iAutism

This time we will discuss an application focused on learning, as FirstWords is designed to improve the learning of letters (uppercase and lowercase), and therefore reading. Accompanied of attractive images, FirstWords intends to initiate or reinforce the learning of letters, as well as to practice their pronunciation and how to put them together to form words. This is an application that should not be missing in addition to other methods of learning to read.

Organized by topics

The app includes 147 words for the English version, organized into 6 topics –vehicles, animals, at home, colors, shapes and all the words– that the user can choose to work with when the application starts. Japanese, German and Spanish versions has more than 100 words, but a bit less than the English edition.

One of the characteristics of the children with ASD are their restricted interests, but on this occasion, this feature can be turned into an advantage. Being the words grouped by topic, a child could take much interest in forming words from his favorite subject and this can be used as a reward or positive reinforcement if before we require him/her to work with another group less motivating.

Through the intuitive interface that provides the iPad, FirstWords becomes a useful tool in learning to read. The key is repetition. Through repeated association of image and phoneme, you can get very good results in a short time. And that is what the application does: it shows an image, the word that represents it and each of the letters, and what the child have to do is move each letter into its position. By doing so, he/she will hear each letter, and when completed the word will hear all the letters and the whole word.

Extra motivation

When we speak of children with special educational needs, we need an extra motivation to get the right attitudes to learning . In this case, it is an animation of the image accompanied of music, which can only be seen when you put all the letters of the word.

Among the many configuration options that have this application, I find particularly interesting the possibility to configure the use of upper and lower case. Normally you start the learning process of capital letters and when you are proficient enough, you continue with the lower case, so this option can be really useful.

FirstWords also allows you to configure that the words should be completed in a specific order from left to right, something especially useful when the child has dyslexia, as in this case it is quite common to have a tendency to write from right to left.

Another useful option is to limit the maximum length of words by number of letters. This way, you can increase the complexity gradually in response to our needs.

The application is sold in different versions depending on the language (English-called Deluxe-, Spanish, German and Japanese). In addition, there are reduced and cheaper versions of vocabulary for English and even a French version also reduced.

In summary, FirstWords is a very useful tool for learning to read in addition to other mechanisms. If you have an iPad, you should not fail to try it, something that is free with the Sampler version that allows to know the functioning of the application with a vocabulary of six words.

-Iván

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FirstWords 2.0.2

Web: http://learningtouch.com/products

Developer: Learning Touch

Languages: Spanish, english, german and japanese (and a reduced version in French).

Functions: Learning to read with visual reinforcement and association of images and sounds.

iPhone/iPod touch version: Yes.

iPad version: Yes.

Price: Sampler version is free; full version are $4.99 / €3.99.

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This post is also available in: Spanish