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Auris Tech – Fonetti: the world’s first listening bookshop, an app that actively listens to a child reading and reports back in real time [#BettFuturesTakeover]

Fonetti is a ground-breaking voice recognition engine that listens to children reading aloud and encourages them by highlighting the words they get right and pointing out any that are missed-out or incorrectly spoken. The app encourages and supports the child every step of the way. It has been developed in partnership with world-renowned voice recognition experts at the University of Edinburgh.

Fonetti has been fully tested by children both at home and in a wide variety of schools all over the UK and Ireland. It has been well received by parents and teachers alike.

Our unique engine technology delivers a market-leading rate of 91% accuracy which provides the foundation block for developing Fonetti, The Listening Bookshop™. The app provides access to an extensive collection of much-loved books familiar to children of all ages, including many well-known and loved titles from the Oxford Reading Tree.

Learning to read is a massive challenge for any child. Obviously, nothing can replace the role of a teacher, parent or guardian in the reading journey, but we believe that we can help. So we created an app that provides young readers with individual support and solves some of the challenges we know teachers and parents face every single day.

Teachers very often do not have the time to read one to one with every child as much as they would like. With increasing class sizes, it’s difficult to get individual one-on-one reading time with every student on a regular basis. Fonetti can help, by acting as a virtual classroom assistant to teachers managing a classroom of children with differing abilities, including those with dyslexia or with SEN, and from families speaking English as a second language. Fonetti offers an individual listening ear to children, bolstering the support teachers already give.

A book from The Listening Bookshop™ will listen as they read aloud, responding in real-time by visually showing a child when they get the words right and clearly highlighting where they get it wrong. We have seen that children react positively to this and feel connected, and are eager to keep reading. They can recognise their own progress independently, and are incentivised to read a book again and again. Children can tap on any word with which they are struggling to hear how it should sound. Badges and stars are given at the end of each book and both the child and teacher can see how well they are getting on. Children are not corrected; Fonetti focuses on positive reinforcement only.

Fonetti allows teachers to manage their time effectively, giving more support to those who need more help with their reading, while allowing stronger readers to carry on independently. In addition, on the separate web portal just for teachers, reporting on each student allows teachers to see progress in detail, both live and over time.

Auris Tech has made it its mission to use technology to help encourage children to read. We’re proud to be showcasing the Fonetti app at the Bett Show 2018. Come and see us at Stand G63 and find out for yourself how we can help you achieve more with technology in the classroom.

Find out more on Auris Tech’s website.