Wordshark & Numbershark Advice Please!

[RoRoMummy]

I am considering buying my daughter (7) Wordshark & Numbershark to help with her dyslexia and dyscalcula.

Why oh why do these things have to be so flippin expensive?! Am spending loads on books and equipment, but just wish there was a cheaper way. Can't help feeling I'm being taken advantage of.

Does anyone know:

Are they really worth it?
Can you get them cheaper, eg: previous versions, second hand?

Anyone tried Dynamo Maths?

Thanks

RoRo - just got Numbershark for Ds (8) but haven't had a good shot at trying it out yet. A friend swears by it - she got it through school for ds with learning disabilities but her NT daughter uses it as well - both with good results.

I've got great hopes for it but need to sit down and work it out as the I found the interface initially a bit complicated (but my IT skills are pants).

Agree about the price of these things. You get the feeling that it's a market aimed at desperate parents (which of course we are) and you can't help feeling a bit ripped off and exploited. There must be a second hand market for themn, surely?

Meant to say DS is dyslexic so also interested in Wordshark but unwilling to fork out the cash at the minute.

they use them both at ds2 sn school and at ds3's primary

Used both these a few years ago for my son with great success.

You can get second hand discs on ebay.

I'm a dyslexia teacher, and have used Wordshark quite a lot at various times, but I don't have the most recent version (too expensive even more me!).

Previous versions are fine if they still run on your computer, but they might not once you upgrade.

It is good, but it is possible for children to find the 'easy way' around lots of games, etc, unless you supervise them quite closely - i.e., they can end up doing it via visual memory rather than sounding out, etc, and not actually learning the skill you think they are learning.

It also looks a little 'old fashioned' and home-made compared to a lot of the ordinary computer games that children play, so I've found they sometimes are less keen for that reason. But if you could borrow a copy and try it out first, see if your child responds to it, then you might know. Lots of schools have copies as well.

The good thing is that it's very heavily phonics based, and one of the best around in terms of that. You can also add your own words to it.

They are both good. DT's advice to try borrowing is a good idea.

There's also another program that I saw recently that is really fun, but I can't remember the name of it Maybe someone else will come along....

I have used numbershark for my daughter (dyscalculia) and for a long time it was the only numbers work I could get her to do at home. It presents number problems in many many different ways to suit different learning styles and it is all fun as long as you pick a suitable level. It does require alot of parental input to find your way around. I have to guide DD otherwise she always goes for the games she knows already. We got it when she was 8 and are still using it 2 years later. There is also a book called Power of 2 which has been really excellent - a workbook really, and less fun, but it has been much more use than the workbooks with stickers and pictures from WHsmith and the like. She cannot be bamboozled into thinking maths is fun that easily (which brings me back to numbershark.....)