Frequently Asked Questions
How does SpeechMatch Work?
Matching patterns of sounds in conversation is an important component of socializing. SpeechMatch helps you improve conversational skills by providing immediate feedback of how well you are matching pitch, rhythm, and volume - all critical to decoding emotion in speech.
What is the best way to get started using SpeechMatch?
Jump right in! Pick a phrase and try to match what you see and hear. SpeechMatch is intuitive and fun, and you’ll immediately see how it works.
Can I create my own phrases?
Yes, anyone can make their own phrases; we process your phrase instantly so that clients you’re working with can try to match it right away.
Once I get started are there more structured ways to use SpeechMatch?
Yes! We’ve been using SpeechMatch with children, teens, and adults in clinical research studies for the past ten years. We’ve used several training protocols ranging from 5-10 minutes of practice for very young children to much longer sessions for teens and adults. For example, in one study we had teens practice daily for 100 minutes, using 20-minute sessions comprising of 5 different phrases for 4 minutes per phrase. We would take a break after 20 minutes of practice, then start again.
Can we use different training periods to fit our child?
Yes. What’s great about having SpeechMatch on your own phone or tablet is flexibility in when and where you use it. An important principle of learning has to do with creating structure in terms of the scheduling and setting of practice. We recommend that a person should “practice on a schedule” and in a place where there will be few distractions. For younger children, providing a reward for successful completion of a day’s or week’s practice is an idea worth considering.
We jumped in and randomly tried a few phrases, all is going well. What’s next?
Try working on a few phrases for a few minutes per phrase (e.g., a happy phrase, a neutral phrase, a sad phrase), provide a reward for a successful completion of a short trial of work, then increase the number of minutes and phrases every few days. Watch the changes in scores across time utilizing the “personal bests” or “raw scores” functions. You may even want to use the sharing scores functions and “send scores” to a speech therapist or other helping professional.
Is SpeechMatch guaranteed to help improve social skills?
SpeechMatch is certainly not a magic pill; there are other aspects of social skills that the SpeechMatch app doesn’t address such as non-verbal aspects of socializing. On the positive side, we’ve been studying SpeechMatch for a long time and we believe that practice can help you to improve conversational skills - both decoding emotion when others speak and expressing emotion when you speak.
I notice I can send my scores to another device. How do I do that?
Sending data to another device involves several steps in order to protect your privacy. You can read more about how we keep your data secure on our privacy page. The person who sends scores needs to coordinate with the person who is receiving the scores. The steps the program will walk you through to send your data to someone else’s device are clearly described on our privacy page.