by Sinead Evans

Editor’s Note: Native deaf cuer Sinead (Clements) Evans recently attended the British Education and Training Technology (BETT) show in London, England, in mid-January. Following is a brief recap of her experience, as well as information about the new Phoneme Machine software used by deaf children.



The British Education and Training Technology (BETT) show is one of the premier technology shows in the United Kingdom, where people from all walks of technology life attend to gather information about new and groundbreaking technologies. At this year’s show, THRASS (Teaching Handwriting Reading And Spelling Skills) showcased their Phoneme Machine 6.0, a synthetic phonics computer program that includes a Cued Speech option.

The Phoneme Machine software was created by Alan Davies and his colleagues in Cardiff, Wales, with the purpose of helping deaf children attain literacy. It “uses moving human lips to pronounce the sounds (phonemes) in hundreds of frequently used English words” (http://www.phonememachine.com/).  It also shows how each one is cued (in cued British English).

The launch of the Phoneme Machine was held to demonstrate the software and show how it could improve the literacy of deaf children by giving them a visual representation of how Cued Speech can be broken down into component parts. Alan’s wife, Hilary Davies, presented the software at the show, and mentioned that the Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education already has the software. The Academy primarily uses British Sign Language for communication, but is using the software as a way to teach literacy and Cued Speech to their students. Hilary Davies noted that when the students were using the software in the school, not only did the their understanding of Cued Speech improve, so did their English skills.

I was quite impressed with the caliber of the software and despite the din and hubbub surrounding the booth, the demonstration was well received and well presented. I learned that you can view a map of phonemes to create a word. Once a word has been selected or created, you can look at how each part of the word is said by viewing a short clip of a mouth showing the selected phonemes. You can then choose an option to see the word cued. There were a couple of instances that I really noticed the differences between the British and American systems of Cued Speech, especially with cueing different diphthongs and accents.

In addition to viewing the software demonstration, I also had the opportunity to meet Ann Worsfold and June Dixon-Miller, who represented the UK Cued Speech Association, students from the Exeter Royal Academy for Deaf Education, and the Honorable Malcolm Bruce, MP, who championed this software for deaf children as his daughter is deaf. There were a variety of interested people who stopped to see what the software was about.

For more information about the THRASS Phoneme Machine, please go to their web site at http://www.phonememachine.com/.  To learn more about THRASS, please visit http://www.thrass.co.uk/.

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