Before purchasing Word Construction Set, we feel you should be made aware of the kind of speech sounds used by the software. There are two main types of speech used in Phonics Software: fully human natural speech and synthetic speech 1. Natural speech Plain human natural speech makes the student feel most comfortable. Speech sounds are recorded by the computer, incorporated in the program and played back to the user just like music software. Most Phonics software uses this type of speech. However, the problem with using natural speech is that the range of sounds, and the mixing of sounded parts of words in sentences requires enormous resources, both in preparation, and in storage. The result is that many Phonics software programs limit the number of words and parts of words used. Many allow exploration of only beginning consonant sounds. Some educational research institutions have developed very extensive computer programs, which give a full range of phonic sounds, but these are not generally available for the public, and they are very expensive. 2. Synthetic Speech Synthetic speech in computer software uses a core sampling of one human voice on which to base its sounds. The sound is then synthesized for all other sounds. It is a very flexible method, allowing a wide range of sounds to be employed in the software. However, synthetic speech sounds unnatural. Students can be put off by the obvious computerized, strained sounds of the narrator. In the past, we developed a natural speech based version of our software on another discontinued platform. Much work went into sampling over 10,000 sounds, male and female, young and old. It sounded very good. But, users complained that the accents used should have been in their children's own accent, the samples should be internationalized, and recorded for a wide sample of English speakers around the world. This was an impossible task for us. One cannot please everyone. So we have settled in using synthetic speech for our latest software. Thank you, Support Team, Lascelles Productions