Yes you can, but it depends on the laptop and the software it is running. Some operating systems include speech recognition software, EG Windows 7.

To find this in Windows 7, press or click the Windows Start button, then type "speech" (without quotes) into the search box. Windows speech recognition software will appear in the list, click on it or press enter while highlighted to start it.

From the Microsoft website:
What can I do with Speech Recognition?

You can use your voice to control your computer. You can say commands that the computer will respond to, and you can dictate text to the computer.

Before you get started using Windows

Speech Recognition, you'll need to connect a microphone to your computer. Once you've got the microphone set up, you can train your computer to better understand you by creating a voice profile that your computer uses to recognize your voice and spoken commands. For information about setting up your microphone, see Set up your microphone for Speech Recognition.

After you've got your microphone and voice profile set up, you can use Speech Recognition to do the following:

Control your computer.
Speech Recognition listens and responds to your spoken commands. You can use Speech Recognition to run programs and interact with Windows
. For more information about the commands you can use with Speech Recognition, see Common commands in Speech Recognition.

Dictate and edit text.
You can use Speech Recognition to dictate words into word-processing programs or to fill out online forms in a web browser. You can also use Speech Recognition to edit text on your computer. For more information about dictating text, see Dictate text using Speech Recognition.

Note

Speech Recognition is available only in English, French, Spanish, German, Japanese, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese.

Source: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/what-can-i-do-with-speech-recognition

After setting it up, and sometimes some practise, using this software also enables you to dictate text and select and click on items, or open a program for example.

Common commands in speech recognition: http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows7/common-commands-in-speech-recognition

You could also try searching the internet for voice recognition software.

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