Animated Speech Launches New Software Tutor For Deaf/Hard Of Hearing Students And Other Speech-Delayed Children

From: Animated Speech - May 31, 2005

ANIMATED SPEECH LAUNCHES NEW SOFTWARE TUTOR FOR DEAF/HARD OF HEARING STUDENTS AND OTHER SPEECH-DELAYED CHILDREN

For Immediate Release

SAN FRANCISCO, CA., May 31, 2005 - Animated Speech Corp. has launched its first product, Team Up with Timo: Vocabulary, which features a powerful 3D animated tutor that can dramatically increase the rate of language learning and vocabulary retention for children with special needs.

The CD-ROM product is intended to give children in K-4th grades a head start in developing oral language and reading vocabulary for the classroom and at home. Particularly helpful for deaf and hard of hearing children who have had cochlear implants and need to catch up orally in a variety of subject areas, the software is also useful for children with other speech and language delays caused by apraxia and autism. The program contains 127 lessons with more than 600 vocabulary words and images drawn from K-4th grade curriculums and covers a range of subject areas, including such topics as animals and habitats, space, the human body, weather, history and holidays.

The lesson system is enabled by Animated Speech's unique and proprietary technology centerpiece, known as "Baldi," exclusively licensed from the University of California. Baldi, and his protégé Timo, can automatically read any text with accurate speech, and reveal how sounds are formed with precise face, lip and tongue movements.

"Children rely on both auditory and visual cues to learn new language. Our highly realistic articulation model has been shown through over 10 years of research to be extremely effective in improving pronunciation as well as language retention," said Dr. Scott Prevost, CEO of Animated Speech. "We're looking forward to deploying our animated tutor in classrooms, clinics and homes, where it's needed the most."

The technology has been used extensively over the past five years at the Tucker-Maxon Oral School in Portland, Oregon, where deaf children learn to talk, as well as at numerous schools around the country with deaf and autistic children.

About Animated Speech Corp. Animated Speech is a new company that was formed to bring speech and language learning technology using 3D tutors to the special needs educational market. Co-founded by University of California at Santa Cruz psychology professor, Dr. Dominic Massaro, and successful entrepreneur and father of an autistic son, Dan Feshbach, the company's mission is to deliver highly customizable software for children with autism, and other speech, language and hearing impairments.

Additional educational software products currently under development focus on language comprehension skills for autistic children, and authoring tools for speech therapists, teachers and parents of special needs children.

For more information contact:
Laurie Pedersen, Vice President Marketing & Sales
Animated Speech Corp.
415-377-2256
laurie@animatedspeech.com

www.animatedspeech.com
© 2005 Animated Speech Corp., All rights reserved