When children play the Lexercise games for the first time they often comment that the words and sounds are "too fast."  Children (and even adults!) sometimes say they can't hear or can't understand the way the words are spoken in the Lexercise games. Why would these games that are designed to improve language processing contain words that are hard to understand? 

In the MatchStar Games and the game Isolator all the words and sounds are human speech,  recorded by a professional in a sound lab, with careful measurement at a normal speaking rate. But the speech speed in the games seems fast because we aren’t used to listening to isolated words out of context. Speech in real life is very fast, too, measured in milliseconds, but we aren't aware of it because in real life we almost always have context to help us process what is being said. When someone says, "I worked up a sweat!" we don't struggle to decide if they said, “sweat” or "swept”, mainly because the context of the sentence makes it clear.  But accurately reading and spelling these words requires processing their internal sound structure.  While sweat ends with a single consonant, /t/,  swept ends with two consonants in rapid succession: /p/-/t/. Both words have 5 letters but sweat has 4 speech sounds (s-w-ea-t) while swept has 5 speech sounds (s-w-e-p-t).

Because of context cues in everyday speech we may not notice troubles with word processing on a daily basis. But we know from research that if troubles processing the internal sound structure of words go undetected they can disrupt the smooth development of reading and spelling.

The good news is, we know that processing accuracy and speed can be dramatically improved with daily practice. Lexercise provides a systematic and cumulative way to master each English speech sound and to connect it to its letter symbol. The explicit and orderly way that sound-letter pairs are introduced in Lexercise makes the structure of English words rational, while the intensive practice improves accuracy and speed of processing. (If you are interested in learning more about the language processing basis for skilled reading and writing see these LDOnline videos: What causes of reading & writing struggles and what can be done to help )

The words used in Lexercise are recorded in two formats:  regular speech and clear speech.  The first presentation of a word in the game Isolator, for example, is spoken in regular speech. If the child does not respond correctly, the second (and third) presentations are in clear speech. Clear speech is not slowed-up since slowing up the pronunciation of a word distorts the vowel; rather, in clear speech the low pressure consonants are released, so they are more audible.  Clear speech has been used successfully for years in deaf education and in teaching English as a second language.

The Lexercise games are designed to be a listening challenging in order to develop crucial language processing skills. After several days of practice children (and adults, too) usually begin to improve their processing skills and find that listening is easier.  

If your child continues to struggle with any Lexercise game you should consult your child's Lexercise clinician.  Clinicians have a great many adjustments they can make in the games to help the child reach a mastery level.

Don't forget to have your child wear those headphones