboard cannot solve English spelling. MySpeekie® is different because it is not simple. It is powered by Ortho-GraphiX®, designed specifically to solve the challenge of English’s opaque orthography. So it can be used as an AAC, to turn thoughts into voice, but it can also be used to guide children to self-teach phonics or spelling.
See how it is used to support bidrectional word mapping throughout the day on SpeechSoundPics.com The Phonemies are introduced to children in the Reception / Prep classroom within the Ten Day Speech Sound Play Plan.
Speech Sound Monsters were initially developed for Speech Sound Pics (SSP) Approach students to SHOW the sound value for every word. Written English can be tricky otherwise, for beginning readers! Some children develop orthographic knowledge really easily and are soon self-teaching, but others need more guidance. Adults can't always be there to tell them the sound value for each grapheme, so we build technology that shows that 'code' at the time of need.
This is from https://www.assistiveware.com/blog/teaching-phonics-children-cannot-speak
One letter, multiple sounds
The problem with phonetic spelling is that English is not phonetic. English uses 26 letters to represent 44 sounds. There are multiple sounds associated with individual letters (e.g., the F in FAN vs. OF). There are multiple letter combinations that can represent the same sound (e.g., the sound in FAN, GRAPH, HALF, or LAUGH). Phonetic keyboards oversimplify the alphabet and associate only one sound per letter. Phonetic keyboards can support very early spelling attempts but disrupt the problem-solving of spelling as soon as students move past the simple consonant-vowel-consonant stage.
Take the letter S. We all know S for the sound we hear in SNAKE or SAY. But at the end of a word, S often represents a sound we associate with Z, like SAYS or BEDS.
Vowels are even more complicated. A is for apple, right? Sometimes! The letter A represents 9 different sounds in English. Listen to the sounds of A in these common words: MAN, MANY, MANE, WAS, WATER, WAR, TUNA, READ, and GARBAGE. A phonetic keyboard could help spell only the first word. It would interfere with trying to spell the other 8.
A phonetic keyboard interferes with problem-solving on how to spell common sight words, such as AS, OF, FAR, LOOK, WAS, and ONE. It can interfere with learning morphology, such as when students turn DOG into DOGS.
We've taken every word AssistiveWare uses here to explain why a phonetic keyboard can't work in English, and used those same words to demonstrate how MySpeekie®, powered by the Ortho-GraphiX® bidirectional word-mapping algorithm, now makes it possible.