About this project
Fear of public speaking often begins in childhood, with 16–33% of adults reporting anxiety about it, and 50% attributing this fear to experiences before age 13. Public speaking is a valuable life skill, and avoiding it can cause challenges in social, educational, and work environments.
While public speaking tasks are common in schools, formal training is not part of the standard curriculum, and providing frequent practice with an audience is difficult. To address this, we developed SpeakApp!-Kids, a free virtual reality app for smartphones released in 2023. The app immerses children in a virtual classroom with an audience of peers, allowing them to practice speaking in a safe environment.
Our current project aims to expand the app by introducing varied audiences from different schools to enhance the experience. We are also developing a public speaking curriculum for elementary schools and plan to investigate whether combining the app and formal training helps reduce fear of public speaking during the first four years of school.
Find out more about the Communication Media research programme.
