METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRAINING OF SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL SYSTEMS IN LLI SUBJECTS

Abstract: The apparatus and method incorporates a number of different programs to be played by the subject. The programs artificially process selected portions of language elements, called phonemes, so they will be more easily distinguished by an LLI subject, and gradually improves the subject's neurological processing of the elements through repetitive stimulation. The programs continually monitor a subject's ability to distinguish the processed language elements, and adaptively configures the programs to challenge and reward the subject by altering the degree of processing. Through adaptive control and repetition of processed speech elements, and presentation of the speech elements in a creative fashion, a subject's temporal processing of acoustic events common to speech are significantly improved.

Description: METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRAINING OF SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL SYSTEMS IN LLI SUBJECTS CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS This application is related to co-pending U S Patent Application Serial No 08 992071 (Docket SLC 707C) filed December 17, 1997 entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRAINING OF SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL SYSTEMS IN LLI SUBJECTS", and U S Patent Application Serial No 08/992072 (Docket SLC 707B), filed December 17, 1997, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRAINING OF COGNITIVE AND MEMORY SYSTEMS IN HUMANS", and U S Patent Application Serial No 08/982189 (Docket SLC 707A) filed December 17, 1997. entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TRAINING OF SENSORY AND PERCEPTUAL SYSTEMS IN LLI SUBJECTS", all assigned to Scientific Learning Corporation BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION / Field of the Invention This invention relates in general to the field of education in language learning impaired (LLI) subjects, and more specifically to a computer program for training the auditory processing system in subjects having receptive language problems 2 Description of the Related Art Up to ten percent of children have language-learning impairments (LLI) resulting from the inability to accurately process short duration acoustic events at the rates that occur in normal speech Their trouble distinguishing among elements of speech is neurologically based and has far reaching consequences academic failure emotional and disciplinary problems, and possibly diminished lifelong achievement and self-image No bracket of intelligence, race, gender or economic level is immune from this problem More specifically, Children with LLI have difficulty detecting and identifying sounds that occur simultaneously or in close proximity to each other — a phenomenon known as "masking " Because of masking 1 5 children w ith LLI require sounds that are as much as 45 decibels more intense than the preceding or subsequent masking noise to distinguish and understand them in addition, children with LLI are consistently poorer at detecting a brief tone presented with a masking noise, particularly when the brief tone is turned on immediateK prior to the masking noise This phenomenon is called backward masking " Similar!} u hen the brief tone is turned on immediately after the masking noise a similar decrease in detectabi ty can occur This phenomenon is called "forward masking" For a tone to be detected b\ a child with LLI in the presence ot a masking noise. the tone must be separated in time or frequency from the masking noise The inability to accurate!} distinguish and process short duration sounds often causes children to fall behind in school Since the children can't accuratel} interpret many language sounds, they can't remember which symbols represent which sounds This deficiency causes difficulties m learning to read (translating from symbols to sounds), and in spelling In fact, it is common for a child with LLI to fall two to three years behind his/her peers in speech, language and reading development One way children develop such auditory processing problems is from middle ear infections when they are young and beginning to develop the oral representations of language in the central auditory nervous system When a child has an ear infection, fluid can build up and block or muffle the sound wave entering the ear causing intermittent hearing loss Even if the infection doesn't permanently damage the ear, the child's brain doesn't learn to process some sounds because it hasn't heard them accurately before, on a consistent basis This typically occurs during a critical period of brain development when the brain is building the nerve connections necessary to accurately process acoustic events associated with normal speech Researchers believe that the auditory processing problem is essentially one of timing Vowel sounds like /a and I ' usually last at least 100 milliseconds and typically have constant frequency content Consonants, on the other hand, typically have modulated frequency components, and last less than 40 milliseconds Children with LLI cannot process these faster speech elements, especially the hard consonants like / 1/, /p/, lάl and /b/, if they occur either immediately before or after vowels, or if they are located near other consonants Rather than hearing the individual sounds that make up a particular phoneme, children with LLI integrate closely associated sounds together over time. Since the duration of vowels are typically longer than consonants, the modulated frequency portions of consonants are often lost in the integration, an affect that may also hinder the resolution of the vowel, particularly short duration vowels This problem of abnormal temporal integration of acoustic events over time is not limited to children with LLI. Rather, the problem extends to stroke victims who have lost the neurological connections necessary to process speech, as well as to individuals raised in one country, having one set of language phonemes, and attempting to learn the language of another country, having a distinct set of language phonemes For example, it is known that an individual raised in Japan is not often presented with phonemes similar to the English r's and I's, because those consonants are not common in the Japanese language Similarly, there are many subtleties in the sounds made by a speaker of Japanese that are difficult to distinguish unless raised in Japan The phonetic differences between languages are distinctions that must be learned, and are often very difficult But. they are clearly problems that relate to the temporal processing of short duration acoustic events E 25 The above described temporal processing deficiency has little if anything to do with intelligence In fact some LLI specialists argue that brains choosing this different route by which to absorb and reassemble bits of speech may actually stimulate creative intelligence, but at the expense of speech and reading problems Recent studies have shown that if the acoustic events associated w ith phonemes that are difficult to distinguish, such as /ba/ and /da/, are slowed down, or that the consonant portion of the phonemes are emphasized, that students diagnosed as LLI can accurately distinguish between the phonemes. In addition, if the interval between two complex sounds is lengthened. LLI students are better able to process the sounds distinctly Heretofore, the solution to the processing problem has been to place LLI students in extended special education and/or speech therapy training programs that focus on speech recognition and speech production Or. more commonly, repetitive reading programs, phonic games, or other phonic programs are undertaken These programs often last for years, with a success rate that is often more closely associated with the skill of the speech and language professional than with the program of study What is needed is a method and apparatus that allows a subject with abnormal temporal processing to train. or retrain their brain to recognize and distinguish short duration acoustic events that are common in speech Moreover, what is needed is a program that repetitively trains a subject to distinguish phonemes at a normal rate, by first stretching, and/or emphasizing elements of speech to the point that they are distinguishable, or separating speech elements in time, and then adaptively adjusting the stretching, emphasis and separation of the speech elements to the level of normal speech The adaptive adjustments should be made so as to encourage the subject to continue with the repetitions, and the number of repetitions should be sufficient to develop the necessary neurological connections for normal temporal processing of speech Moreover, the program should provide acoustic signals to the brain that are better for phonetic training than normal human speech SUMMARY To address the above-detailed deficiencies, the present invention provides a method for training the sensory, perceptual and cognitive svstems in a human The method repetitively provides a first acoustic event to the human, where the first acoustic event is stretched in the time domain The method then sequential!} provides a second acoustic event to the human for recognition The method then requires the human to recognize the second acoustic event within a predetermined time window If the human recognizes the second acoustic event within the predetermined time window, the amount of stretching applied to the first acoustic event is reduced By repetitively providing two acoustic events, stretched in the time domain, to the subject, and by reducing the amount of stretching applied to the acoustic events, as the subject correctlv distinguishes between the events the sensory, perceptual and cognitive systems of the human is trained In another aspect, a method is provided for training an LLI subject to distinguish between frequenc} sweeps common in phonemes The method presents a first frequency sweep that increases in frequency The method also presents a second frequencv sweep that decreases in frequenc} The order of presenting the first 3 E 25 and second frequencv sweeps is random The first and second frequency sweeps are separated b\ an inter- stimulus interval (IS!) After presenting the frequencv sweeps, the method requires an indiv idual to recognize the order of presentation of the first and second frequencv sweeps The ISI separating the first and second frequenc} sweeps is reduced or increased as the individual recognizes or fails to recognize the order of presentation. respectiveK In addition, the duration of the first and second frequency sweeps is reduced as the individual repeatedlv recognizes their order of presentation By randomly presenting frequency sweeps to a subiect separated by an ISI. and by adaptively varying the duration of the sweeps, and the ISI according to the correct or incorrect recognition by the subject, the subject is trained to better distinguish between common phonemes having similar frequency characteristics In yet another aspect, the present invention provides an adaptive method for improving a user s discrimination of short duration acoustic events The method displays a plurality of graphical images that are associated with modified acoustic events The graphical images are associated in pairs with particular modified acoustic events such that two different graphical images are associated with a particular modified acoustic event When any of the plurality of graphical images are selected its associated modified acoustic event is presented The method requires the user to discriminate between the acoustic events by sequentially selecting two different graphical images that are associated with the same modified acoustic event, from among all of the graphical images When the user sequentially selects two images corresponding to the same modified acoustic event, those images are removed from the set of all graphical images As the user continues to sequentially select two images corresponding to the same modified acoustic event, the number of graphical images displayed increases, and the amount which the acoustic events are modified is reduced The present invention also provides a method to train a subject to discriminate between similar acoustic events commonly found in spoken language The method utilizes a computer for displaying images, for modifying the similar acoustic events, and for acoustically producing the modified similar acoustic events to the subject The method selects a pair of words that have similar acoustic properties, displays a pair of graphical images representative of each of the pair of words, modifies one of the pair of words by stretching it in the time domain, acoustically produces the modified word to the subject, and requires the subject to select from the pair of graphical images, an image representative of the produced modified word If the subject correctlv selects the graphical image representative of the modified word, a different word is similarly presented After repeated correct selections, the amount of stretching applied to the words is reduced In yet another aspect, it is a feature of the present invention to provide a method for repetitively and adaptively training a subject that has subnormal temporal acoustic processing capabilities to distinguish between phonemes that have similar acoustic characteristics The method provides a plurality of phoneme pairs, where each pair has similar acoustic characteristics For each of the plurality of phoneme pairs, the method provides a pair of associated graphic images The method selects from among the plurality of phoneme pairs a phoneme pair to be presented to the subject The selected phoneme pair is then processed according to a predetermined skill level After processing, the processed selected phoneme pair is presented to the subject As a trial, the subject is required to recognize one of the processed phonemes from the selected phoneme pair bv selecting its SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 25) associated graphic image Finall} . the above trial is repeated As the subject correctl} recognizes the appropriate phoneme from the phoneme pair, the skill level is increased That is the amount of processing applied to the phoneme pairs is reduced BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS These and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention w ill become better understood with regard to the following description, and accompanying drawings where FIGURE 1 is a block diagram of a computer system for executing a program according to the present invention FIGURE 2 is a block diagram of a computer network for executing a program according to the present invention FIGURE 3 is a chart illustrating frequency/energy characteristics of two phonemes withm the English language FIGURE 4 is a chart illustrating auditory reception of a phoneme by a subject having normal receptive characteristics, and by a subject whose receptive processing is impaired FIGURE 5 is a chart illustrating stretching of a frequency envelope in time, according to the present invention FIGURE 6 is a chart illustrating emphasis of selected frequencv components, according to the present invention FIGURE 7 is a chart illustrating up-down frequency sweeps of varying duration, separated by a selectable inter-stimulus-interval (ISI), according to the present invention. FIGURE 8 is a pictorial representation of a game selection screen according to the present invention FIGURE 9 is a pictorial representation of a game entitled "Old MacDonald's Flying Farm" according to the present invention FIGURE 10 is a flow chart illustrating the adaptive auditory training procedures embodied in the game Old MacDonald's Flying Farm FIGURE'S 1 1 and 12 are pictorial representations of a game entitled "Block Commander' according to the present invention FIGURE 13 is a flow chart illustrating the adaptive auditory training procedures embodied in the game Block Commander. FIGURE'S 14 and 15 are pictorial representations of a game entitled "Circus Sequence" according to the present invention FIGURE 16 is a flow chart illustrating the initial training procedures embodied in the game Circus Sequence FIGURE 17 is a flow chart illustrating the adaptive auditory training procedures embodied in the game Circus Sequence SUBSTITUTE SHEET RULE 25) FIGURE 18 is a pictorial representation of a game entitled Phonic Match" according to the present invention FIGURE 19 includes two tables illustrating the processing levels and the training levels embodied in the game Phonic Match FIGURE 20 is a flow chart illustrating the adaptive auditorv training process embodied in the game Phonic Match FIGURE ' S 21 and 22 are pictorial representations of a game entitled "Phonic Words according to the present invention FIGURE 23 is a flow chart illustrating the adaptive auditorv training process embodied in the game Phonic Words FIGURE'S 24 and 25 are pictorial representations of a game entitled "Phoneme Identification' according to the present invention FIGURE 26 is a flow chart illustrating the initial training procedures embodied in the game Phoneme Identification FIGURE 27 is a flow chart illustrating the adaptive auditorv training process embodied in the game Phoneme Identification FIGURE 28 is a pictorial representation of a game entitled "Language Comprehension Builder' according to the present invention FIGURE 29 is a flow chart illustrating the initial training procedures embodied in the game Language Comprehension Builder FIGURE 30 is a flow chart illustrating the adaptive auditory training procedures embodied in the game Language Comprehension Builder FIGURE 3 1 is a flow chart illustrating a time-scale modification algorithm for modifying acoustic elements according to the present invention FIGURE 32 is a flow chart illustrating a filter-bank summation emphasis algorithm for modifying acoustic elements according to the present invention FIGURE 33 is a flow chart illustrating an overlap-add emphasis algorithm for modifying acoustic elements according to the present invention DETAILED DESCRIPTION Referring to Figure 1 a computer system 100 is shown for executing a computer program to tram, or retrain a learning language impaired (LLI) subject, according to the present invention The computer system 100 contains a computer 102. having a CPU, memory, hard disk and CD ROM drive (not shown), attached to a monitor 104 The monitor 104 provides visual prompting and feedback to the subject during execution of the computer program Attached to the computer 102 are a kevboard 105, speakers 106. a mouse 108. and headphones 1 10 The speakers 106 and the headphones 1 10 provide auditory prompting and feedback to the subject during execution of the computer program The mouse 108 allows the subject to navigate through the 6 ULE 25 computer program, and to select particular responses after visual or auditory prompting by the computer program The keyboard 105 allows an instructor to enter alpha numeric information about the subject into the computer 102 Although a number of different computer platforms are applicable to the present invention embodiments of the present invention execute on either IBM compatible computers or Macintosh computers Now referring to Figure 2. a computer network 200 is shown The computer network 200 contains computers 202. 204. similar to that described above w ith reference to Figure 1. connected to a server 206 The connection between the computers 202. 204 and the server 206 can be made via a local area network (LAN) a wide area network (WAN), or via modem connections, directly or through the Internet A printer 208 is shown connected to the computer 202 to illustrate that a subject can print out reports associated with the computer program of the present invention The computer network 200 allows information such as test scores, game statistics, and other subject information to flow from a subject s computer 202. 204 to a server 206 An administrator can then review the information and can then download configuration and control information pertaining to a particular subject, back to the subject's computer 202, 204 Details of the type of information passed between a subject's computer and a server are provided in co-pending U S Application No entitled "Remote Computer-Assisted Professionally Supervised Teaching System", assigned to Scientific Learning Corporation Before providing a detailed description of the present invention, a brief overview of certain components of speech will be provided, along with an explanation of how these components are processed by LLI subjects Following the overview, general information on speech processing will be provided so that the reader w ill better appreciate the novel aspects of the present invention Referring to Figure 3, a chart is shown that illustrates frequency components, over time for two distinct phonemes within the English language Although different phoneme combinations are applicable to illustrate features of the present invention, the phonemes /daa and /ba/ are shown For the phoneme /da/, a downward sweep frequency component 302. at approximately 2 5 - 2 khz is shown to occur over a 35ms interval In addition, a downward sweep frequencv component 304. at approximately l khz is shown to occur during the same 35ms interval At the end of the 35ms interval, a constant frequency component 306 is shown whose duration is approximately 1 10ms Thus, in producing the phoneme /da/, the stop consonant portion of the element Id/ is generated, having high frequency sweeps of short duration, followed by a long vowel element /a/ of constant frequency Also shown are frequency components for a phoneme /ba/ This phoneme contains an upward sweep frequency component 308, at approximately 2khz. having a duration of approximately 35ms The phoneme also contains an upward sweep frequency component 310. at approximately lkhz. during the same 35ms period Following the stop consonant portion /b/ of the phoneme, is a constant frequency vowel portion 314 whose duration is approximately 1 10ms Thus, both the /ba/ and /da phonemes begin with stop consonants having modulated frequencv components of relatively short duration, followed by a constant frequencv vowel component of longer duration The distinction between the phonemes exist pπmaπlv in the 2khz sw eeps during the initial 35ms interval Similarity exists between other stop consonants such as /-a . pa . -ka and ga Referring now to Figure 4. the amplitude of a phoneme, for example ba . is viewed in the time domain A short duration high amplitude peak waveform 402 is created upon release of either the lips or the tongue when speaking the consonant portion of the phoneme, that rapidly declines to a constant amplitude signal of longer duration For an individual with normal temporal processing, the waveform 402 will be understood and processed essentially as it is However, for an individual who is learning-language impaired, or who has abnormal temporal processing, the short duration, higher frequency consonant burst will be integrated over time with the lower frequency vowel, and depending on the degree of impairment, will be heard as the waveform 404 The result is that the information contained in the higher frequency sweeps associated with consonant differences, will be muddled, or indistinguishable With the above general background of speech elements, and how LLI subjects process them, a general overview of speech processing will now be provided As mentioned above, one problem that exists in LLI subjects is the inability to distinguish between short duration acoustic events If the duration of these acoustic events are stretched, in the time domain, it is possible to tram LLI subjects to distinguish between these acoustic events An example of such time domain stretching is shown in Figure 5. to which attention is now directed In Figure 5. a frequency vs time graph 500 is shown that illustrates a waveform 502 having short duration characteristics similar to the waveform 402 described above Using existing computer technology, the analog waveform 502 can be sampled and converted into digital values (using a Fast Fourier Transform, for example) The values can then be manipulated so as to stretch the waveform in the time domain to a predetermined length, while preserving the amplitude and frequency components of the modified waveform The modified waveform can then be converted back into an analog waveform (using an inverse FFT) for reproduction by a computer, or by some other audio device The waveform 502 is shown stretched in the time domain to durations of 60ms (waveform 504), and 80ms (waveform 506) By stretching the consonant portion of the waveform 502 without effecting its frequency components, subjects with LLI can begin to hear distinctions in common phonemes Another method that may be used to help LLI subjects distinguish between phonemes is to emphasize selected frequency envelopes with a phoneme Referring to Figure 6 a graph 600 is shown illustrating a frequency envelope 602 whose envelope varies by approximately 27hz By detecting frequency modulated envelopes that vary from say 3-30 hz, similar to frequency variations in the consonant portion of phonemes, and selectively emphasizing those envelopes, they are made more easily detectable by LLI subjects A 10 dB emphasis of the envelope 602 is shown in waveform 604, and a 20 dB emphasis in the waveform 606 A third method that may be used to train LLI subjects to distinguish short duration acoustic events is to provide frequency sweeps of varying duration, separated by a predetermined interval, as shown in Figure 7 More specifically, an upward frequency sweep 702, and a downward frequency sweep 704 are shown, having duration's varying between 25 and 80 milliseconds, and separated by an inter-stimulus interval (ISI) of between 500 and 0 milliseconds The duration and frequency of the sweeps, and the inter-stimuius interval between the sweeps are varied depending on the processing level of the LLI subject as will be further described below TI RULE 25) Each of the above described methods have been combined in a unique fashion bv the present invention to provide an adaptiv e training method and apparatus tor training subjects having abnormal temporal processing abilities to recognize and distinguish short duration acoustic events that are common in speech The present invention is embodied into a computer program entitled Fast ForWord by Scientific Learning Corporation The computer program is provided to an LLI subject via a CD-ROM which is input into a general purpose computer such as that described above w ith reference to Figure 1 In addition, a user may log onto a server, via an Internet connection, for example, to upload test results, and to download training parameters tor future exercises Specifics of the present invention will now be described with reference to Figures 8-30 Referring first to Figure 8. a pictorial representation is shown of a game selection screen 800 The game selection screen 800 is similar to that provided to an LLI subject upon initialization of the computer program according to the present invention The game selection screen 800 includes the titles of seven computer games that provide distinct training exercises for improving speech recognition in subjects who abnormally process temporal acoustic events, and for building, or rebuilding the neurological connections necessary to accuratelv process phonemes at the rates common in speech The game titles include 1 ) Old MacDonald's Flying Farm, 2) Block Commander, 3) Circus Sequence, 4) Phonic Match, 5) Phonic Words, 6) Phoneme Identification, and 7) Language Comprehension Builder Each of these games will be discussed in greater detail below When a subject begins execution of the Fast ForWord computer program, he/she is presented w ith a screen similar to the screen 800 More specifically, upon initiation of the program, the subject is presented with a screen that lists the subjects that are currently being trained by the program The subject then selects his/her name from the list Once the subject has selected his/her name, a screen similar to 800 appears, typically listing one of the seven programs, according to a training schedule that is dictated by the program, or is modified by an instructor The order of the games, and the selection of which one of the seven games that is presented in the screen 800 varies from day to day The subject then elects to play the first game listed according to the training schedule prescribed for the subject In one embodiment, a training schedule is provided by a certified Speech and Language Professional (SLP), and the SLP oversees each training session according to the schedule An exemplarv schedule requires a subject to cycle through five of the seven games for an hour and forty minutes, five days per week, for approximately six weeks In addition, the schedule typically requires that a subject play Circus Sequence and Language Comprehension Builder everyday, alternating the other games so that they are played approximately the same amount of time In an alternative embodiment, the game schedule specified by an SLP at a remote server, and the daιl> parameters of the schedule are downloaded to the subject's computer, either daily or weekly The schedule can be optimized over the course of the training program to first develop skills required for subsequent more advanced skills It can also be used to help manage time in each game so that all of the games are completed at about the same time at the end of the training program This embodiment allows a subject to obtain the benefits of the Fast ForWord program, and the oversight of a certified SLP. regardless of his/her geographic location One skilled in the art will appreciate that the training schedule could either be provided in a window on the BSTITUTE EET RULE 25) subiect s computer, or could actually control the game selection screen to prompt the user only for those games required on a particular day Once a subject selects a particular game, he/she is taken into that particular game s module Alternative!} once the subject selects his/her name from the list, the particular games av be presented, in a predefined order without requiring the subject to first select the game For ease of illustration each of the seven games will be discussed, in the order represented in Figure 8 Referring to Figure 9. a scene 900 is shown for the first game in the program Old MacDonald s Flying Farm (OMDFF) OMDFF uses a psychophvsical procedure called limited-hold reaction time A subject is asked to start a trial, in this case by grabbing a flying animal, at which point the game begins presenting a distractor phoneme that is modified in the time domain only More specifically, information bearing acoustic elements whose temporal location within a phoneme carry important cues for phoneme identification are modified b> stretching the acoustic elements in time, say to 150% of their normal duration The acoustic elements that are stretched include voice onset time (VOT) between consonant and vowel events, as well as fricative-vowel gaps The mter-stimulus interval (ISI) between presentations of the distractor phoneme is set initially to 500ms The distractor phoneme is repeated a random number of times, usually between 3 and 8 times, before the target tone is presented The target phoneme has normal temporal acoustic parameters The subject is asked to continue to hold the animal until the target phoneme is presented When the subject hears the target phoneme, the subject is to release the animal If the subject accurately hears the target phoneme and releases the animal within a desired hit' window, then his/her score increases If the subject misses the target phoneme, the animal flies away and no points are given As the subject improves, the temporal parameters of the distractor phonemes are reduced in time to that of normal speech, and the ISI is reduced, systematically to 300ms A number of scenes are provided in OMDFF, each correlated to a specific pair of sounds The correlation of sound pairs to farm scenes is shown below Sound Pair Scene /G1/ - /K1/ Barn / Chu/ - /Shu/ Mudpit /Si/ - /Sti/ Garden /Gel - /Ke/ House /Do/ - /To/ Coop So, when a subject grabs the flying animal, the game begins presenting a tone pattern such as /Si/ /Si /Si/ /Si/ /Sti/ When the subject hears /Sti/, the subject is to release the animal The scene 900 provides a general farmvard background with three elements that persist across all the scenes The elements are the score digits 906. the stop sign 908, and the tractor 910 The tractor 910 acts as a progress creature to graphically indicate to a subject their progress during a game If the subject gets a correct response, the tractor 910 advances across the screen 900, from right to left The score digits 906 display the subject's current score The stop sign 908 is common to all seven games and provides a subject with a means for exiting the game, and then the program 10 E SHEET RULE 25) Also shown on the screen 900 are a flying farm animal 902. and a selection hand 904 In this scene, the flying farm animal 902 is a cow with a rocket pack Other scenes provide different farm animals propelled through the air with different flying apparatus Operation of the game OMDFF will now be described with reference to Figure 10 In Figure 10. a flow chart 1000 is provided that illustrates operation of the OMDFF game The game begins at block 1002 and proceeds to block 1004 At block 1004. the computer program selects a particular tone sequence to be plaved for a subiect For example, the program would select the tone pair /Si/ 'Sti/. stretched 150%, with an ISI of 500ms The tone pair that is selected the stretching, and the ISI, are all associated with a particular skill level And the skill level that is presented to a subject is adapted in real time, based on the subjects ability to recognize the target phoneme, as will be further described below However, the initial phoneme pair, stretching and ISI are chosen to allow an LLI subiect to understand the game, and to begin to distinguish phonemes common in speech Upon selection of a particular phoneme sequence, and skill level, flow proceeds to block 1006 At block 1006. the game presents a flying animal 902 As mentioned above, the animal 902 that is presented varies according to which of the phoneme pairs are selected If the animal 902 is a flying cow. the phoneme pair that will be presented is I Gil IK.il The animal 902 continues to fly around the screen until the subject places the selection hand 904 over the animal 902, and holds down a selection button, such as a mouse button After the animal 902 is presented, flow proceeds to decision block 1008 At decision block 1008. a test is made as to whether the subject has selected the animal 902 If not. flow proceeds to block 1010 where the animal 902 continues to fly The animal 902 will continue moving about the scene 900 until it is selected Flow then proceeds to block 1012 At block 1012. the program begins presenting the selected phoneme sequence More specifically an audio formatted file is called by the program that is to be played by a computer, either through speakers connected to the computer or though headphones worn by a subject In one embodiment, the file is a QuickTime audio file. configured according to the parameters necessary for the skill level of the user, l e , phoneme pair, stretching, and ISI In addition, a starting point in the file is chosen such that the distractor phoneme is presented a random number of times, between 3 and 8 times, before the target phoneme is presented After the phoneme sequence begins playing, flow proceeds to decision block 1014 At decision block 1014, a determination is made as to whether the subject has released the animal 902 If the subject has not released the animal 902, a parallel test is made, shown as decision block 1016 Decision block 1016 tests whether a "hit" window has passed More specifically, the program contains a lockout window of 200ms that begins when the target phoneme is played It is believed that if the subject releases the animal 902 within 200ms of the target phoneme beginning play, it is merely coincidental that he/she would have heard the target phoneme This is because no subject s reaction time is quick enough release the animal 902 so soon after hearing the target phoneme The start of the "hit" window begins after the lockout window, l e . 200ms after the target phoneme begins The end of the hit window is calculated as the start of the hit window, plus the length of one phoneme letter So. at decision block 1016, if the hit windows has not 1 1 TIT RULE 25 passed, the computer continues to test whether the subject has released the animal 902 If the hit window has passed, and the subject has not released the animal 902. flow proceeds to block 1026 At block 1026. a miss is recorded for that test After recording the miss, flow proceeds back to block 1021 At block 1021 , the skill level for the selected phoneme sequence is decreased, as will be further described below Flow then proceeds back to block 1006 where another flying animal is presented for the same phoneme sequence At decision block 1014. if it is determined that the subject has released the animal 902. instruction flow proceeds to decision block 1018 At decision block 1018. a determination is made as to whether the hit window has begun That is, did the subject release the animal 902 during or before the lockout period 9 If the hit window has not begun, instruction flow proceeds to block 1020 Block 1020 records a false alarm and instruction flow proceeds to block 1021 It should be appreciated that a false alarm is recorded, rather than a miss, because it suggests that the subject detected a change in the phoneme sequence when a change has not yet occurred If. at decision block 1018. the hit window has begun, flow proceeds to decision block 1022 At decision block 1022 a determination is made as to whether the hit window has passed If the hit window has passed, prior to the subject releasing the animal 902, then flow proceeds to block 1026 where a miss is recorded, as described above However, if the hit window has not passed flow proceeds to block 1024 At block 1024, a hit is recorded for the subject That is, the subject has correctly heard the target phoneme, and has released the animal 902 in an appropriate time frame Flow then proceeds to decision block 1028 At decision block 1028. a determination is made as to whether the subject has heard the target phoneme, and released the animal 902 within the hit window, three times in a row If not, then flow proceeds back to block 1006 where another animal 902 is presented If the subject has responded correctly, three times in a row flow proceeds to block 1030 At block 1030, the skill level for the selected tone sequence is increased bv one level In one embodiment. 18 skill levels are provided for each phoneme sequence As mentioned above the skill levels begin temporal modifications of the phonemes, and by separating the presented phonemes with an ISI of 500ms As the subject's ability to distinguish between the distractor and target phonemes improves, the temporal modifications of the phoneme is reduced to that of normal speech, and the ISI is reduced to 300ms One skilled in the art will appreciate that the degree of phoneme temporal manipulation, from 150% to 100%. the variation of ISI among the skill levels, and the number of skill levels provided, may vary depending on the LLI subject and the type of training that is required In one embodiment, after a subject successfully passes a phoneme sequence with 150% time modification, and an ISI of 500ms, the next skill level presented holds the time modification at 150%, but reduces the ISI to 400ms Flow then proceeds to decision block 1032 At decision block 1032 a determination is made as to whether the maximum level has been reached for the selected phoneme sequence That is. has the subject progressed through all the skill levels to the point that thev 12 LE 25 are correctly recognizing a target phoneme with a duration of 100% and with an ISI of 0ms° It not. then flow proceeds to block 1006 where the animal 902 is again presented to the subject this time, at an increased skill level However, if the subject has reached the maximum level for a particular phoneme sequence, flow proceeds to block 1004 where a phoneme tone sequence is selected If a subject has not yet played the new phoneme sequence that is selected the skill level is set to the easiest level However, if the subject has previously heard the new phoneme sequence, the level of play begins, either at or below the last skill level obtained, typicallv 5 skill levels below what was last obtained Selection of phoneme sequences and skill levels are performed by the program to insure that a subject is exposed to each of the phoneme pairs, but spends the greater portion of his/her time with those pairs that are the most difficult to distinguish In addition, the number of recorded hits/misses/false alarms and reaction times are recorded for each level, and for each phoneme pair, on a daily basis The records are then uploaded to a remote server where they are either reviewed by a remote SLP. or are tabulated and provided to a local SLP The SLP then has the option of controlling the selection of phoneme sequence selection, and/or skill level, according to the particular needs of the subject, or of allowing automatic selection to occur in a round robin manner While not shown, the program also keeps track of the number of correct responses within a sliding window This is visually provided to a subject by advancing the tractor 10, from the right to the left, for each correct response After 10 correct responses, creative animations are played, and bonus points are awarded, to reward the subject and to help sustain the subject's interest in the game Of course, the type of animation presented, and the number of correct responses required to obtain an animation are variables that may be set by an SLP Now referring to Figure 1 1 a screen 1 100 is shown of the second game in the Fast ForWord program, entitled Block Commander The Block Commander game presents a subject with audio prompts, directing the subject to perform an action An exemplary action might be "point to the green circle " The types of prompts are grouped according to difficulty, requiring a subject to perform increasingly sophisticated tasks, depending on their skill level If the subject responds correctly he/she is awarded a point Otherwise, the cursor hand turns red and demonstrates how the command should have been performed This feedback allows the subject to learn from the computer the more difficult manipulations that are required In addition, the prompts are digitalis processed by stretching the speech commands (in the time domain), and by emphasizing particular frequenc} envelopes in the speech, that contain time modulated acoustic components The screen 1 100 contains a number score 1 102 and a stop sign 1 104 The number score 1 102 provides visual feedback to a subject regarding their progress the game, and the stop sign 1 104 provides a selection mechanism for ending the game Also shown is a cat 1 106 The cat 1 106 provides animations for a subject during training A grid 1 120 is shown, in a 55 degree perspective, upon which are placed 3D tokens, further described below In the center of the grid 1 120 is an ear/hand button 1 108 When a subject places a hand selector 1 1 10 on top of the ear/hand button 1 108, and selects the icon (by pressing a mouse key), then a trial in the Block Commander game begins This is shown in Figure 12. to which attention is now directed 13 RULE 25 In Figure 12. a screen shot 1200 is shown that includes the stop sign, number score, and grid, as shown above In addition, a row of different colored squares 1202, and a row of different colored circles 1204 are provided Use of the squares 1202 and the circles 1204 will be described below with reference to Figure 13 Also shown are a number of progress tokens 1206 at the bottom of the screen 1200 The progress tokens 1206 indicate the number of correct answers within a particular instance of the game In one embodiment, after 5 tokens 1206 are shown, indicating 5 correct responses, a reward animation and bonus points are provided to the user Now retemng to Figure 13, a flow chart 1300 is shown that illustrates operation of the Block Commander game Execution begins at block 1302 and proceeds to block 1304 At block 1304 the game selects the first playing level that is to be presented to a subject To the right of block 1304 is a table 1330 that illustrates the 5 processing levels that are used in the Block Commander game The levels are distinct from each other in terms of the amount of stretching (in the time domain) that is used on speech, and the amount of emphasis that is applied to selected frequency envelopes within the speech Flow then proceeds to block 1306 At block 1306, the game presents a program to a subject that trains the subject to play the game The training portion consists of 3 rounds The first round trains the subject to distinguish between object sizes, e g . large and small The second round trains the subject to distinguish between object shapes, e g , square and circle The third round trains the subject to distinguish between object colors, e g , blue, red, yellow , green and white More specifically the prompts given to a subject during training are Size Round 1 Touch the large circle Touch the small circle Touch the large square Touch the small square Shape round 2 Touch the square Touch the circle Color round 3 Touch the blue square Touch the red square Touch the yellow square Touch the green square Touch the white square For a subject to pass any of the training rounds, and progress to the next training round, two correct hits are required for each command prompt, with no errors If an error is made, the score is reset, and play for that round starts over All of the prompts for the training rounds are at processing level 1 , 150% duration and 20dB emphasis After a subject has completed the training program he/she will not see it again Upon completion of the training program, flow proceeds to decision block 1308 BSTITU EET RULE 25) At decision block 1308 a determination is made as to whether the training has been completed. If not. then flow proceeds back to block 1306 where training continues. If training has been completed, flow proceeds to block 1310 At block 1310. a warm up exercise is presented to a subject. The warm up exercise is presented each time a user plays the game, at the speech processing level that was last completed The warm up round includes the following prompts; Warm up Touch the green circle Touch the yellow square Touch the blue square Touch the white circle Touch the red circle Touch the blue circle Touch the green square Touch the yellow circle Touch the red square Touch the white square The ordering of the prompts is random each time the warm up is played. After presentation of each of the prompts flow proceeds to decision block 1312. At decision block 1312, a determination is made as to whether the warm up round has been completed. If not. then flow proceeds back to block 1310 where the warm up continues Otherwise, flow proceeds to block 1314. At block 1314. an appropriate processing level is selected for a subject. The first time a subject plays the Block Commander game, processing level 1 is selected. However, after the subject has progressed beyond processing level 1 , the level selected will be the level that the subject last played. Flow then proceeds to block 1316 At block 1316, the first round of the game is presented to a subject. As mentioned above, in one embodiment of the Block Commander game, six rounds are provided. The rounds are as follows: Round 1 Touch the green circle Touch the yellow square Touch the blue square Touch the white circle Touch the red circle Touch the blue circle Touch the green square Touch the yellow circle Touch the red square 15 STITUTE RULE 25) Touch the yellow square Round 2 Touch the small green circle Touch the large red circle Touch the large white circle Touch the large red square Touch the small yellow circle Touch the large green circle Touch the large green square Touch the small white circle Touch the small blue square Touch the large green circle Round 3 Touch the white circle and the blue square Touch the blue square and the red circle Touch the red square and the green circle Touch the green square and the blue square Touch the yellow circle and the red circle Touch the red square and the green square Touch the red square and the yellow circle Touch the white square and the red circle Touch the green circle and the green square Touch the blue square and the yellow circle Round 4 Touch the small green circle and the large yellow square Touch the small red square and the small yellow circle Touch the large green square and the large blue circle Touch the large red square and the large blue square Touch the small red square and the small green circle Touch the small white circle and the small green circle Touch the large red square and the large white square Touch the large green circle and the large red circle Touch the small blue square and the small white circle Touch the small yellow square and the large blue square Round 5 Put the blue circle on the red square Put the green square behind the white circle Touch the green circle with the blue square Touch - with the green circle - the blue square Touch the green circle and the blue square 16 LE 25 Touch the green circle or the blue square Put the white square aw a} from the yellow square Put the vellow square in front of the red square Touch the squares except the yellow one Round 6 Put the white square beside the red circle Put the blue circle between the yellow square and the w hite square Except tor the blue one, touch the circles Touch the red circle - No 1 - the green square Instead of the vellow square, touch the white circle Together with the yellow circle, touch the green circle After touching the yellow square, touch the blue circle Put the red circle underneath the yellow square Before touching the white circle, touch the blue square Each of the prompts are presented to the user in random order, but successful completion of each of the prompts in a round is required before a round is considered complete After a first prompt is provided to a subiect flow proceeds decision block 1318 At decision block 1318, a determination is made as to whether there have been 90% correct responses in a sliding group of 5 items If not, then flow proceeds back to block 13 16 where another prompt in a round is provided If there have been 90% correct responses, as will be illustrated b} 5 progress tokens at the bottom of the screen, then flow proceeds to block 1320 At block 1320, the subject is shown a reward animation In one embodiment, the animation consists of characters morphing out of the blocks on the board Flow then proceeds to decision block 1322 At decision block 1322, a determination is made as to whether the round is complete A round is complete when a subject successfully responds to all of the prompts in the round If the round is not complete, flow proceeds back to block 1316 where another prompt is provided to the subiect If the round is complete, flow proceeds to decision block 1324 At decision block 1324. a determination is made as to whether all six rounds within the game have been completed If not, then flow proceeds to block 1326 where the round level is incremented Flow then proceeds back to block 1316 where prompts for the new round are presented If decision block 1324 determines that all rounds have been completed, flow proceeds back to block 1314 where an appropriate skill level is selected In one embodiment, if a subject successfully completes all six rounds, at skill level 1 ( 150% duration, 20dB emphasis), he/she will progress to skill level 2 ( 125% duration. 20dB emphasis) The Block Commander program begins by providing a subject with a number of simple commands stretched in time, with particular emphasis given to phoneme components that are difficult for an LLI subject to understand As the subject correctly responds to the simple commands, the commands increase in difficulty Once the subject masters the more difficult commands, the amount of stretching, and the amount of emphasis is 17 STIT RULE 25) reduced, and the process is repeated The rounds continue, over the course of days and weeks, until the subiect is correctly responding to the difficult commands at skill level 5 which is normal speech One skilled in the art will appreciate that the commands cause the subject, not only to understand the phonemes that are presented, but also to apply logical reasoning to the more difficult commands and to recall the constructs of the commands The requirement that the subiect recall the command constructs is directed at improving the sub|ects memory, as well as to improving their abi t} to process acoustic events It is believed that the games repetitive nature, that trains the subject s neurological connections to process speech, is also helpful in improving the subject's memory, and his/her cognitive skills in understanding linguistic relationships Now referring to Figure 14, a screen shot 1400 is shown for the third game in the Fast ForWord program. entitled Circus Sequence The Circus Sequence game trains a subject to distinguish between upward and downward frequenc} sweeps that are common in the stop consonant portion of phonemes, b} varying the duration and frequency of the sweeps, and by varying the inter-stimulus interval (ISI) between presentation of the sweeps The screen 1400 contains a number score 1402, a stop sign 1404, and a progress element 1406. all within a circus ring environment In addition, the screen 1400 contains a hand selector 1408, and an ear/hand button 1410 As in the Block Commander game, a user begins a test by selecting the ear/hand button 1410 with the hand selector 1408 Referring to Figure 15, a screen shot 1500 is shown that illustrates two elements 1502. 1504 that are presented to a subject after the ear/hand button 1410 is selected The left element 1502 pertains to an upward frequency sweep, and the right element 1504 pertains to a downward frequency sweep In addition, a progress element 1506 is shown elevated above the circus ring floor, to indicate that a subject has correctly responded to a number of tests Game play will now be illustrated with reference to Figure 16 Figure 16 provides a flow chart 1600 that illustrates program flow through the training portion of the Circus Sequence Game Training begins at block 1602 and proceeds to block 1604 At block 1604, the program begins presenting a random sequence of frequency sweeps to a subject All sweep sequences are of the form up-up, up-down, down-up. or down-down Thus, if the program presents the sweep sequence "up-up". a subject is to click on the left element 1502 twice If the program presents a sweep sequence "down-up", the subject is to click on the right element 1504. then on the left element 1502 So. once the program provides a sweep sequence to the subject, the subject selects the elements corresponding to the frequency modulated (FM) tone sequence If the subject is correct, he/she is awarded points, the progress element 1506 advances upwards, and the ear/hand button 1410 is presented, allowing the subject to begin another test During training, all upward sweeps are presented starting at 1 kHz and all downward sweeps ending at 1 kHz, with upward/downward sweeps at 16 octaves per second The duration of the sweeps are 80ms and the sweeps are separated by 1000ms Research has shown that most LLI subjects are capable of distinguishing between frequency sweeps of this duration, and having an ISI of 1000ms After each sweep sequence is presented, flow proceeds to decision block 1606 5 At decision block 1606. a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctlv responded to 80% of the trials over a sliding scale of the last ten trials If not. then flow proceeds back to block 1604 where the sequences continue to be presented If the subject has correctly responded 80% of the time, flow proceeds to block 1608 At block 1608. random sequences are again presented, at l khz. having a duration of 80ms and an ISI of 1000ms Flow then proceeds to decision block 1610 At decision block 1610. a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctlv responded to 90% of the trials over a sliding scale of the last ten trials If not, then flow proceeds to decision block 1612 If the subject has correctly responded to 90% of the trials over a sliding scale of the last ten trials, flow proceeds to block 1614 At decision block 1612. a determination is made as to whether a subject has correctl} responded to less than 70% of the trials, over a sliding scale of the last 20 trials If not, indicating that he/she is responding correctly between 70-90% of the time, then flow proceeds back to block 1608 where the sweep sequences continue to be presented If a determination is made that the subject is correctly responding less than 70% of the time over the last 20 trials, then flow proceeds back to block 1604, where the training begins again At block 1614, a 3-up, 1-down rule begins This rule allows a subject to advance in difficulty level every time 3 correct responses are provided, while reducing the level of difficulty any time an incorrect response is given Research has shown that a 3-up, 1 -down rule allows a subject to obtain a correct response rate of approximately 80% near threshold, which is desired to motivate and encourage the subject to continue A reduced accuracy rate discourages a subject, a situation that is not desired especially if the subject is an LLI child Once the 3-up, 1 -down rule is started, flow proceeds to decision block 1616 At decision block 1616, a determination is made as to whether a subject has responded correctly the last 3 tests If so, then flow proceeds to block 1620 If not. then flow proceeds to decision block 1618 At decision block 1618. a determination is made as to whether a subject has incorrectly responded to the last test If not. then flow proceeds back to decision block 1616 where another test is provided However, if the subject has incorrectly responded to the last test, the difficulty level is reduced one level and flow proceeds back to decision block 1616 where another test is presented During the training level, all tests are performed at 80ms duration, with 1000ms ISI, which is the easiest skill level Therefore, if the subject incorrectly responds at that level, no change in difficulty is made At block 1620, the skill level is increased During training, the sweep sequences are presented at lkhz, with 80ms duration, but the ISI is reduced between the sweeps each time the level is incremented In one embodiment, the ISI levels start at 1000ms, and proceed through 900ms, 800ms 700ms 600ms and 500ms Flow then proceeds to decision block 1624 At decision block 1624. a determination is made as to whether the ISI is at 500ms If not, then flow proceeds back to decision block 1616 where sweep sequences continue to be presented If the ISI is 500ms, the training session ends and the subject is allowed to enter the real game, at block 1626 19 S TE SHE RULE 25) Referring now to Figure 17 a flow chart 1700 is provided that illustrates operation of the Circus Sequence game, after the training session has been completed The game begins at block 1702 and proceeds to block 1704 At block 1704. an appropriate skill level is selected The skill levels used b} Circus Sequence are shown in table 1730 For each of three frequencies 500hz, l khz, and 2khz. a number of skill levels are provided The skill levels begin by presenting frequency sweeps having a duration of 80ms. and an ISI between the sweeps of 500ms As a subject advances the ISI is reduced, either to 0ms. or in one embodiment, to 125ms It should be appreciated that the ISI increments used should be selected to slow K train a subject s ability to distinguish between similar phonemes, such as /ba/ and /da/, while not frustrating the subject by training beyond levels required to distinguish between such phonemes When a subject first plays Circus Sequence, after passing training, he/she is provided with frequencv sweeps beginning at l khz. having 80ms duration and an ISI of 500ms On subsequent days, the frequencv that is selected is random, and can be either 500hz, l khz or 2khz Once the appropriate skill level has been selected flow proceeds to block 1706 At block 1706, a tone sequence is presented, according to the selected skill level Flow then proceeds to decision block 1708 At decision block 1708. a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctly responded to the last 3 trials If not, then flow proceeds to decision block 1710 If the subject has correctly responded to the last 3 trials, flow proceeds to block 1712 At decision block 1710. a determination is made as to whether the subject has incorrectly responded to the last trial If not, then flow proceeds back to block 1706 where another tone sequence is presented If the subject incorrectly responded to the last trial, flow proceeds to block 1714 At block 1714, the skill level is decremented If the skill level has an ISI of 500ms, no decrease is made However, if the skill level has an ISI that is less than 500ms. the difficulty is reduced 1 level For example, it the subject incorrectly responds to a trial having an ISI of 180ms, for example, the difficulty level will be reduced, so that the next tone sequence will have an ISI of 185ms Flow then proceeds back to block 1706 where another tone sequence is presented At block 1712, if the user has correctly responded to the last 3 trials, the skill level is incremented For example, if a subject is at a skill level with a sweep duration of 80ms and an ISI of 250ms, the skill level will increase such that the ISI for the next tone sequence will be 200ms Flow then proceeds to decision block 1716 At decision block 1716. a determination is made as to whether the ISI is at 150ms If not, then flow proceeds to decision block 1720 If the ISI is at 150 ms, flow proceeds to block 1718 At block 1718, the next lower duration is enabled This allows the program to simultaneously trial a subject with multiple sweep durations, once the subject is successfully responding at an ISI level of ! 50ms For example, if a subject is correctly responding to tone sequences of duration 80ms with an ISI of 150ms. then testing continues at 80ms In addition, testing is begun with sweep sequences of duration 60ms. at an ISI of 500ms Flow then proceeds to back to block 1706 where another tone sequence is presented This allows the 20 SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 25) program to present tone sequences of different duration and different ISI while tracking progress tor each duration ISI combination At decision block 1720 a determination is made as to whether the subject has reached a training threshold In one embodiment a training threshold is reached when the subject has had eight skill lev el reversals w ithin six skill levels of each other If such a threshold is reached flow proceeds to block 1721 Otherwise flow proceeds to decision block 1722 At block 1721 the program moves the subject to the next frequencv category to be tested It is believed that once a threshold has been met on a particular day. the subject should not continue being tested at the same frequencv Thus the program allows a subject to progress either to an ISI of 0ms (or some other minimal ISI) or to a threshold at one frequency, and then begin testing at an alternative frequency Flow then proceeds back to block 1706 At decision block 1722, a determination is made as to whether the ISI for a particular tone duration is 0ms If not, then flow proceeds back to block 1706 where another sweep sequence is presented However if a sub j ect has reached a skill level of 0ms ISI for a particular duration, flow proceeds to block 1724 At block 1724 the program deletes the duration associated with the 0ms ISI from the trial This is because testing at that level is no longer required by the subject due to their proficiency However, as mentioned above, an alternative embodiment may select an ISI of greater than 0ms as the point where the duration is deleted from the game Flow then proceeds back to block 1706 where more tone sequences are presented While not shown, in one embodiment, a threshold level is provided that causes the game to begin testing a subject at an alternate frequency For example, if the subject is testing at 500hz, and a threshold is reached, the program will begin testing the subject at 2k z The threshold is reached when a subject has 8 skill level reversals within 6 levels of each other When this occurs, the program ceases testing at the frequency for which the threshold was reached, and begins testing at an alternative frequency Also, when a subject begins each day of testing, a frequency different than that tested the previous day is begun Moreover, a skill level that is 5 less than completed the previous day is chosen, presuming the subject completed at least 20 trials for that frequency As mentioned above, each correct response causes the progress element 1506 to advance upward After ten correct responses a reward animation is provided to entertain the subject When the animation ends, the subject is prompted with the ear/hand button 1410 to begin another trial Now referring to Figure 18, a screen shot 1800 of the fourth game in Fast Forward, Phonic Match, is provided The screen 1800 includes a set of pictures 1802, a progress creature 1804, a stop sign 1806. and a number score 1808 The progress creature 1804, stop sign 1806 and number score 1808 function similarlv to those described in previous games The set of pictures 1802 are arranged into a 2x2 grid When a subject selects any of the pictures a word or phoneme is plaved On any grid, there are two pictures that play the same word Thus, for a 2x2 grid, there are two words that will be presented The test for the subiect is to distinguish between similar words to recall which picture is associated with which word, and to sequential lv select two pictures that present the same word 21 SUBSTITUTE SHEET RULE 25) Similar words are presented together w ith the words processed according to the processing ievels shown in table 1902 of Figure 19 Initiall} , subjects are presented words at processing level I . with a duration of 150%. and having 20dB emphasis of selected frequency envelopes w ithin the words In addition different skill lev els, as show n in table 1904 are provided that increase the grid size tor a particular trial, and set the maximum number of clicks or selections, that a subject can attempt before losing the trial Operation of the game is illustrated in Figure 20 However before providing a detailed description of game operation, the words used in the game are shown Word Group 1 big. bit. dig, dip. kick, kid, kit. pick, pig, pit. tick, tip Word Group 2 buck, bud, but. cup, cut duck, dug, pub, pup. tub, tuck, tug Word Group 3 back, bag, bat, cab, cap, cat, gap. pack, pat tack, tag. tap Word Group 4 ba. cha. da, ga, ka, la, pa, ra, sa. sha. ta. za Referring now to Figure 20, the Phonic Match game begins at block 2002, and proceeds to block 2004 At block 2004, a 2x2 grid is presented The words associated with the 2x2 grid are selected from one of the four Word Groups shown above The selection of the Word Group is random, except that tracking of previously played Word Groups is done to insure that all Word Groups are equally represented, and that a subject is not provided the same Word Group as played on an immediately preceding dav The words within a Word Group are typically selected according to their acoustic similarity The subject is required to sequentiallv select two pictures that have the same word associated with them When a subject sequentially selects two pictures associated with the same word, the pictures are removed from the gird being played After a subject completes a 2x2 grid, whether correctly or incorrectly, flow proceeds to decision block 2006 At decision block 2006, a determination is made as to whether the subject has successfully passed three 2x2 grids Referring to table 1904 of Figure 19, ten skill levels are shown When a 2x2 grid is first presented, the skill level entered is level 8 Skill level 8 defines a 2x2 grid, with a maximum number of allowed clicks as 8 If a subject selects pictures on a 2x2 grid more than 8 times, the grid is not considered passed, and game flow proceeds back to block 2004 where another grid is presented If not. then flow proceeds back to block 2004 where another 2x2 grid is presented with words from the same Word Group If the subject has successfully passed three 2x2 grids, thus progressing from level 8 through level 10, flow proceeds to block 2008 At block 2008, a new grid is presented for a particular Word Group, or stimulus set Initially, a 3x3 grid is provided, at skill level 2 The maximum number of clicks allowed for a subject to pass a 3x3 grid is 20 Within a 3x3 grid, 1 of the pictures is a wildcard, since there are an odd number of pictures Selection of the wildcard simply removes the picture from the grid, and does not count against the subject as a selection, or click After a 3x3 grid is presented to a subject, flow proceeds to decision block 2010 At decision block 2010, a determination is made as to whether the subject passed the level That is, did the subject properly distinguish between word pairs, and sequentially select picture pairs associated with words in 20 or less clicks If so. then flow proceeds to block 2012 If not. then flow proceeds to block 2014 22 BSTITUTE S EET RULE 25) At block 2012. the skill level is incremented For example if a subject was at level 2. he she will increment to level 3 Note levels 2-3 present a 3x3 grid with a maximum number of clicks of 20 while levels 4-7 present a 4x4 grid w ith a maximum number of clicks of 60 Once the skill level is incremented, flow proceeds to block 2020 At block 2020 a grid according to the new skill level is presented The grid is associated w ith the same Word Group that was previously used, but possibly with different words from the group Flow then proceeds to decision block 2022 At decision block 2022 a determination is made as to whether the subject has passed the lev el That is. did the subject correctly associate the word pairs in less than or equal to the number of allowed clicks If not. flow proceeds to block 2014 If the subject passed the level, flow proceeds to decision block 2024 At decision block 2024. a determination is made as to whether the subject has reached skill level 7 Level 7 is termed the "decision" level If the skill level that has just been passed is not level 7, then flow proceeds back to block 2012 where the skill level is incremented However, if the skill level passed is level 7, flow proceeds to decision block 2026 At decision block 2026, a determination is made as to whether all four stimulus sets, or Word Groups have been passed if not, then flow proceeds to block 2018 However, if a subject has correctly passed skill level 7, for all four Word Groups, flow proceeds to block 2028 At block 2028. the next processing level is selected Referring to table 1902 of Figure 19 a subject begins at processing level 1 (duration 150%. emphasis 20dB) Once all four Word Groups have been passed at skill level 7, the amount of audio processing to the words is reduced First, the duration of the words is reduced, from 150%. to 125%, to 100%, and then the amount of emphasis applied to selected frequencv components is reduced, from 20dB. to l OdB, to OdB Once a subject has reached processing level 5, he/she is presented with normal speech After the next processing level is selected, flow proceeds to decision block 2030 At decision block 2030, a determination is made as to whether all processing levels have been completed That is, has the subject reached processing level 5 If not, flow proceeds back to block 2004 where the game begins anew with a 2x2 grid, but at the new processing level However, if the subject has reached processing level 5. flow proceeds to block 2032 At block 2032, a 5x5 grid is provided, with a maximum number of allowable clicks as 90 From this point forward, the game continues playing indefinitely, but the decision round, level 7, switches from a 4x4 grid to a 5x5 grid Referring back to decision block 2022, if a subject does not pass a particular level, flow proceeds to block 2014 At block 2014 the skill level is decremented Flow then proceeds to decision block 2016 At decision block 2016 a determination is made as to whether the new skill level is less than level 1 Level 1 is considered a "slip" level indicating that if a user failed at this level, a new Word Group should be provided If the skill level is not less than 1. flow proceeds back to block 2020 where a new grid is presented. 23 LE 25 according to the present level If the new level is less than 1. that is if the subject failed to pass a grid, at skill level 1 flow proceeds to block 2018 At block 2018, the program discontinues presenting words from the present Word Group, and changes the Word Group used for the grids Flow then proceeds back to block 2008 where a 3x3 grid is presented, at skill level 2. using words from the new Word Group The flow chart 2000 demonstrates that a subject is required to proceed from level 2 through level 7 for each of the four Word Groups, at a particular processing level, before he/she is allowed to advance to the next processing level The progress creature descends with each click If the creature reaches the bottom, then the grid is not passed If all picture pairs are matched prior to the creature reaching the bottom, extra points are awarded, a reward animation is presented and the grid is considered passed When a subject has correctly selected a predetermined number of picture pairs, the progress animal 1804 reaches the top, and the subject is rewarded by an animation Referring now to Figure 21 , a screen shot 2100 is shown illustrating the fifth game in the Fast Forward program, entitled Phonic Words Phonic Words presents a subject with a sentence prompt that requires the subject to distinguish between two similar words, to accurately select one of two pictures 2108, 21 10, using a selection hand 21 12 The table below provides a list of the word pairs used The first word in the pair is always the correct answer, but its representational image could appear on the left or right of the screen 2100 base-face, face-base, vase-base, base-vase, face-vase, vase-face, bee-me, me- bee, knee-bee, bee-knee, knee-me, me-knee, breathe-breeze, breeze-breathe, day-they, they-day, lawn-yawn, yawn-lawn, ache-lake, lake-ache, ache-rake, rake-ache, ache-wake, wake-ache, lake-rake, rake-lake, lake-wake, wake-lake, rake-wake, wake-rake, sink-think, thmk-sink, chip-dip, dip-chip, sip-zip, zip- sip, chip-sip, sip-chip, chip-zip, zip-chip, dip-sip, sip-dip, dip-zip, zip-dip, pack- shack, shack-pack, tack-shack, shack-tack, pack-tack, tack-pack, tack-tag, tag- tack, rung-young, young-rung, rung-run, run-rung, young-run, run-young, pat- path, path-pat, bear-bell, bell-bear, thumb-tongue, tongue-thumb, comb-cone, cone-comb, mouse-mouth, mouth-mouse, cash-catch, catch-cash, fan-fang, fang-fan. sauce-saws, saws-sauce, bass-bath, bath-bass, cheese-chief, chief- cheese, foam-phone, phone-foam, fuzz-fudge, fudge-fuzz, safe-shave, shave- safe, long-lawn, lawn-long, piece-peas, peas-piece, piece-peach, peach-piece, peas-peach, peach-peas, wash-watch, watch-wash As before, the screen 2100 contains an ear/hand button 2102 for beginning a trial, a stop sign 2104 for ending the game, and a number score 2106 Withm the number score 2106 are five acorns, indicating the processing level currently being tested Also shown are progress creatures 21 14 indicating a number of correct responses As a subject correctly responds to the game, a new progress creature 21 14 is added When the number of progress creatures 21 14 reaches ten. a reward animation is provided and bonus points are awarded Referring to Figure 22, a screen shot 2200 is shown where the word pair peach-peas is being tested After a subject listens to a prompt containing the target word, he/she selects one of the two pictures The subject whether correct or incorrect, will then be shown the correct selection, in this case peach, by having the mask removed from the picture frame 2202 24 SUBSTITUTE SHEET RULE 25) Referring now to Figure 23. operation of the Phonic Words game is illustrated b} flowchart 2300 Please note that five processing levels similar to those used above in Phonic Match and Block Commander, are shown in table 2340 The game begins at block 2302 and proceeds to training block 2304 At training biock 2304 the subject is prompted to "press the ear button ' The prompting is processed at level 1 ( duration 150%. emphasis 20dB) Flow then proceeds to decision block 2306 At decision block 2306. a determination is made as to whether the ear/hand button 2102 has been pressed If not. then flow proceeds back to block 2304 where the prompting is repeated If the ear/hand button 2102 has been pressed, flow proceeds to block 2308 At block 2308. praise is played for the subject Flow then proceeds to block 2310 At block 2310. a single image appears in one of the two frames 2108 21 10. and a sound file pertaining to the image is played for the subject Flow then proceeds to decision block 2312 At decision block 2312, a determination is made as to whether the subject has selected the appropriate image The image continues to be displayed until the subject selects the image Flow then proceeds to decision block 2314 At decision block 2314. a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctly selected the single image, three times If not, then flow proceeds back to block 2310 where another image is presented, with its associated word If the subject correctly selects an image/word combination three times, flow proceeds to block 2316 At block 2316, a pair of images are presented, along with a command prompt containing a word associated with one of the images The other image presented is termed the distractor image The user must click on the correct image 4 out of 5 times in a sliding scale to start the game After the double image is presented, flow proceeds to decision block 2318 At decision block 2318. a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctly selected an image, from the image pair, in 4 out of 5 cases, on a sliding scale If not. then flow proceeds back to block 2316 where another image pair is presented Otherwise, flow proceeds to block 2320 where the subject enters the game Flow then proceeds to block 2322 At block 2322, a subject is presented a sequence of image pairs, with associated words selected from a particular processing set The processing sets are chosen by grouping words having similar phoneme characteristics Once all of the words have been presented within a processing set. flow proceeds to decision block 2324 At decision block 2324, a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctly understood a word, and properly selected its associated picture from the picture pair with 90% or greater accuracy If not. flow proceeds back to block 2322 where random selection of image/word pairs continue, until a 90% success rate is achieved Flow then proceeds to block 2326 At block 2326, a new processing set is selected Flow then proceeds to decision block 2328 At decision block 2328, a determination is made as to whether all of the processing sets have been completed If not, then flow proceeds back to block 2322 where random selection of image'word pairs are 25 SUBSTITUTE SHEET RULE 25) presented from the current processing set However if all of the processing sets have been completed flow proceeds to block 2330 At block 2330. the processing level is incremented Initial!} the processing level is level 1 <\fter a subject has completed all of the processing sets w ith a 90% or greater accuracy for each of the sets, the processing level is increased to level 2 As described above the duration of the words is decreased first from 150%. to 125% to 100%, and then the emphasis of selected frequency envelopes is reduced, from 20dB. to lOdB. to OdB until normal speech (level 5) is obtained After the processing level is incremented flow proceeds to decision block 2332 At decision block 2332, a determination is made as to whether a subject has completed all of the sets at processing level 5 If not, then flow proceeds back to block 2322 where random selection of image/word pairs within a set are presented at the new processing level However, if the subject has completed all of the processing sets at level 5, flow proceeds to block 2334 At block 2334 Phonic Words continues to drill the subject randomly selecting image'word pairs w ithin a processing set, at level 5 Now referring to Figure 24, a screen shot 2400 is provided for the sixth game in the Fast ForWord program, entitled Phoneme Identification Phoneme Identification processes a number of phoneme pairs bv selectively manipulating parameters such as consonant duration consonant emphasis and inter-stimulus interval More specifically, five phoneme pairs are tested each pair containing a target sound and a distractor These include 1 ) aba-ada, 2) ba-da, 3) be-de, 4) bi-di, and 5) va-fa For each phoneme pair, 26 different skill levels are provided, each level differing from the other in the degree of processing applied (duration and emphasis), and in the separation (ISI) of the distractor and target phoneme Skill level 1 processes the phoneme pair by stretching the consonant portion 150% while leaving the vowel portion untouched, emphasizing selected frequency envelopes in the consonant portion 20dB. and separating the distractor and target phonemes by 500ms, for example Skill level 26 provides a phoneme pair without stretching or emphasis, and with an ISI of 0ms Skill levels 2-25 progress towards normal speech by applying less and less consonant processing with less and less separation between the distractor and target phonemes The screen 2400 contains an ear/hand button 2402 to allow a subject to begin a trial a number score 2404 for tracking correct responses, a stop sign 2406 for exiting the game, a hand selector 2408 and progress elements 2410 for graphically illustrating progress to a subject When the game is initially selected, five different animals are shown on the screen, each pertaining to a phoneme pair to be tested A subject mav select any one of the five animals to begin the game After a subject has played the game with one of the five animals the choice is reduced to four animals, and so on Referring to Figure 25, a screen shot 2500 is shown with two polar bears 2502, 2504 In one embodiment the polar bears 2502, 2504 are associated with the phoneme pair ba-da There are five background scenes each associated with an animal/phoneme pair, each having their own animations, etc When a subject presses the ear/hand button 2402. the game plays a target phoneme either ba or da The phoneme pair is then presented bv 26 TE SHE RULE 25 the polar bears 2502, 2504 with one bear speaking the distractor and the other bear speaking the target sound A subject is required to distinguish betw een the distractor and target phonemes and to select with the hand selector 2508, the polar bear that spoke the target phoneme Details of how the game Phoneme Identification is plaved will now be provided w ith reference to Figures 26 and 27 Referring to Figure 26. a flow chart 2600 is shown that illustrates the training module of the Phoneme Identification game Training begins at block 2602 and proceeds to block 2604 At block 2604, the game presents the screen shot 2400, and prompts a subiect to "press the ear button" Flow then proceeds to decision block 2606 At decision block 2606, a determination is made as to whether the subiect has pressed the ear/hand button 2402 If not, then flow proceeds back to block 2604 where the prompt is repeated, after a predetermined interval If the subject has pressed the ear/hand button 2402, flow proceeds to block 2608 At block 2608, the ear/hand button 2402 is presented, but this time without an audio prompt Flow then proceeds to decision block 2610 At decision block 2610, a determination is made as to whether the subject has pressed the ear/hand button 2402 If not, then flow proceeds back to block 2608 The subject remains in this loop until the ear/hand button 2402 is pressed Once the ear/hand button 2402 is pressed, flow proceeds to block 2612 At block 2612, a target phoneme, pertaining to a selected animal pair, is played for a subject The target phoneme is processed at level 1 , 150% duration, with 20dB emphasis, as shown by the table 2640 Flow then proceeds to block 2614 At block 2614, a single animal is presented that speaks the target phoneme Flow then proceeds to decision block 2616 At decision block 2616, a determination is made as to whether the animal that spoke the target phoneme has been selected If not, flow proceeds back to block 2614 where the animal again speaks the target phoneme, after a predetermined interval However if the subject has selected the animal, flow proceeds to decision block 2618 At decision block 2618, a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctly pressed the animal in ten trials If not, then flow proceeds back to block 2612 where another trial is begun However, once the subject has correctly responded in ten trials, flow proceeds to block 2620 At block 2620, a target phoneme is again presented, at level 1 processing Flow then proceeds to block 2622 At block 2622, two animals are now presented, one speaking the target phoneme, the other speaking the distractor phoneme The order of speaking the target and distractor phonemes is random, with the animal on the left speaking first, and the animal on the right speaking last However, in this training level, the animal that speaks the target phoneme is visually highlighted for the subject Both the target and distractor phonemes are processed at level 1. and are separated in time by 500ms Flow then proceeds to decision block 2624 At decision block 2624, a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctly selected the animal speaking the target phoneme in 8 out of 10 trials, on a sliding scale If not. then flow proceeds back to block 27 TI RULE 25) 2620 where another trial is begun. If the subject has correct!} responded in 8 out of 10 trials, flow proceeds to block 2626 At block 2626. a target phoneme is presented to a subject, processed at level 1. Flow then proceeds to block 2628 At block 2628. two animals are shown presenting a target phoneme and a distractor phoneme, both processed at level 1. with an ISI of 500ms. The order of target/distractor phonemes is random For this trial, however, the animal speaking the target phoneme is not visually highlighted for the subject. Flow then proceeds to decision block 2630 At decision block 2630. a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctly responded to 8 out of 10 trials, on a sliding scale If so. then the subject has successfully completed the training and flow proceeds to block 2634, allowing the subject to advance to the game. However, if the subject has not been successful in 8 out of 10 trials, then flow proceeds to decision block 2632. At decision block 2632. a determination is made as to whether the subject has responded correctly less than 70% of the time in at least 10 trials. If not, then flow proceeds back to block 2626 where another trial is presented. If the subject has less than a 70% success rate, over at least 10 trials, then flow proceeds back to block 2614 where trials begin again, but where visual highlighting of the animal speaking the target phoneme is provided for the subject Referring now to Figure 27, a flow chart 2700 is provided that illustrates play of the Phoneme Identification game. Play begins at block 2702 and proceeds to decision block 2704. At decision block 2704. a determination is made as to whether the ear/hand button 2402 has been pressed. If not, then flow proceeds back to decision block 2704 until the subject chooses to hear the target phoneme. If the ear/hand button 2402 has been pressed, flow proceeds to block 2706. At block 2706 a target phoneme is presented at an appropriate processing level. If this is the first time a subject has played the game, then the processing level for the phonemes is level 1 , and the ISI between the target and distractor phonemes is 500ms. Otherwise, the skill level pertains to the historical success of the subject, with the particular phoneme pair, as will be further described below. Flow then proceeds to block 2708 At block 2708. two animals are shown, corresponding to the phoneme pair being tested, speaking the processed target and distractor phonemes, in random order. Flow then proceeds to decision block 2710 At decision block 2710. a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctly selected the animal speaking the target phoneme. If not, then flow proceeds to block 2720. If the subject has correctly responded to the trial, flow proceeds to decision block 2712. At block 2720, the skill level for play is decremented For example, if the processing level is at level 1 , having consonant duration of 150%, and emphasis of 20db. but the ISI between the target and distractor phonemes is at 100ms. the game will drop back to a skill level where the ISI is at 1 10ms However, if the skill level of play is already at level 1 , then no change in processing is made. At decision block 2712. a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctly responded in the last 3 consecutive trials If not, then flow proceeds back to decision block 2704. awaiting another trial to begin 28 TI RULE 25 However if the subject has correctlv responded to the last 3 trials, flow proceeds to block 2714 It should be appreciated that the procedure illustrated in blocks 2710-2712 is the 3-up 1 -down rule previously described in the Circus Sequence game above At block 2714, the skill level of the game is incremented For example, if a subject has correctlv responded to 3 consecutive trials, and is at a processing level of 100% duration 20dB emphasis, and an ISI of 0ms. the next level of play will be at 100% duration l OdB emphasis and an ISI of 500ms Flow then proceeds to decision block 2716 At decision block 2716. a determination is made as to whether the highest skill level has been reached If the subject has correctly responded to the last 3 trials, with no processing of the phonemes, and with minimal ISI between the target and distractor. then flow proceeds to block 2718 Otherwise flow proceeds to decision block 2722 At decision block 2722. a determination is made as to whether the subject has reached a threshold In one embodiment, a threshold is reached if the subject has had 8 skill level reversals within 6 skill levels of each other If the subject has not reached a threshold, flow proceeds back to block 2704 where another trial is begun If the subject has reached a threshold, flow proceeds to block 2718 At block 2718, a new stimulus categorv is selected That is. a new phoneme pair is selected for testing Thus, if the subject has been tested with the phoneme pair ba-da. and has either mastered the pair by reaching the highest skill level, or has reached a threshold, then an alternate phoneme pair is selected, say aba-ada Flow then proceeds back to block 2704 where a trial awaits using the new phoneme pair In one embodiment, the skill level used for the new phoneme pair is selected to be 5 less than previously achieved for that pair Or. if the subject has not yet been tested on the new phoneme pair, the skill level is set to 1 Testing continues indefinitely, or for the time allotted for Phoneme Identification on the subject's daily training schedule Referring now to Figure 28, a screen shot 2800 is shown for the seventh game in the Fast Forward program. Language Comprehension Builder The screen shot 2800 contains an ear/hand button 2802 for beginning a trial, a stop sign 2804 for exiting the game, a number score 2806 corresponding to the number of correct responses, and level icons 2808 for indicating the processing level that is currently being tested In addition, four windows 2810 are shown for containing one to four stimulus images, according to the particular trial being presented If less than four stimulus images are required for a trial, they are placed randomly within the four windows 2810 At the bottom of the screen 2800 are smaller progress windows 2812 for holding progress elements The progress elements provide a visual indicator to a subject of his/her progress As in previously discussed games, when all of the progress elements are obtained, usually ten correct responses, a reward animation is presented to the subject In one embodiment of this game, the reward animation builds a space ship out of the progress elements The stimulus that is provided to the subject is in the form of command sentences The sentences are divided into 7 comprehension levels, with each level having between 4 to 10 groups of sentences Each group has 5 sentences For each stimulus sentence, a corresponding image is provided with 1 -3 distractor images The subject is to listen to the stimulus sentence and select the corresponding image 29 25 Each of the stimulus sentences may be processed bv stretching words, or selected phonemes, in time, and by emphasizing particular frequency envelopes, as shown b} table 3040 in Figure 30 Stretching and emphasis of selected words/phonemes is similar to that described above in other games The stimulus sentences presented to a subject are provided in Appendix A Referring now to Figure 29. a flow chart 2900 is provided to illustrate the training tutorial aspect of the game Training begins at block 2902 and proceeds to block 2904 At block 2904. the subject is prompted to "press the }ellow button ' That is. the ear hand button 2802 Flow then proceeds to decision block 2906 At decision block 2906. a determination is made as to whether the subject has selected the ear/hand button 2802 If not. flow proceeds back to block 2904 where the subject is again prompted, after a predetermined interval If the subject has pressed the button, flow proceeds to block 2908 At block 2908, the ear/hand button 2802 is presented, without audio prompting Flow then proceeds to decision block 2910 At decision block 2910, a determination is made as to whether the subject has pressed the button 2802 If not, then the subject stays in this loop until the button 2802 is pressed Once pressed, flow proceeds to block 2912 At block 2912, a subject is presented with a single image and corresponding audio stimulus In one embodiment, the stimulus is processed at level 1 , with 150% duration and 20dB selective emphasis Flow then proceeds to decision block 2914 At decision block 2914, a determination is made as to whether the subject has selected the image corresponding to the presented stimulus If not, then flow proceeds back to block 2912 where the subject is again prompted with the stimulus, after a predetermined interval However, if the subject selected the image, flow proceeds to decision block 2916 At decision block 2916, a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctly selected an image, 3 times If not, then flow proceeds back to block 2912 where another image/stimulus combination is presented However, if the subject has correctly selected an image, 3 times, flow proceeds to block 2918 At block 2918. an image/stimulus combination is presented, along with a distractor image Flow then proceeds to decision block 2920 At decision block 2920, a determination is made as to whether the subject selected the appropriate image If not, then flow proceeds back to block 2918 However, if the subject selected the correct image, flow proceeds to decision block 2922. At decision block 2922, a determination is made as to whether the subject has correctlv responded to 4 out of 5 trials, on a sliding scale If not, then flow proceeds back to block 2918 If the subject has correct!} responded 4 out of the last 5 trials, flow proceeds to block 2924 allowing the subject to start the game Now referring to Figure 30. a flowchart 3000 is shown illustrating operation of the Language Comprehension Builder game The game begins at block 3002 and proceeds to block 3004 30 RULE 25 ) At block 3004 an image and stimulus combination is presented to the subject In one embodiment, the game begins bv selecting a group from Level 2. and then by randomlv selecting one of the trials from the selected group The processing of the sentence is performed at 150% duration with 20dB selected emphasis Flow then proceeds to decision block 3006 At decision block 3006. a determination is made as to whether the subject correctly selected the image associated with the stimulus sentence If not. the subject is shown the correct response, and flow proceeds back to block 3004 where another stimulus/image combination from the same group is presented If the subject selects the correct image, flow proceeds to decision block 3008 At decision block 3008. a determination is made as to whether all sentences within a stimulus set have been successfully completed As mentioned above, the program begins in Level 2, by selecting a particular stimulus set for presentation The program stays within the selected stimulus set until all stimulus sentences have been responded to correctK The program then selects another stimulus set from within Level 2 If the subject has not correctly completed all sentences within a stimulus set. flow proceeds back to block 3004 where another sentence is presented If the subject has completed all stimulus within a set, flow proceeds to decision block 3010 At decision block 3010. a determination is made as to whether all sets within a particular comprehension level have been completed If not. then a new set is selected, and flow proceeds back to block 3004 However, if all sets within a comprehension level have been completed, flow proceeds to block 3012 At block 3012, the comprehension level is incremented In one embodiment, a subject proceeds through comprehension levels 2-6, in order, with levels 7 and 8 interspersed within levels 3-6 Flow then proceeds to decision block 3014 At decision block 3014, a determination is made as to whether all comprehension levels have been completed If not, then flow proceeds back to block 3004 where the subject is presented with an image/stimulus combination from a stimulus set within the new comprehension level However, if the subject has progressed through all stimulus sets for all comprehension levels, flow proceeds to block 3016 At block 3016, the processing level applied to the stimulus sets is increased The processing levels are shown in table 3040 For example, if a subject has just completed processing level 2. having a duration of 125%. and 20dB emphasis, the processing level is incremented to level 3 This will present all stimulus at 100% duration, and 20dB emphasis In addition, it will reset the comprehension level to level 2. and will restart the stimulus set selection Flow then proceeds to decision block 3018 At decision block 3018, a determination is made as to whether all processing levels have been completed If not, then flow proceeds back to block 3004 where a stimulus set from level 2 is presented to the subject, at the new processing level However, if all the processing levels have been completed, the subject remains at processing level 5 (normal speech) Flow then proceeds to block 3020 At block 3020, the comprehension levels are reset, so that the subject is presented again w ith stimulus from level 2 However, no alteration in the stimulus is performed The subject will remain at processing level 5 Study has shown that several weeks are required for a subject to advance through all of the comprehension levels, and all of the processing levels Therefore, when a subject begins each da} , he/she is started within the comprehension level, and stimulus set that was last played And. the stimulus set will be presented at the processing level last played In Language Comprehension Builder, as in all of the other games, detailed records are kept regarding each trial, indicating the number of correct responses and incorrect responses, for each processing level, skill level and stimulus set. These records are uploaded to a central server at the end of each day, so that a subject's results may be tabulated and analyzed by an SLP, either working directly with a subject, or remotely. Based on analysis by the SLP, modification to training parameters within Fast ForWord may be made, and downloaded to the subject. This allows a subject to begin each day with a sensory training program that is individually tailored to his/her skill level. The above discussion provides a detailed understanding of the operation of the present invention as embodied in the game modules within the program entitled Fast ForWord Each of the game modules present different problems to a subject, using modified phonemes, frequency sweeps or speech commands that are stretched, emphasized or separated in time, according to the subject's ability, and according to predefined processing parameters within the program. Although alternative acoustic processing methodologies may be used, discussion will now be directed at algorithms developed specifically for use by the above described games. In one embodiment, a two-stage speech modification procedure was used. The first stage involved time- scale modification of speech signals without altering its spectral content. The time scale modification is called the "phase vocoder", and will be further described below. The second speech modification stage that was developed uses an algorithm that differentially amplifies and disambiguates faster phonetic elements in speech. "Fast elements" in speech are defined as those that occur in the 3-30Hz range within an envelope of narrowband speech channels of a rate changed speech signal. An emphasis algorithm for these fast elements was implemented using two methods: a filter-bank summation method and an overlap-add method based on a short- time Fourier transform. Both of these emphasis algorithms will be further described below Time-scale modification Referring to Figure 31 , a flow chart 3100 is provided that illustrates time-scale modification of speech signals according to the present invention. Modification begins at block 3102 and proceeds to block 3104. At block 3104, segmented digital speech input is provided to a processor. The segmented speech is assumed to be broadband and composed of a set of narrow-band signals obtained by passing the speech segment through a filter-bank of band-pass filters The speech signals may be written as follows where 32 S TITUTE SHEET RULE 25) /„(') = - r)cos[ω„(t - r)]rfr This is the convolution integral of the signal/?// and hit), a prototypical low-pass filter modulated b} cos[ω n (t)] where ω„ is the center frequency of the filters in the filter-bank, an operation common!} referred to as heterodyning. Flow then proceeds to block 3106 At block 3 106. the above integral is windowed, and a short-term Fourier transform of the input signal is evaluated at the radian frequency ω„ using an FFT algorithm The complex value of this transform is denoted' f n {t) =| F(ω„ ,t) I cos[ω n t + φ n (ω n ,t)] where φ„(ω,„t) is the phase modulation of the carrier cos[ω„(t)] Flow then proceeds to block 3108. At block 3108 the amplitude and phase of the STFT is computed. It is known that the phase function is not a well behaved function, however its derivative, the instanteneous frequency, is bounded and is band limited. Therefore, a practical approximation for f„(t) is where φ* is the instantaneous frequency. Flow then proceeds to block 31 10. At block 3 1 10 φ* can be computed from the unwrapped-phase of the short-term Fourier transform. A time-scaled signal can then be synthesized as follows by inteφolating the short-term Fourier transform magnitude and the unwrapped phase to the new-time scale as shown below. where β is the scaling factor which is greater than one for time-scale expansion An efficient method to compute the above equation makes use of cyclic rotation and the FFT algorithm along with an overlap-add procedure to compute the short-time discrete Fourier transform Appropriate choice of the analysis filters h(t) and inteφolating filters (for inteφolation of the short-term Fourier transform to the new time-scale) are important to the algorithm. In one embodiment, linear inteφolation based on the magnitude and phase of the short-time Fourier transform was used. The analysis filter hit) was chosen to be a Kaiser window multiplied by an ideal impulse response as shown: where SUBSTITUTE SHEET RULE 25) αy(l - [(w - N 2)1 N 2] : kaiser (n, a) = O < « < N /- («) where I 0 (α) is the zeroth-order modified Bessel function of the first kind and N is the length of the analysis window over which the FFT is computed Flow then proceeds to block 31 12 At block 31 12. a short-term inverse FFT is computed to produce digital speech output This output is then provided at block 31 14 Filter -bank emphasis algorithm Now referring to Figure 32. a flow chart 3200 is shown that illustrates implementation of an emphasis algorithm according to the present invention The algorithm begins at block 3202 and proceeds to block 3204 At block 3204, it is assumed that the speech signal can be synthesized through a bank of band-pass filters, as described above This time, however, no heterodyning of a prototypical low-pass filter is used Instead, a set of up to 20 second-order Butterworth filters with center frequencies logarithmically spaced between 100 and the nyquist frequency are used The output of each band-pass filter resulted in a narrow-band channel signal /„(?) Flow then proceeds to block 3206 At block 3206, we computed the analytical signal as follows a n (n) = f n {n) + ιH{f n {n)) where H(n) is the Hilbert transform of a signal defined as ( 1 λ H(n) = f„(n) ' \πt j The Hilbert transform was computed using the FFT algorithm It is known that the absolute value of the analytical signal is the envelope of a narrow-band signal Thus, an envelope ejn) is obtained by the following operation e n (n) = \a n (n)\ The envelope withm each narrow-band channel is then band-pass filtered using a second order Butterworth filter with the cutt-offs set usually between 3-30Hz (the time scale at which phonetic events occur in rate changed speech) The band pass filtered envelope is then rectified to form the new envelope as follows where S(xj=x for x>=0, otherwise S(x)=0 34 SUBSTITUTE SHEET RULE 25) and g(n> is the impulse-response of the band-pass second order Butterworth filter Flow then proceeds to block 3208 At block 3208. the signal is modified within each band-pass channel to carry this new envelope, as shown below Flow then proceeds to block 3210 At block 3210 the modified signal is obtained by summing the narrow-band filters with a differential gam for each channel as follows where w„ is the gain for each channel The envelope is modified only within a specified frequency range from 1-lOKHz which normally spans about 16 channels Flow then proceeds to block 3212. At block 3212 segmented digital speech output is provided Overlap-add emphasis algorithm Referring to Figure 33, a flow chart 3300 for an alternative emphasis algorithm is provided This algorithm improves upon the filter-bank summation described above by making use of the property of equivalence between the short-time Fourier transform and the filter-bank summation algorithm In this embodiment, the short-time Fourier transform is computed using an overlap-add procedure and the FFT algorithm Flow begins at block 3302 and proceeds to block 3304 At block 3304, the short-time Fourier transform is computed over a sliding window given by the following equation X k (r) = h{r - n)x{n)A' lmk l h —— oo where h(n) is a Hamming window and the overlap between sections was chosen to be less than a quarter the length of the analysis window The envelope can then be obtained within narrow-band channels from the absolute value of the short-time Fourier transform The number of narrow-band channels is equal to half the size of the length over which the FFT is computed The energy of the envelope within critical band channels is then averaged, as shown where C„ is the corner-frequency of the critical-band channel n At present, critical-band frequencies for children with LLI are unknown, therefore the present invention approximates the bands using parameters proposed by Zwicker See E Zwicker and E Terhardt Analytical expressions for critical-band rate and 35 LE 25 critical bandwidth as a Junction ot frequence J -icoust Soc 4 e v ol 68, pp 1523-25 1980 \s critical band frequencies tor children w ith LLI become available thev can be incorporated into the present invention The envelope w ithin each critical-band channel is then band-pass-filtered with cut offs set usuallv between 3-30Hz with tv pe I linear phase FIR equiπpple filters The band-pass filtered envelope is then threshold rectified In contrast to the filter-bank emphasis algorithm the modified envelope is added to the original envelope to amplify the fast elements while not distorting the slower modulations This is given b} the following equation where, T(x)=x+ l for x>=0 otherwise ϋ Flow then proceeds to block 3308 At block 3308 a modified signal is obtained bv summing the short-time Fourier transform using a weighted overlap-add procedure as shown below where g(n) is the synthesis filter which as also chosen to be a Hamming window Flow then proceeds to block 3310 At block 3310 windowing and over-lap addition for the algorithm is performed Flow then proceeds to block 3312 where segmented digital speech output is provided Although the present invention and its objects, features, and advantages have been described in detail other embodiments are encompassed by the invention For example, a number of different games have been shown each dealing with a stimulus set that is processed in the time domain, and presented to a subject in a manner that the subiect can understand The processing is designed to emphasize or stretch those components of speech that are the most difficult for an LLI subject to differentiate, so that they may be more easily understood In addition, the processing allows distinct frequency sweeps, phonemes or words to be separated in time, first by a significant amount, say 500ms, with the amount of separation being gradually reduced to that of normal speech Once a subject ga s success at distinguishing between similar speech elements, at a high level of processing the amount of processing is gradually reduced until it reaches the level of normal speech The particular games used to tram subjects have distinct advantages, but are not exclusive Other games are anticipated that will incoφorate the novel aspects of the present invention, to further train a subject s temporal processing ability to recognize and distinguish between short duration acoustic events that are common in speech Furthermore, the Fast ForWord program has been shown for execution on a personal computer connected to a central server However as technology advances, it is envisioned that the program could be executed either 36 SUBSTITUTE SHEET RULE 25) by a diskless computer attached to a server, b} a handheld processing dev ice, such as a laptop, or ev entual!} bv a palmtop device such as a Nintendo GameBo} As long as the graphical images and auditor} prompts can be presented in a timely fashion, and with high quality the nature of the device used to present the material is irrelevant Those skilled in the art should appreciate that they can readily use the disclosed conception and specific embodiments as a basis for designing or modifying other structures for carrying out the same puφoses of the present invention without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined b} the appended claims 37 APPENDIX A Level 2 1 Attribute Stative Stimulus The ball is big The ball is small Stimulus The cup is broken The wind up to} car is broken The cup is broken The cup is not broken Stimulus The baby is crying The babv is not crying The bov is crying The baby is crying Stimulus The box is open The box is open The box is closed Stimulus The girl is dirty The girl is dirty The shoe is dirty The shoe is not dirty 2 Simple Negation Stimulus The boy is not eating The boy is not eating The boy is eating Stimulus The boy is not riding The bov is not riding The boy is riding Stimulus The baby is not crying The baby is crying The baby is not crying Stimulus The boy does not have a balloon The bov has a balloon The boy does not have a balloon Stimulus The girl does not have shoes The girl does not have shoes The girl has shoes 3 Obiect Pronouns Him&Her Stimulus Point to her 38 RULE 25 A girl doll A boy doll Stimulus Point to him A girl doll A bo} doll Stimulus Point to her A girl doll A boy doll Stimulus' Point to him A girl doll A boy doll Stimulus Point to her A girl doll A boy doll 4 Possession Stimulus The clown has a balloon The clown has a balloon The clown has a flower The boy has a balloon Stimulus' The dog has spots. The dog does not have spots. The boy has spots The dog has spots Stimulus: The tree has apples. The girl has apples The tree has apples The tree does not have apples. Stimulus The bunny has a carrot. The bunny does not have a carrot. The cat has a carrot The bunny has a carrot Stimulus The girl has shoes. The girl has shoes The girl does not have shoes. The clown has shoes 5 Lexicon Descriptions Stimulus: Point to dark Dirty example Down example Dark example Big example Stimulus Point to big Blue example 39 RULE 25 Big example Open example Small example Stimulus Point to dirty Dirtv example Dark example Hot example Down example Stimulus Point to yellow Yellow example Small example Broken example Blue example Stimulus Point to off On example Open example Off example Wet example 6 Lexicon Action Words Stimulus Point to wash Sweep example Fall example Wash example Run example Stimulus Point to run Sing example Jump example Write example Run example Stimulus Point to kick Throw example Kick example Push example Cry example Stimulus Point to drink Eat example Run example Drink example Tear example Stimulus Point to pull Pull example Push example Throw example Play example Level 3 40 7 Noun Singular Plural ( Bv Inflection Onlv)l Stimulus Point to the picture of the cups Point to the picture of the cup Point to the picture of the cups Stimulus Point to the picture ot the boat Point to the picture ot the boat Point to the picture of the boats Stimulus Point to the picture of the balloons Point to the picture of the balloons Point to the picture of the balloon Stimulus Point to the picture of the houses Point to the picture of the house Point to the picture of the houses Stimulus Point to the picture of the cat Point to the picture of the cat Point to the picture of the cats 8 Qualifiers None Stimulus Which clown has none' 1 The clown has many The clown has some The clown has one The clown has none Stimulus Which tree has none 0 The tree has none The tree has one The tree has some The tree has many Stimulus Which dog has none 0 The dog has some The dog has many The dog has none The dog has one Stimulus Which duck has none 0 The duck has many The duck has none The duck has one The duck has some Stimulus Which wagon has none 0 The wagon has some The wagon has none The wagon has man} The wagon has one 9 Subiect Relativization E 25 Stimulus The bo} who is mad is pulling the girl The bo} ho is happy is pulling the girl The bov who is mad is pulling the girl The girl w ho is mad is pulling the boy The girl w ho is happy is pulling the bo} Stimulus The girl who is mad is pushing the bo} The girl who is happy is pushing the bov The boy who is mad is pushing the girl The girl who is mad is pushing the boy The bo} who is happy is pushing the girl Stimulus The clown who is big is chasing the girl The clown who is big is chasing the girl The girl who is little is chasing the clown The girl who is big is chasing the clown The clown who is little is chasing the girl Stimulus The girl who is happy is pulling the boy The boy who is happy is pulling the girl. The girl who is mad is pulling the boy The boy who is mad is pulling the girl The girl who is happy is pulling the boy Stimulus The clown who is little is chasing the girl The girl who is little is chasing the clown The clown who is big is chasing the girl The girl who is big is chasing the clown The clown who is little is chasing the girl 10 Active Voice Word Order Stimulus The boy is pulling the girl The boy is pulling the ball The girl is pulling the boy The boy and the girl are pulling the wagon The boy is pulling the girl Stimulus The boy is pushing the girl The girl is pushing the boy The boy is pushing the girl The boy is pushing the clown They are pushing the ball. Stimulus The girl is pulling the boy The girl is pulling the boy They are pulling the wagon The dog is pulling the boy The boy is pulling the girl Stimulus The boy is kicking the girl They are kicking the balls The girl is kicking the boy The clown is kicking the girl The bov is kicking the girl Stimulus The girl is washing the bov Thev are washing the tub The girl is washing the dog The girl is washing the bo} The bov is washing the girl 1 1 Comparative w ith More Stimulus Which one is more happ}° Which one is less happy 9 Which one is more happy 9 Stimulus Which one is more hairy 9 Which one is more hairy 0 Which one is less hairy 9 Stimulus Which one is more skinny 0 Which one is less skinny 9 Which one is more skinny 9 Stimulus Which one is more dirty 9 Which one is more dirty 9 Which one is less dirty 9 Stimulus Which one is more messy 0 Which one is more messy 9 Which one is less messy 9 12 Reduced Subiect Relative Clauses Stimulus The boy frowning is pulling the girl The girl frowning is pulling the boy The boy smiling is pulling the girl The girl smiling is pulling the boy The boy frowning is pulling the girl Stimulus The boy smiling is pushing the girl The girl frowning is pushing the boy The bov smiling is pushing the girl The girl smiling is pushing the bo} The boy frowning is pushing the girl Stimulus The boy frowning is pushing the girl The boy frowning is pushing the girl The girl smiling is pushing the boy The boy smiling is pushing the girl The girl frowning is pushing the boy Stimulus The girl smiling is pushing the boy The boy smiling is pushing the girl The girl frowning is pushing the boy The girl smiling is pushing the bo} The boy frowning is pushing the girl Stimulus The girl frowning is pulling the boy The girl frowning is pulling the bo} 43 The boy frowning is pulling the girl. The girl smiling is pulling the bov . The boy smiling is pulling the girl. 13. Complex Negation Stimulus: The clown that is not on the box is little. The clown that is not on the box is little. The clown that is on the box is little. The clown that is not on the box is big. The clown that is on the box is big. Stimulus: The girl that is chasing the clown is not big The clown that is chasing the girl is big. The girl that is chasing the clown is not big. The clown that is chasing the girl is not big. The girl that is chasing the clown is big. Stimulus: The boy that is not sitting is looking at the girl. The girl that is not sitting is not looking at the boy. The girl that is not sitting is looking at the boy The boy that is not sitting is looking at the girl. The boy that is not sitting is not looking at the girl. Stimulus: The clown that is big is not on the box. The clown that is little is not on the box. The clown that is big is on the box. The clown that is little is on the box. The clown that is big is not on the box. Stimulus: The book that is not on the table is blue. The book that is on the table is blue. The book that is on the table is red. The book that is not on the table is blue. The book that is not on the table is red. 14. Noun Singular/Plural (Bv Inflection Only) Stimulus: Point to the picture of the watches. Point to the picture of the watch. Point to the picture of the watches. Stimulus: Point to the picture of the tubs. Point to the picture of the tub. Point to the picture of the tubs. Stimulus: Point to the picture of the hat. Point to the picture of the hats. Point to the picture of the hat. Stimulus: Point to the picture of the bunny. Point to the picture of the bunnies. Point to the picture of the bunny. Stimulus: Point to the picture of the socks. Point to the picture of the sock. Point to the picture of the socks 15 Comparative with/ -er/ Stimulus Which one is happier 9 Which one is happier 0 Which one is happy 9 Stimulus Which one is hairier 9 Which one is hairier 9 Which one is more bald 9 Stimulus Which one is skinnier 9 Which one is heavier 9 Which one is skinnier 9 Stimulus Which one is dirtier 9 Which one is dirtier 9 Which one is cleaner 9 Stimulus Which one is messier 0 Which one is messier 9 Which one is cleaner 9 Level 4 16 Passive Voice Word Order Stimulus The boy is being pushed by the girl The boy is being pushed by the clown The clown is being pushed by the girl The girl is being pushed by the boy The boy is being pushed by the girl Stimulus The dog is being pulled by the clown The dog is being pulled by the boy The clown is being pulled by the dog The dog is being pulled by the clown The girl is being pulled by the clown Stimulus The girl is being kicked by the bo} The girl is being kicked by the boy The clown is being kicked by the boy The girl is being kicked by the clown The boy is being kicked by the girl Stimulus The boy is being chased by the girl The dog is being chased by the girl The girl is being chased by the boy The bov is being chased bv the girl The boy is being chased by the dog Stimulus The boy is being kicked bv the girl The girl is being kicked by the bo} The bov is being kicked by the girl The clown is being kicked by the girl 45 The bov is being kicked bv the clown 17 Wh-Obiect Questioning Stimulus What is the cat chasing 9 (the mouse) What is the dog chasing 9 (the cat) What is the cat chasing 9 (the mouse) What is the mouse chasing 9 (the cat) Stimulus Who is the clown chasing 9 (the bov ) Who is the girl chasing 0 Who is the clown chasing 0 Who is the bov chasing 9 Stimulus Who is the girl pushing 9 (the boy) Who is the mother pushing 9 Who is the girl pushing 9 Who is the boy pushing 9 Stimulus Who is the boy pulling 9 (the girl) Who is the girl pulling 9 Who is the boy pulling 9 Who is the clown pulling 9 Stimulus Who is the girl pulling 9 (the clown) Who is the clown pulling 9 Who is the girl pulling 9 Who is the boy pulling 9 18 Quantifiers Some Stimulus Look at these wagons with deer Which wagon has some 9 Which wagon has one 9 Which wagon has some 9 Which wagon has many 9 Which wagon has none 9 Stimulus Look at these clown with balloons Which clown has some 9 Which clown has one 9 Which clown has none 9 Which clown has some 9 Which clown has many 9 Stimulus Look at these ducks with babies 9 Which duck has some 9 Which duck has none 0 Which duck has rnanv 0 Wjnch duck has some 0 Which duck has one 0 Stimulus Look at these trees with apples Which tree has some 0 Which tree has one 0 Which tree has none 0 Which tree has many 0 Which tree has some 0 Stimulus Look at these dogs with spots Which dog has some 0 Which dog has some Which dog has none 9 Which dog has one 9 Which dog has many 9 19 Verb Singular Stimulus The fish swims The fish swims Stimulus The sheep stands The sheep stand The sheep stands Stimulus The deer drinks The deer drinks The deer drink Stimulus The fish eats The fish eat The fish eats Stimulus The sheep jumps The sheep jumps The sheep jump 20 Tense and Aspect ing Stimulus The girl is opening the present The girl opened the present The girl is opening the present The girl will open the present Stimulus The boy is washing his face The boy is washing his face The boy will wash his face The boy washed his face Stimulus The boy is pouring the juice The boy will pour the juice The boy poured the juice The boy is pouring the juice Stimulus The girl is blowing up the balloon The girl is blowing up the balloon The girl will blow up the balloon The girl blew up the balloon Stimulus The bov is eating his dinner The boy will eat his dinner 47 STITUTE RULE 25) The bov ate his dinner The bov is eating his dinner 21 Noun Plurals/Singulars marked bv Quantifier Stimulus Point to the picture of some socks Point to the picture of a sock Point to the picture of some socks Stimulus Point to the picture of a bag Point to the picture of a bag Point to the picture of some bags Stimulus Point to the picture of some dresses Point to the picture of some dresses Point to the picture of a dress Stimulus Point to the picture of a bunny Point to the picture of a bunnv Point to the picture of some bunnies Stimulus Point to the picture of some dogs P Pooiinntt ttoo tthhee ppiiccttuurree ooft aa d doogg P ProMinntt t tno f th.e T p-iircftnurrAe n off c sroimmpe, r dlnogtics 40 Noun Plurals/Singulars marked by Quantifier Inflection Note U above is for programatic puφoses only Level is correct Stimulus Point to the picture of some balloons Point to the picture of a balloon Point to the picture of some balloons Stimulus Point to the picture of a tree Point to the picture of some trees Point to the picture of a tree Stimulus Point to the picture of some cats Point to the picture of some cats Point to the picture of a cat Stimulus Point to the picture of some boxes Point to the picture of some boxes Point to the picture of a box Stimulus Point to the picture of a cake Point to the picture of a cake Point to the picture of some cakes 22 Aux-Be Singular Stimulus The fish is swimming The fish is swimming The fish are swimming Stimulus The sheep is standing The sheep are standing 48 SUBSTITUTE EET RULE 25) The sheep is standing Stimulus The deer is drinking The deer is drinking The deer are drinking Stimulus The fish is eating The fish are eating The fish is eating Stimulus The sheep is jumping The sheep is lumping The sheep are jumping Level 5 23 Case Marking Prepositions For Stimulus Show me the groceries being carried for mom Show me the groceries being carried for mom Show me the groceries being carried with mom Show me the groceries being carried by mom Stimulus Show me the breakfast made for mom Show me the breakfast made by mom Show me the breakfast made for mom Show me the breakfast made with mom Stimulus Show me the drawing made for the boy Show me the drawing of the boy Show me the drawing made by the boy Show me the drawing made for the boy Stimulus Show me the suitcase being carried for the man Show me the suitcase being carried with the man Show me the suitcase being carried for the man Show me the suitcase being carried by the man Stimulus Show me the painting made for the girl Show me the painting made for the girl Show me the painting made by the girl Show me the painting made of the girl 24 Tense and Aspect -ed Stimulus The girl painted a picture The girl painted a picture The girl will paint a picture The girl is painting a picture Stimulus The man sewed a shirt The man w ill sew a shirt The man is sewing a shirt The man sewed a shirt 49 TUTE RULE 25) Stimulus Someone tied the shoe Someone is tying the shoe Someone tied the shoe Someone will tie the shoe Stimulus The boy tripped over the rock The boy tripped over the rock The boy is tripping over the rock The boy will trip over the rock Stimulus The mother dressed the bab} The mother is dressing the baby The mother will dress the baby The mother dressed the baby 25 Aux-Be Plural Stimulus The deer are eating The deer is eating The deer are eating Stimulus The sheep are jumping The sheep are jumping The sheep is jumping Stimulus The fish are swimming The fish is swimming The fish are swimming Stimulus The deer are standing The deer is standing The deer are standing Stimulus The sheep are eating The sheep are eating The sheep is eating 26 Third Person Subiect Pronouns Stimulus Point to they are sitting Point to she is sitting Point to they are sitting Point to he is sitting Stimulus Point to she is jumping Point to they are jumping Point to he is jumping Point to she is jumping Stimulus Point to he is standing Point to he is standing Point to they are standing Point to she is standing Stimulus Point to she is kicking Point to they are kicking 50 TITUTE RULE 25) Point to she is kicking Point to he is kicking Stimulus Point to thev are eating Point to he is eating Point to she is eating Point to thev are eating Level 6 27 Tense and Aspect will Stimulus The girl w ill open the present The girl opened the present The girl is opening the present The girl will open the present Stimulus The boy will eat his dinner The boy ate his dinner The boy will eat his dinner The boy is eating his dinner Stimulus The bov will trip over the rock The bov will trip over the rock The boy is tripping over the rock The boy tripped over the rock Stimulus The man will sew his shirt The man is sewing his shirt The man sewed his shirt The man will sew his shirt Stimulus The girl will paint a picture The girl is painting a picture The girl will paint a picture The girl painted a picture 28 Possessive Moφheme I'sl Stimulus Show me the baby bear Show me the baby's bear Show me the baby bear Stimulus Show me the chicken's dinner Show me the chicken's dinner Show me the chicken dinner Stimulus Show me the mama cat Show me the mama cat Show me the mama s cat Stimulus Show me the babv's duck Show me the babv duck Show me the babv s duck Stimulus Show me the babv's bunm 51 ULE 25 Show me the baby bun Show me the bab}'s bunny 29 Case Marking Prepositions With Stimulus Show me the breakfast made w ith mom Show me the breakfast made for mom Show me the breakfast made bv mom Show me the breakfast made w ith mom Stimulus Show me the suitcase being carried w ith the man Show me the suitcase being carried by the man Show me the suitcase being carried with the man Show me the suitcase being carried for the man Stimulus Show me the baby walking with the girl Show me the baby walking with the girl Show me the baby walking to the girl Show me the baby walking from the girl Stimulus Show me the boy running with the girl Show me the boy running w ith the girl Show me the boy running from the girl Show me the boy running to the girl Stimulus Show me the groceries being carried with mom Show me the groceries being carried for mom Show me the groceries being carried with mom Show me the groceries being carried by mom 30 Double Embedding Stimulus The clown that is chasing the girl that is little is big The clown that is chasing the girl that is big is little The clown that is chasing the girl that is little is little The clown that is chasing the girl that is big is big The clown that is chasing the girl that is little is big Stimulus The clown that is holding the balloon that is red is blue The clown that is holding the balloon that is blue is blue The clown that is holding the balloon that is red is blue The clown that is holding the balloon that is red is red The clown that is holding the balloon that is blue is red Stimulus The girl that is chasing the clown that is big is little The girl that is chasing the clown that is big is big The girl that is chasing the clown that is little is big The girl that is chasing the clown that is big is little The girl that is chasing the clown that is little is little Stimulus The clown that is holding the balloon that blue is red The clown that is holding the balloon that is blue is red The down that is holding the balloon that is red is red The clown that is holding the balloon that is red is blue The clown that is holding the balloon that is blue is blue Stimulus The girl that is chasing the clown that is little is big The girl that is chasing the clow n that is big is big The girl that is chasing the clown that is little is little The girl that is chasing the clown that is little is big The girl that is chasing the clown that is big is little 31 Relativized Subiect Ending in N-V-N Stimulus The girl who is pushing the boy is happy The boy who is pushing the girl is mad The girl who is pushing the boy is mad The girl who is pushing the boy is happy The boy ho is pushing the girl is happy Stimulus The clown who is chasing the girl is little The clown who is chasing the girl is little The girl who is chasing the clown is little The girl who is chasing the clown is big The clown who is chasing the clown is big Stimulus The boy who is pulling the girl is mad The girl who is pulling the boy is happy The boy who is pulling the girl is mad The boy who is pulling the girl is happy The girl who is pulling the boy is mad Stimulus The girl who is chasing the clown is little The clown who is chasing the girl is big The girl who is chasing the clown is big The girl who is chasing the clown is little The clown who is chasing the girl is little Level 7 32 Obiect Relativization Stimulus The girl is chasing the clown who is big The clown is chasing the girl who is little The girl is chasing the clown who is big The clown is chasing the girl who is big The girl is chasing the clown who is little Stimulus The boy is pushing the girl who is happy The boy is pushing the girl who is happy The girl is pushing the boy who is happy The girl is pushing the boy who is mad The boy is pushing the girl who is mad Stimulus The girl is pulling the boy who is mad The boy is pulling the girl who is mad The boy is pulling the girl who is happy The girl is pulling the boy who is happy The girl is pulling the boy who is mad Stimulus The bov is pushing the girl who is mad The boy is pushing the girl who is mad RULE 25 The girl is pushing the bov who is mad The girl is pushing the boy who is happy The boy is pushing the girl who is happy Stimulus The girl is chasing the clown who is little The clown is chasing the girl who is little The girl is chasing the clown who is big The girl is chasing the clown who is little The clown is chasing the girl who is big 33 Reduced Subiect Relative Clauses ending in -V-N Stimulus The girl pushing the boy is smiling The girl pushing the boy is smiling The boy pushing the girl is smiling The girl pushing the boy is frowning The boy pushing the girl is frowning Stimulus The clown chasing the girl is little The clown chasing the girl is big The girl chasing the clown is big The clown chasing the girl is little The girl chasing the clown is little Stimulus The girl pulling the boy is frowning The girl pulling the boy is smiling The boy pulling the girl boy is frowning The boy pulling the girl is smiling The girl pulling the boy is frowning Stimulus The girl chasing the clown is little The clown chasing the girl is little The girl chasing the clown is little The clown chasing the girl is big The girl chasing the clown is big Stimulus The boy pulling the girl is frowning The girl pulling the boy is smiling The boy pulling the girl is frowning The girl pulling the boy is frowning The boy pulling the girl is smiling 34 Who vs What Stimulus What is in the wagon 9 (ball) Is nothing in the wagon 9 Who is in the wagon 9 What is in the wagon 9 (ball) Stimulus Who is in the tub 9 (man) What is in the tub 9 Who is in the tub 9 (man) Is nothing in the tub 9 Stimulus What is under the table (cup) Who is under the table 9 54 SUBSTITUTE SHEET RULE 25) What is under the table 9 Is nothing under the table 9 Stimulus What is on the chair 9 (ball) What is on the chair 9 (ball) Is nothing on the chair 9 Who is on the chair 9 Stimulus Who is on the box (clown) Who is on the box 9 What is on the box 9 Is nothing on the box 9 Level 8 35 Verb Plural Stimulus The deer eat The dear eats The deer eat Stimulus The sheep jump The sheep jump The sheep jumps Stimulus The fish swim The fish swims The fish swim Stimulus The deer stand The deer stands The deer stand Stimulus The sheep eat The sheep eat The sheep eats 36 Relative Pronouns with Double Function Stimulus The girl who the boy girl who the boy is pushing is happ} The girl who the boy is pushing is mad The boy who the girl is pushing is mad The girl who the boy is pushing is happy The boy who the girl is pushing is happy Stimulus The boy who the girl is pulling is mad The boy who the girl is pulling is mad The boy who the girl is pulling is happy The girl who the boy is pulling is happy The girl who the boy is pulling is mad Stimulus The girl who the clown is chasing is chasing the boy The clown who the boy is chasing, is chasing the girl The girl who the clown is chasing, is chasing the boy The clown who the girl is chasing is chasing the boy 55 E 25 Stimulus The bov w ho the girl is pulling, is pulling the clown The girl who the bov is pulling, is pulling the clown The clown who the bov is pulling, is pulling the girl The clown who the girl is pulling, is pulling the boy The boy who the girl is pulling, is pulling the clown Stimulus The boy who the girl is pushing, is happy The boy who the girl is pushing is happy The girl who the boy is pushing is sad The boy who the girl is pushing is mad The girl who the boy is pushing is happy 37 Obiect Relatives with Relativized Obiects Stimulus The girl is hugging the boy that the clown is kissing The girl is hugging the boy that is kissing The boy is hugging the girl that the clown The girl is hugging the boy that the clown The girl is hugging the clown that the boy Stimulus The clown is hugging the girl that the boy is kissing The clown is hugging the boy that the girl is kissing The clown is hugging the girl that the boy is kissing The clown is hugging the girl that is kissing the boy The girl is hugging the clown that the boy is kissing Stimulus The girl is kissing the clown that the boy is hugging The girl is kissing the boy that the clown is hugging The clown is kissing the girl that the boy is hugging The girl is kissing the clown that the boy is hugging The girl is kissing the clown that is hugging the boy Stimulus The boy is hugging the girl that the clown is kissing The girl is hugging the boy that the clown is kissing The boy is hugging the girl that is kissing the clown The boy is hugging the clown that the girl is kissing The boy is hugging the girl that the clown is kissing Stimulus The boy is kissing the girl that the clown is hugging The boy is kissing the girl that is hugging the clown The girl is kissing the boy that the clown is hugging The boy is kissing the girl that the clown is hugging The boy is kissing the clown that the girl is hugging 38 Clefting Stimulus It's the clown that the girl chases It's the girl that the clown chases It's the boy that the clown chases It's the boy that the girl chases It's the clown that the girl chases Stimulus It's the bov that the girl kicks It's the clown that the boy kicks It's the clown that the girl kicks It's the boy that the girl kicks 56 LE 25 It's the girl that the boy kicks Stimulus It's the girl that the bov pulls It's the clown that the boy pulis It's the girl that the boy pulls It's the bov that the girl pulls It's the clown that the girl pulls Stimulus It's the boy that the clown pushes It's the boy that the clown pushes It's the girl that the clown pushes It's the girl that the boy pushes It's the clown that the boy pushes Stimulus It's the boy that the clown chases It's the girl that the boy chases It's the clown that the boy chases It's the boy that the clown chases It's the girl that the clown chases 39 Negative-Passive Stimulus The cat is not being outrun by the dog The cat is not being outrun by the dog The dog is not being outrun by the cat The boy is not being outrun by the cat Stimulus The drawing is not to be received by the girl The drawing is not to be received by the girl The drawing is not to be received by the woman The drawing is not to be received by the girl Stimulus The boy is not followed by the girl The girl is not followed by the boy The boy is not followed by the girl The clown is not followed by the boy Stimulus The picture is not to be received from the boy The picture is not to be received from the bo} The picture is not to be received from the man The picture is not to be received from the girl Stimulus The clown is not led by the girl The clown is not led by the boy The girl is not led by the clown The clown is not led by the girl 57 E 25

Claims: We claim 1 A method for training the sensory perceptual sv stem in a human, the method comprising a) repetitively providing a first acoustic event to the human, the first acoustic event being stretched in the time domain. b) sequentially after a) providing a second acoustic event to the human for recognition, the second acoustic event being stretched in the time domain. c) requiring the human to recognize the second acoustic event within a predetermined time window, and d) if the human recognizes the second acoustic event within the predetermined time window reducing the amount that the first and second acoustic events are stretched 2 The method of claim 1 wherein the sensory perceptual system that is being trained is the processing of temporal acoustic events common in speech 3 The method of claim 2 wherein the temporal acoustic events common in speech are phonemes 4 The method of claim 1 wherein the human has abnormal processing of temporal acoustic events 5 The method of claim 1 wherein the human is a language-learning impaired (LLI) child 6 The method of claim 1 wherein the first acoustic event is a distractor phoneme 7 The method of claim 6 wherein the distractor phoneme is provided to the human a random number of times 8 The method of claim 7 wherein the random number of times that the distractor phoneme is provided varies between 3 and 8 9 The method of claim 1 wherein a) further comprises al ) separating each provision of the first acoustic event by a predetermined inter-stimulus interval (ISI) 10 The method of claim 9 wherein the ISI is initially set to 500ms 1 1 The method of claim 9 wherein b) occurs after the same predetermined ISI 12 The method of claim 1 wherein the second acoustic event is a target phoneme 13 The method of claim 1 wherein both the first and second acoustic events are stretched in the time domain, without alteration of their frequency components 14 The method of claim 1 wherein both the first and second acoustic events are phonemes that are initially stretched 150 percent in the time domain 58 UBSTIT RULE 25) 15 The method of claim 1 wherein c) further comprises C l ) requiring the human to indicate recognition of the second acoustic event b} release of a computer button 16 The method of claim 1 wherein c) further comprises C l ) requiring the human to indicate recognition of the second acoustic ev ent b} depressing a computer button 17 The method of claim 1 wherein the predetermined time window is selected to accurately determine whether the human as distinguished between the repetitively provided first acoustic event and the second acoustic event 18 The method of claim 1 further comprising e) reducing the amount that the first and second acoustic events are stretched to 125 percent of normal speech 19 The method of claim 10 further comprising a2) progressively reducing the ISI between provisions of the first acoustic event and the second acoustic event as the human successfully recognizes the second acoustic event 20. A method for training an LLI subject to distinguish between frequency sweeps common in phonemes, tthhee method comprising a) presenting a first frequency sweep that increases in frequency, b) presenting a second frequency sweep that decreases in frequency, the first and second frequency sweeps separated by an inter-stimulus interval (ISI), c) wherein a) and b) occur in random order, d) requiring an individual to recognize the order of presentation of the first and second frequency sweeps, e) reducing or increasing the ISI separating the first and second frequency sweeps as the individual recognizes or fails to recognize the order of presentation, respectively, and 0 reducing the duration of the first and second frequencv sweeps as the individual repeatedly recognizes their order of presentation 21 The method of claim 20 wherein the frequency sweeps common in phonemes are sweeps of approximately sixteen octaves per second 22 The method of claim 21 wherein the frequencv sweeps common m phonemes are at approximately 500hz. l khz and 2khz 59 SUBSTITUTE SHEET (RULE 25) 23 The method of claim 20 wherein the first frequency sweep and the second frequency sweep, initiall} each have a duration of approximately 80ms 24 The method of claim 20 wherein the first frequency sweep (F). and the second frequencv sweep (S). are presented in the order F-F, F-S. S-F or S-S 25 The method of claim 20 wherein d) further comprises dl ) presenting a first graphic image associated with the first frequency sweep, d2) presenting a second graphic image associated with the second frequency sweep. d3) requiring the individual to select the first graphic image and the second graphic image, as appropriate, to correspond to the order of presentation of the first and second frequency sweeps 26 The method of claim 25 wherein the individual selects the first and second graphic images, as appropriate, by using a computer input device to designate selection 1 27 The method of claim 20 wherein the individual recognizes the order of presentation of the first and second frequency sweeps by selecting a graphical representation associated with each of the sweeps on a computer 1 28 The method of claim 20 wherein the ISI separating the first and second frequency sweeps is reduced when the individual properly recognizes their order of presentation in multiple trials 1 29 The method of claim 28 wherein the number of multiple trials that must be properly recognized before the ISI is reduced is 3 1 30 The method of claim 20 wherein the ISI separating the first and second frequency sweeps is increased when the individual fails to recognize their order of presentation after a single trial 1. 31 The method of claim 20 wherein the duration of the first and second frequencv sweeps is reduced after the individual repeatedly recognizes their order of presentation with an ISI that is common in speech 1 32 The method of claim 3 1 wherein the ISI that is common in speech is less than 130ms 1 33 The method of claim 31 wherein the ISI that is common in speech is between 1 10 and 125ms 1 34 A method for repetitively and adaptively training a subject, having subnormal temporal acoustic 2 processing capabilities, to distinguish between phonemes having similar acoustic characteristics, the 3 method comprising 4 a) providing a plurality of phoneme pairs, each pair having similar acoustic characteristics, 5 b) for each of the plurality of phoneme pairs, providing a pair of associated graphic images, 6 c) selecting from among the plurality of phoneme pairs, a phoneme pair to be presented to the 7 subject, 60 SUBSTITUTE SHEET RULE 25) d) processing the selected phoneme pair according to a predetermined skill level: e) presenting to the subject the processed selected phoneme pair; 0 as a trial, requiring the subject to recognize one of the processed phonemes from the selected phoneme pair by selecting its associated graphic image; and g) repeating c) through f)- 35. The method as recited in claim 34 wherein the phoneme pairs comprise: aba-ada: ba-da: be-de: bi-di: and va-fa. 36. The method as recited in claim 34 wherein each pair of phonemes contain a distractor phoneme and a target phoneme. 37. The method as recited in claim 34 wherein the associated graphic images are animals. 38. The method as recited in claim 37 wherein the animals appear to speak the phonemes. 39. The method as recited in claim 34 wherein d) comprises: dl ) determining the skill level for the processing; 2) stretching the consonant portions of each of the phonemes in the phoneme pair; d3) emphasizing selected frequency envelopes within each of the phonemes in the phoneme pair; <J4) separating the stretched and emphasized phonemes by an inter-stimulus interval (ISI); d5) wherein the amount of stretching, emphasizing and separating applied by d2) through d4) depends on the determined skill level. 40. The method as recited in claim 39 wherein d l ) stretches the consonant portions of each of the phonemes in the time domain, without significantly affecting frequency components of the phonemes. 41. The method as recited in claim 39 wherein d l ) stretches the consonant portions of each of the phonemes between 100 and 150 percent depending on the determined skill level. 42. The method as recited in claim 39 wherein the selected frequency envelopes within each of the phonemes are emphasized between 0 and 20dB depending on the determined skill level. 43. The method as recited in claim 39 wherein the stretched and emphasized phonemes are separated by an ISI of between 0 and 500ms depending on the determined skill level. 44. The method as recited in claim 39 wherein the determined skill level is related to whether the subject correctly recognized one of the processed phonemes from the selected phoneme pair in a previous trial. 45 The method as recited in claim 34 wherein e) comprises: el ) presenting one of the processed phoneme pairs as a target phoneme to the subject; 61 SUBSTITUTE SHEET RULE 25) e2) after e I ), presenting each of the processed phonemes within the phoneme pair, in random order, separated by an inter-stimulus interval (ISI). and e3) during presenting each of the processed phonemes, graphically associating the presenting of each of the processed phonemes with their associated graphic images The method as recited in claim 45 wherein the subject recognizes the target phoneme, after e2). b} selecting its associated graphic image The method as recited in claim 39 wherein the method contains a plurality of skill levels ranging from 150 percent stretching. 20dB emphasis and 500ms ISI to 100 percent stretching. OdB emphasis, and 0ms ISI The method as recited in claim 34 wherein the predetermined skill level is determined according to the ability of the subject to recognize one of the processed phonemes from the selected phoneme pair The method as recited in claim 48 wherein as the subject repeatedly recognizes one of the processed phonemes from the selected phoneme pair, the skill level advances in difficulty The method as recited in claim 48 wherein as the subject fails to recognize one of the processed phonemes from the selected phoneme pair, the skill level decreases in difficulty 62 RULE 25

Inventors: JENKINS WILLIAM M, MERZENICH MICHAEL M, MILLER STEVEN L, PETERSON BRET E, TALLAL PAULA, JENKINS, WILLIAM, M., MERZENICH, MICHAEL, M., MILLER, STEVEN, L., PETERSON, BRET, E., TALLAL, PAULA
Applicants: SCIENT LEARNING CORP, SCIENTIFIC LEARNING CORPORATION
Application year: 1998
Main classification: G09B19
IPC codes: G09B5, G09B19, G09B21