OMG, I have found what is very nearly the Holy Grail of iPad/iPod apps...

[silverfrog]

... well, if you are after educational, spelling/phonics apps that is

dd1 loves her iPad, and is racing awau with the (few) phonics apps she a;ready has. I have been after somethign like this for ages, as dd1's school is using a lot of photos to get her recreating sentences underneath etc, and best of all, it is FREE!

THe app is: Sight Words by Little Speller; it is developed by Grasshopperapps.

It is a simple app - it has the common sight words, written centre screen, with mini scrabble tiles underneath to drag and drop the letters onto to recreacte the word. Like a million other apps.

BUT

this one is fully customisable

so, you can re-record the american voice (which uses letter names, not phonics) if you want to - easily done.

you can choose between upper/lower case

you can choose between letting the child randomly put letters into the word/phrase, or have them spell it out left-right only.

there is minimal "wrong" reinforcement (and I think you may be able to turn it off)

you can dleete words you don't want as easily as adding in new ones you do want

you can use your own photos/images, and thus make up a new folder of useful words/phrases (yes, it even lets you use phrases - just writes the sentence under the picture; you can record whatever voice tag/prompt you want, or turn it off)

I have only had a very quick play, so I am sure there is a flaw in it somewhere, but I haven't found it yet!

clearly I am the only saddo then

have had a very exciting day in the silverfrog household, as dd1's teaching hands clock also arrived - she is over the moon!

teaching hands clock

think we have the Montessori one (boht words and numbers) - dd1 loves it! hints for phonics apps always welcome, thanks

dd1 has really taen off with ehr ipad now - she has always been ok with it, but is now totally hooked - really really keen to work out the words etc

That sounds great silverfrog. Too late for my DS, but I love the phrase 'wrong reinforcement!' My DS always preferred to get games wrong because the 'uh-urhh' noise was much funnier than the 'brrringg.' I've never heard the technical term before. At least he knew he was getting it wrong.

it's a highly technical term, Ellen

dd1 also does htis occasionally - she will go along a whole row of options to listen to the "uh-uhhhh" (Family Fortunes stylee) before selecting the correct answer - yet she clearly knows the rigth answer, as she is always able to leave it til last

so it is nice to find an app that is so customisable.

I have spoken to her school about it, so am now awaiting lists of words/phrases form her topic work this term, to programme in and load up.

Silverfrog - still saving up my pennies for an ipad...but always noting down the good apps just in case!!

Brioche! how are you? not seen you for ages! and how is your dd?

how is your dd's fine motor skills? dd2 (and dd1 to an extent, but she has fairly poor fine motor control) get on ok with my itouch (considerably cheaper!), and most apps work on both... might be a route worth exploring? I take the ipod on days out etc, and dd1 manages ok with it. dd2 is absolutely fine with it (more practice, as the ipad is dd1's, so dd2 usually ends up with the ipod!)

DSounds great!
Will check it out

'wrong reinforcemnet'

You are spot on to pick this out.
As you will no doubt know, Silver, inappropriate reinforcement is the reason for most poor teaching/lack of progress in kids.

Error correction procedures.
One of my favourite topics of conversation.
Seriously.

That clock is FABULOUS!!!!

In fact, that entire site is loaded with lots of my old favourites and some that are new to me and will I know become core to a lot of what I do.

Thanks.
Terrific!

oh the app is hopeless as it comes, moondog (well, not entirely, but y'know) but the full customisation option is the Holy grail bit.

you can turn prompts on/off. you can make up new flashcards. you can record your own voice. it is so brilliant.

glad you posted btw - can I pick you brains? dd1 is enraptured with these types of apps right now. brief description: you get a picture (eg I loaded up one of her and dd2), and you write the caption (imaginatively, I put "dd1 and dd2" ). when you run the app, it shows the picture, and underneath are greyed out scrabble tiles, with the letters scattered about to match up via drag and drop.

dd1 would do this til the cows come home.

is there a reason she shouldn't overdo it? (other than standard obsessiveness)? woudl it end up being detrimental to her reading? I have set the app so that she needs to put the letters in in the correct order, left to right, rather than randomly, in the (mistaken?) belief that it will at least help cement spelligns for her.

clock is rather ace. I didn[t get it form difflearn (although agree a great site, I have used many times before), but direct form the manufacturers site - will check and post. was way more cost effective, as postage was about $16 or something silly form the manufacturers (we ordered a couple of time timers too, and a brilliant magnetic playset based on the teaching hands clock - so dd1 can practice all the different times)

Yes, please post further details.

Interesting what you say.
Very important that you have set it to do left to right sequencing (fundamental skill as most orthographic/symbolic info. adheres to this convention.)

Remind me of age and whether or not she is verbal?
Are you doing Headsprout/
There is nothing I would recommend more highly than this for teaching reading.
For writing and spelling, I would go with Michael Maloney's 'Teach your child' series or any other Direct Instruction/Precision Teaching approach?

My child's reading and writing-in terms of spelling correctly and accurate letter formation (in both print and cursive writing in two languages is better than most kids her age, thanks to this

Does the app reinforce in some way (say with a bleep or a 'clunk') after every correct letter placement or does it only check through at the end of her putting them all in place? What if worng? What happens?

will search out website - has disappeared form my history...

dd1 is 6.9, highly verbal but disordered/delayed language.

not doing HS, as she has virtually non-existant mouse control (working on this), and iPad is non-Flash, so cn't access it there.

This is not so much to teach reading/spelling, but as she is obsessed with both photos and iPad, just capitalising on her time spent on it (her fascination is also with letters/numbers - double bonus!). so more of a support iyswim?

eg, her school is using a few different approaches. standard phonics work - dd1 doing ok with this, struggling with blending a bit. they also use eg photo (as before - dd1 and dd2 on holiday. maybe) and some sentences for her to recreate, using names and common sight words: she sticks the words on in the right order underneath. she loves doing this. so the app stuff is an extension of this, using a medium she is fascinated by, but spelling out the words, not dragging whole words (I did say the app was very nearly the holy grail )

this is the site. not the most user friendly to navigate through, but if you click on the individual products, there is a link to add to basket...

delivery time was about 3 weeks, and shipping was $12 according to the invoice in front of me.

Well my honest opinion is that she's doing a mishmash of too many different things. A lot of that stuff might be fin but will never teach her to decode and unless you can decode, you are not going to be a good reader.
Learning to read is probably the single most useful thing a child can learn (it has made an enormous difference toi my old child who is language disordered)

She needs to work on sequencing, letter/sound matching and comprehension. Headsprout will do all that in a highly highly reinforcing way.

I would make mastering mouse control an absolute priority. I've worked with many kids who couldn't use a mouse (many for physical reasons) and we worked on this for weeks to get in in place and then moved onto Headsprout.

There is nothing better.

I know Rainbow school are trialling it now in research affilitated to ours.

Thanks for those links.
I'm really thrilled to have access to them.

all depends on setup, to an extent.

you can turn all sound off, so visual only.

you can have it set to: say the word/phrase as the picture comes up; say the letter name (or phonic sound if re-recorded) as you place it; thereis a clunk as it places, if sound is on; when finished, it can then spell through the whole word, highlighting each letter in turn, and then say the whole word again.

each of these bits can b turned off if wanted. I think the clunk stays (if sound is on at all), but it is not too intrusive for dd1 - she owuld not be bothered or distracted by it.

sequencing in general, or langugae based?

she is doing a lot of sequence work - pattern building/extending, copying a pattern and building it in RL, etc.

letter/sound matching she is solid on. rock solid.

mouse work happening, but she is the master at resisiting things when she wants to . she doe ssome work on education City at school, which she does find reinforcing too, and it has recently taken a huge leap.

hat happens if a letter chosen and placed which isn't target one?
Does it spring back or does it 'clunk' and get sounded out?

She may be getting reinforced by the whole 'clink' thing as opposed to the actual spelling.

If she has good decoding (letter/sound correspondence) then why isn't blending being worked on (ie putting all sounds together to make a word. So /c/ /a/ /t/ said seperately is decoding but /cat/ is blending.

You can access HER on a touchscreen but we prefer to get kids learning to use a mouse. All they need to know how to do is point and click. No keyboard action. Do you have someone who know about mouses (mice?) who can advice on issues such as size/shape/ optimal pressure to operate and so on?

Re sequencing, both. Pattern and sequencing so important.
Are you doing a daily calendar (see past threads of mine) That really cement left/right sequencing in additional to temporal understanding which can be mapped onto appropriate language.

TAGteach also excellent for reinforcing desired behaviour.

is HER Headsprout? is Flash based, so no ipad... and PC at school are standard, not touchscreen (agree with mouse work in principle - it's just getting it up to speed with dd1. she is beyond what she can do with a mouse, iyswim, so she switches off too easily as the stuff she has to do with a mouse is far too easy adn she gets bored)

letter bounces back if not correct (with or without sound, depending on settings). I don't think she is (usually) being reinforced by the clunk/bounce - it does happen occasionally, but she can also access other apps for silly noises, so not a huge issue - her aims really do seem to be to complete the task. her grin at the end (and if there is a "yay!") is huge. but she happily will wait for it to be re-spelt thorugh, and re-said before reinforcement.

blending is being worked on, but not happening as it should. she resists it. althoguh we did have huge success with GM when we were there - might be an impetus thing with school atm (they are generally absolutely fab. but being sucha young school, they do lack breadth of experience) she is desperately interested in letters/words - points out ones she knows wherever we are - roadsigns, supermarket, etc. and when we read books - if it is one she knows off by heart, she will try to work out which word is which. also very good at asking, so will say "what does this say, mummy?" for ones she is interested in, or fish for an answer - "this one says Maisy" (points) and checks for verification.

we do a daily story, with occasional calendar input. she has a calendar downstairs which we adjust daily. story is at bedtime - she has to recount her day and tell me what happened at school/what ordr ithappened in.

hugely appreciate this

oh, she has good temporal understanding too. days of the week fine. working on months/year. she has her school schedule sorted, and is good at "chunks" of time - morning/afternoon/evening, and which order these happen in. she is ok with future/past events - can happily tell me what she did last Friday, or chat about going to the zoo on Saturday coming, and know what it means in terms of days needed to get through before it happens, etc.

now working on tellign the time (hence the teaching hands clock ). she has had a watch since Christmas (analogue), and can tell me where the hands should be for a particular time. eg, I say "quarter past 5", and she can tell me big hand to 3, little hand to 5" etc.

working on her producing a time on a clock to match a digital time, and putting in 3 minutes past, 49 minutes past, etc (where the clock comes in - is fab for that)

Sounds great. She is flying eh?
I'd make the calendar a daily thing.
Helpful with transitions.
Danger of not doing something/letting it slip when things going ok.
I do mine every night without fail, irrespective of where we are and how much wine has been consumed.

I'd still be gonig back to the mouse issue.
This child should be reading and reading well and effortlessly with all the composite skills she has in place.

HER is reinforcing to do so kids want to use the mouse because every move of it brings up some exciting game or activity. Mine adored it and qwuite often I would wake to hear them doing it downstairs, first thing.

Have you done the free trial? (Do it yourself if she won't to get a feel for it.)