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Back Page: Hound - Between the lines in the past week's media

1 min read
Children who use computerised speech aids tend to miss the usual developmental phase of delighting in truly awful jokes. So hats off to Scottish researchers who devised software to enable non-speaking children to crack rubbish jokes.

Press reports quoted some of the groan-worthy efforts produced by thetrial group. What do you get when you cross a car with a sandwich?Answer later, but don't raise your hopes.

The project team were clearly delighted to see young people suddenlyable to engage in the daft exploration of language that awful punsinvolve. "Wonderful," said one researcher. "Their joy and enthusiasm atentertaining others was inspirational," said another.

If you really want to know, the answer is "traffic jam". But, it's theway they tell them.

- "At the start of the new school term, give them a head start," ran theadvert for Kellogg's Cornflakes. "Research shows that when they eat acereal like ours, kids are on average 9 per cent more alert."

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