Technology is great sometimes, right?! I mean there is a whole plethora of information out there for teaching everything from preschool reading to writing or arithmetic. Tonight I am pleased to share with you a new app from the Talking Fingers, Inc. called Talking Shapes iPad App.
Talking Shapes is a research-proven phonics program created by neuropsychologist Dr. Jeannine Herron and is geared towards the younger kiddos in PreK-K. This app came about from funding as part of a research grant from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD). Using pictures as mnemonic devices to help to teach young children that letters are just “talking shapes” that each have there own special speech sounds it introduces all 40 English phonemes. Through 4 steps, listen, draw, play games, and read, this app helps young children develop the correlation between the shape of a letter and sound of the letter makes. All the while leading your child into reading success for years to come.
The app begins by telling a story of how “Two Sisters Invented The Alphabet”. With three choices to pick from your youngster can have the story read to them, practice drawing letters, or play the games within the app.
Within the three choices is the option to choose from Book 1, 2 or 3 which are interactive books. Your child will hear the letter sound story read to them and then they can click on the screen to make the story come to life.
Listen ~ each letter in the picture story helps the children to remember both the shape and the sound the letter makes. There is also a neat option where you can record your child’s voice saying the words.
Draw ~ using the pad of the finger your child traces and draws letters on the screen. Practice includes drawing letters within Talking Shapes pictures or drawing letters to make three letter words.
With the help of visual clues, along with hands on drawing the app helps to see the connection between the shape of the letter and the sound.
The game section has many neat features to help reinforce the letter decoding skills learned. The three games are so much fun that your child will hardly notice that they are learning at the same time.
Play Games ~ through the use of fun games your child will learn to name target pictures and spell words correctly.
The last step is reading! With the help of visual clues your child is able to fill in the blank and read the words in the sentences provided. It starts out with easy words to build confidence.
Read ~ Success comes to your child when they read there first words.
The Talking Shapes iPad App is available from the iTunes App store and is compatible with the iPad. It requires an iOS 6.0 or later to run and costs $5.99 to download.
I was thrilled to use this app with McKenzie who is 4 years old. She is just showing signs of reading readiness and this app is a great springboard for her curiosity. She had access to the app everyday during her “technology” school hours and frequently choose to play this app over other games on the iPad or computer. There is just something about interactive books that she loves for preschool reading :) Her favorite portion of the app was definitely the voice recording feature. She loved hearing herself say the words and listening to it over and over {and over} again :)
Overall, we give this app two thumbs up and definitely recommend you checking it out. It is a quality app that supports learning and having fun at the same time. Be sure to check out what my Crewmates thought of this app by clicking the banner below.
Company ~ Talking Fingers, Inc.
Product ~ Talking Shapes iPad App
Price ~ $5.99 from iTunes store
Ages ~ PreK – K
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