PLAYON is a computer tool desined to help children with reading acquisition difficulties. Its goal is to improve the use of the phonological loop through exercises in phonological perception (phonological differentiation, rhyme differentiation). Although it is not its main purpose, the software can also be used to help children with oral language difficulties as there are strong visual cues coupled to each sound to be differentiated, so correct response does not rely on correct visual decoding of letters or written syllables only.
The goal of the current work was to determine if PLAYON could be efficiently used to help children with strong oral language difficulties. Seventeen such children were selected in a centre for language remediation to participate in the study. This population was split in two, with eight children corresponding to the control group and the other nine children corresponding to the test group. Both groups were followed in the remediation centre so that all children underwent a systematic language remediation program. In addition to this program, the test group had special sessions using the PLAYON software once a week for four months. A full battery of language tests was administered to all children before and after the specific remediation program.
Results showed that all children improved between pre-testing and post-testing. A small difference was found between the control group and test group: non-word and regular word reading was identical at pre-test, but was better in the test group at post-test. However, other differences forbid to demonstrate that the remediation software was more efficient than the other remediation procedures. The main results were that the software did not impair the children's progress and proved to be easy to use and very user friendly for the children.