First, please know that the strange sounds are not only intentional, they are patented!
Has your child ever asked you to speak more slowly? This gives your child extra time to make sense of information, also known as processing time. For students who struggle with processing speed, and for those learning a new language, slowing down the rate of speech and emphasizing specific sounds can be very beneficial to develop accurate phonological representations, while increasing comprehension.
Fast ForWord’s acoustically modified speech technology (sometimes referred to as “glasses for the ears”) slows and emphasizes speech sounds so that students can hear all sounds in a word. This technology can even stretch out sounds that are physically impossible for human speakers to stretch on their own.
Some speech sounds, such as the /b/ sound in the word “bat,” have very fast transitional elements. When we say them aloud, these elements are easy to miss, but slowing them and emphasizing them (by presenting them at a higher volume) helps the brain to hear and respond to them more quickly.
The modified words and syllables in the Fast ForWord exercises may sound strange or mechanical to those who process sounds quickly. But for students who need a little extra time, the modified sounds and words will be easier to hear than natural speech. As students progress, the stretching and emphasis are reduced, pushing the brain to process at faster and faster rates until it can process natural speech.
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