# You type, it talks. Know a program like that? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 2, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-type-it-talks-know-a-program-like-that/192575 "2003-08-02T17:52:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-type-it-talks-know-a-program-like-that/192575/1 "2003-08-02T17:52:55Z")
My GF is looking for a program that she can use with a 7yr old child she works with. Basically, something so that when they press a letter on the keyboard, they hear the letter they pressed. Maybe something a blind kid could use to learn the layout of the keyboard (by hearing the letter’s s/he presses aloud). It could be anything really. A game, a plug-in for MS word or whatever. Free is best, natch. Any ideas? You might just be better at doing a search for this kind of thing than me. ---
**Author:** ![Number](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/number/32/242_2.png) [@Number](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Number)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-type-it-talks-know-a-program-like-that/192575/2 "2003-08-02T18:01:51Z")
There’s a [Speak & Spell Emulator](http://sass.retrogames.com/) which will say letters as you press them on the keyboard. It won’t do numbers or symbols though. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-type-it-talks-know-a-program-like-that/192575/3 "2003-08-02T18:03:03Z")
You want it to say each letter as it’s pressed? I’m sure there are some programs like that for children. What type of searches have you done? ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-type-it-talks-know-a-program-like-that/192575/4 "2003-08-02T18:06:13Z")
Within a minute I had a link to this: [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000056WJY/ref=ase\_bridgebooks/102-7885214-2571362?v=glance&s=software](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B000056WJY/ref=ase_bridgebooks/102-7885214-2571362?v=glance&s=software) It looks like excellent software for teaching the alphabet on the computer. ---
**Author:** ![Mort\_Furd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Mort\_Furd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mort_Furd)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-type-it-talks-know-a-program-like-that/192575/5 "2003-08-02T19:47:13Z")
[Take a look here.](http://dmoz.org/Netscape/Computing_and_Internet/Shareware/PC/Education/Kids/) Lots of shareware games for kids. “Larry’s Learning Letters and Numbers” is probably what you want - if you can get the blasted thing. I couldn’t get the download page to open. ---
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-type-it-talks-know-a-program-like-that/192575/6 "2003-08-02T21:36:14Z")
- - - AnalogX SayIt. [http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/audio/sayit.htm](http://www.analogx.com/contents/download/audio/sayit.htm) (I remember I had a free type+speak program I used once, I think this is it) ~ ---
**Author:** ![aaslatten](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f14d63/32.png) [@aaslatten](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aaslatten)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-type-it-talks-know-a-program-like-that/192575/7 "2003-08-02T21:39:33Z")
Texas Instruments used to have a “speech synthesizer” that could be attached to its TI-99 home computer (yes, I had one). It had a vocabulary of about 150 words, I think. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [August 2, 2003, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/you-type-it-talks-know-a-program-like-that/192575/8 "2003-08-02T22:05:10Z")
Commodore 64 had a SAM (Software Automated Mouth – or something along those lines) that would do a half-decent job of speaking whatever was typed. Its vowels left a little to be desired, but I could get it to cuss like a sailor! Seems like I hunted for some freeware that would do similar things for a PC, but it’s been a long time and I don’t recall if I ever found one. Have you looked at Jumbo od CNet or one of the freeware sites?