by Arquinauta Consulting, SL
Are you a Montessori educator or parent? If so, then you are probably familiar with a letter/sound recognition technique called the sandpaper phonics activity. If unfamiliar with this activity, it builds a visual and muscular perception of the alphabet. As children become proficient with letters and sounds, the building blocks to reading and writing will come alive. Whether it’s the Montessori way or the traditional educational setting that you choose to send your child(ren), it is important to build a sound phonics background. Phonics teaches the auditory senses of words. When a child hears the sounds of letters and repeats them while looking at the letters and words in which they appear, he logically connects the written and spoken word together. Developers Arquinauta Consulting from Barcelona, Spain added ABC Kit to the App Store late last year and since then it was 3rd best app for iPad in the Spanish App Store, and also was featured as “App of the Week”. The app can be used either in English, Spanish or Catalan and viewed on any Apple device running iOS 3.2 or later.
With an easy to navigate menu, children as young as 2-6 years of age could benefit from this educational app. It provides children just learning their alphabet a very multi-sensory approach. Through exploration, users will be soon KNOW, HEAR and WRITE. Simply select which mode of learning you desire. Upon entering learners will immediately see an ABC strip at the top of the window. With a swipe to the left or right, users will be able to navigate across the entire alphabet. Whatever your learning approach may happen to be, review letters in alphabetical order or randomly. Each mode of exploration will provide you something different.
The KNOW mode presents young readers an uppercase letter and a image that starts with that letter. In addition, a narrator verbally shared the sound that the letter makes. If repetition is necessary, users can simply tap the notebook paper. To know additional letters, simply manipulate the ABC strip at the top of the page. A note to the developers – as this age requires a great deal of repetition, might it be possible that as users KNOW the letters of the alphabet letters to have a library of coordinating images. Our thinking is that it could reinforce a larger vocabulary and connection to the known letter and sound. The HEAR mode is very simply the sound that each letter makes, however now it is sharing one added component, both upper and lowercase letters. In our opinion, exposing children to both letter types early on can be very beneficial. As my own son attends a public school educational setting, we began reexamining our own teaching of just uppercase letter. ABCKit can guide him past writing in solely uppercase letters. The last mode of exploration is the WRITE mode. Here users will be able to practice writing both upper and lowercase letters in a tracing like format. To guide users, developers have included an arrow support system. When writing, if users go outside the lines, simply pick up where you left off. If interested, users can click the rewind button in the lower left hand corner and start over if necessary or to try one more time. A note to the developers – when the writer has finished, might it be possible for their drawn letter to be shown without the traced letter in the background. Using the additional space on the notebook, when a user is ready, might they also be able to write the chosen letter on their own.
With a very basic output, but highly effective, Applicable2U feels believes that this Montessori methodology can be applicable to you if you have children at home or in school that are just learning their letters/sounds. If you would like to learn more about Arquinauta Consulting, SL please visit their website here. Currently this education app is going for $1.99 in your App Store, you can begin exploring this “kit” today by clicking here to access it in your iTunes Library.