Soliloquy Reading Assistant Version 4
© 2007 Soliloquy Learning
Note: This title was (sadly) discontinued in 2009. Now it its fourth edition (the first edition was in 2000), Soliloquy Reading Assistant uses speech recognition (the demo kit we used came with a $40 Andrea Anti-Noise USB Headset) to evaluate a child's reading, in real time. So it's a bit like having an objective, patient reading teacher looking over a student's shoulder, listening to their reading. The software can correct miscues if necessary, and pronounce the hard words, in either English or Spanish. Essentially, your voice "drives" the progress of the story — one word, sentence or paragraph at a time. After you train the microphone to your voice, which takes about five minutes, you can choose from a variety of reading selections, depending on your interest. Once a reading selection is finished, a multiple-choice comprehension test is given, followed by a detailed report on a child's progress. It is then possible to play back the selection with the student's voice. Note that reading sets are sold separately for $60 each. For example, one of the primary levels included nonfiction, fiction, and poetry selections from Cricket Magazine Group. Improved features over version 3.0 include the ability to customize individual voice profiles, password protection, and better classroom management tools. The reading selections start at first grade, and go up to high school (grade 11) giving it a broad range of possible uses (e.g., for remedial college students).
$229, Mac, Windows
Teaches: reading fluency
CTR Rating: 97.5%