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ELR Software Pty Ltd | ||
eLr - What's New 2013 | |||
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Thirty-four new tasks have been added this month to "Reading and Spelling - Diphthong vowel sounds" in the sub-sections /ow/ sound (as in "loud"), /oy/ sound (as in "boy"), and /ay/ sound (as in "day"). All tasks use the WordBreaker model which provides material to teach segmentation of words into syllables and sounds, and to highlight more specific information about those two features, such as the stressed syllable in a multisyllabic word, and the vowel sound/s. The tasks reinforce knowledge of how to break words into sounds, and provide visual support for the spelling patterns of each sound.
Within each sound there are activities focusing on the different spelling choices for that sound. For example, this month, the tasks within the "/ay/ sound" sub-section cover the spelling patterns of "ay" as in say, "ai" as in sail, "a_e" as in made. Once each of the spelling patterns has been mastered the "assorted spellings of this sound" sub-section provides material to teach discrimination of those words that sound the same but have different spelling patterns, eg "made, maid", "sail,sale", and "way, weigh". The model involves a sorting activity which helps the student consolidate knowledge of words that share a spelling pattern. For example, after the student has broken the word into sounds, the word is placed with words that share the same spelling pattern.
In these tasks, as with many of the eLr activities, the role of the clinician/helper is central in providing corrective feedback about accurate decoding and segmentation, which has been shown in research to play a central role in development of sight word knowledge. Extension activities are also encouraged, eg once the word has been broken into sounds and sorted, the student would benefit from writing the word and highlighting the sounds in the word.
The WordBreaker model is a recent addition to eLr, and we encourage feedback about any aspect of the model or the content.
44 new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling" in "Diphthong Vowel Sounds - /oa/ sound" and "Long Vowel Sounds - /er/, /ee/ and /or/ sounds". Over the last couple of months we have been adding material to "Reading and Spelling" using the relatively new model, WordBreaker. This model provides material to teach segmentation of words into syllables and sounds, and to highlight more specific information about those two features, such as the stressed syllable in a multisyllabic word, and the vowel sound/s. It supports reading and spelling skills by reinforcing knowledge of how to break words into sounds, and providing visual support for the spelling patterns of each sound.
Within each sound there are activities focusing on the different spelling choices for that sound. For example, this month, the tasks within the "/oa/ sound" subsection cover the spelling patterns of "oa" as in foal, "oe" as in doe, "ow" as in blow, "o_e" as in nose, and "o" as in most. Once each of the spelling patterns has been mastered there's an "assorted spellings of this sound" subsection which provides material to teach discrimination of those words that sound the same but have different spelling patterns, eg "road/rode", "role/roll" etc.
In these tasks, as with most the eLr activities, the role of the clinician/helper is central in providing corrective feedback about accurate decoding and segmentation, which has been shown in research to play a central role in development of sight word knowledge. It is also useful to accompany these computer presented tasks with pen and paper activities, such as writing each word to consolidate knowledge of spelling patterns.
Twenty nine new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling - Long Vowel Sounds - /ee/ and /or/ sounds. All tasks use the new model, WordBreaker. This model provides material to teach segmentation of words into syllables and sounds, and to highlight more specific information about those two features, such as the stressed syllable in a multisyllabic word, and the vowel sound/s.
Within each sound there are activities focusing on the different spelling choices for that sound. For example, the /or/ sound is spelt with "or" as in fork, "au" as in haul, "aw" as in paw, "a" as in ball, and "ore" as in core. Many people with reading and spelling delays have difficulty learning the correct spelling patterns, especially for vowel sounds. To help consolidate skills in this area, each section has a range of activities, thus providing lots of repetition for both reading and spelling. The WordBreaker model is particularly useful as it reinforces knowledge of how to break each word into sounds, thus providing strong visual support for the spelling patterns for each sound.
In these tasks, as with most eLr activities, the role of the clinician/helper is central in providing corrective feedback about accurate decoding and segmentation, which has been shown in research to play a central role in development of sight word knowledge. The WordBreaker model is a recent addition to eLr, and we encourage feedback about any aspect of the model or the content.
A new model and 34 new tasks have been added to "Reading and Spelling - Long vowel sounds" in the "/ar/ sound", "/er/ sound", and "assorted long vowel sounds"subsections. The new model is called WordBreaker and it is designed to provide material to teach segmentation of words into syllables and sounds, and to highlight more specific information about those two features such as the spelling of the vowel sounds, and the location of stressed syllable(s) in a multisyllabic word. This model will be useful for children and adults who have reading and spelling difficulties.
When using this model, a group of target words appears in the upper screen and the client or helper selects a word which is then displayed in the "working area" of the screen. On either side of the working area are buttons ("Syllables", "Stress", "Sounds" and "Vowels"), which will segment (or break) the word into syllables and/or sounds, highlight the stressed syllable, and reveal the vowel sounds.
This is a very flexible model as it allows the clinician/helper to focus on the relevant aspects for a particular child or adult. And depending on the focus of the session, the client may be encouraged to verbally segment the word prior to viewing the segmented word, or it may be used in a purely teaching mode, where the client selects a word from the target words, and sees the already segmented word in the working area. An additional feature of the model is that for some groups of words it teaches spelling patterns. For example, when working with the /er/ sound, there are tasks that focus on demonstrating how the same sounds is spelled in a variety of ways ("er", "ur", "ir", "ear", "or"). After the client has segmented the word, they are then encouraged to sort the words into appropriate columns, thus reinforcing each spelling pattern.
In these tasks, as with many of the eLr activities, the role of the clinician/helper is central in listening to the child's verbal response, and providing corrective feedback about accurate decoding and segmentation. Research has shown that accurate decoding plays a central role in development well specified mental images of words (mental orthographic representations), which support expanded development of sight word knowledge (Share & Shalev 2004, Cunningham 2006).
As with all eLr tasks and models, we encourage feedback and we're especially keen to have any comments about the syllabification used in these new (level 3) tasks. We've generally used mainstream syllabification guidelines for most words, but retained the integrity of base words which is sometimes more instructive for a person with a spelling or reading problem. For example, "dirty" is usually syllabified as "dir-ty", but we have retained the base word "dirt" using "dirt-y" as the syllabified word. The other feature we would like feedback about is our mechanism for highlighting sounds for which there is no spelling. For example, "curdle" is syllabified as "curd-le" (retaining the base word "curd"), and when segmented into sounds WordBreaker also represents the schwa vowel between the "d" and "l".
- Share, DL & Shalev, C (2004). Self-teaching in normal and disabled readers. Reading and Writing, 17(7), 769-800
- Cunningham, AE (2006). Accounting for children's orthographic learning while reading text: Do children self-teach? Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 95(1), 56-77
45 new tasks have been added to "Phonology - Skills and early sounds " - "Vowel sounds". The aim of this section is to provide material to strengthen accurate production of vowel sounds which is often a difficulty for people who have dyspraxia of speech, a speech sound disorder, or who have hearing impairment, often resulting in inaccurate articulation of vowel sounds.
The new tasks are in a subsection called "Long Vowel Sounds" targeting the /ah, ee, oo, or, ir/ sounds. Three models are used: PicCards provides sets of picture which are presented like cards on a table - useful for introducing the pictures, and/or printing the pictures to make your own set of cards which can be used in table top activities. TicTacPics is a "Tic-Tac-Toe" type game providing a fun activity to practice production of words with the target vowel sound, and MemoryPics is another game, similar to the well-known "Memory" game.
All activities can be used in a flexible way depending on client needs and skill level. The clinician or helper plays a central role, providing individualised feedback and strategies, and encouraging the client to expand skill, eg producing single words with the target vowel sound, and moving on to using those words in sentences and conversation.
As with all eLr materials, we welcome feedback about this new section. This may include ways that you are using the material and suggestions for improvements.
44 new tasks providing material to strengthen production of vowel sounds have been added to a new section called "Vowel sounds" in "Phonology - Skills and early sounds". This section may be useful for clients who have inaccurate use of vowel sounds, dyspraxia of speech, or who have hearing impairment which often results in inaccurate articulation of vowel sounds. The initial new tasks are in a subsection "Long Vowel Sounds" which targets the /ah, ee, oo, or, ir/ sounds. Two different models are used.
The Mouth Sounds model encourages production of vowel sounds in syllables with two sounds - consonant-vowel or vowel-consonant syllables. Pictorial representations of both sounds appear on the screen and the client is encouraged to say each syllable and receive feedback from the clinician or helper who reinforces strategies to increase accuracy of production. The client then clicks or touches the "Go" button to change the consonant sound, thus working through a series of syllables using that vowel sound, eg /pah tah kah/. The tasks range in difficulty level, starting with syllables involving consonants with high contrast (eg /mee tee kee fee/), and progressing to low contrast syllables (eg /mee pee/), and syllables with voicing contrasts (eg /per ber/).
The second model, Slide show, is an activity that provides practice at use of the target vowel sound in words. The client touches the "Go" button to move through pictures and is encouraged to say each word and receive feedback from the clinician or helper about accuracy of production. The tasks range in difficulty, starting with words with two sounds (eg shoe, car), to words with three sounds (eg moon, card), and consonant blends (eg spoon, star).
As with all eLr materials, we welcome feedback about this new section. This may include ways that you are using the material and suggestions for improvements.
Eighteen new tasks have been added to the "Using Language" - "Wh Questions" section. All tasks use the Sentence Maker model. Over the past few months we've created almost 100 activities in this section which aims to provide material to teach comprehension of "Wh" questions (eg who, what doing, what, where), and to support expressive language focussing on sentence structure.
The Sentence Maker model incorporates the principles of Colourful Semantics (a system of colour coding the key elements in a sentence). A range of modifications allow the user to tailor the task to suit the needs of the client and the therapy goals, eg de-selecting colour coding and/or deciding whether to display the written sentence to match the picture.
This section is arranged so that you can start at a very basic level, ie teaching the vocabulary first using the "one element" section (eg "who" "what doing" "what" "where"). Then you can gradually expand length and complexity of sentences using the "two element" (eg "who-what doing", "three element" (eg "who-what doing-what"), and "four element" sections (eg "who-what doing-what-where"). There are currently 6 "actors" (who), 18 verbs (what doing), 19 objects (what), and 11 places (where).
As with all eLr materials, we welcome feedback about this model and section. This may include ways that you are using the material and suggestions for improvements.
These fonts are used widely in eLr for activities that use simple coloured icons which can be be resized, moved or otherwise changed. When we first made them, 14 years ago, Microsoft Internet Explorer was the only browser that had a mechanism to view such fonts. Since there was also a version of MSIE available on Macs of the time, most people could use them. Then followed a few years when MSIE was no longer available for newer Macs, and eLr "cross-browser" capability was limited. The last couple of years has seen a major standardization of browser function and it's very pleasing that we've now got these fonts workable for all major browsers, including the iPad.
A number of people reported the iPad App "font bug" in which some of these icons left trail of small fragments behind as they were dragged over the screen. This is now fixed! And since the revision took us "back to basics" we further structured them so that a standard TTF font can be installed on any PC or Mac computer to allow you to incorporate them into you own activities if you wish. They are now available for free download - see below.
The fonts behave a little differently from usual ones. All contain a full, standard "arial" character set, with the symbols mapped to just digits "0" to "9". This means that you can construct materials using the characters of the font for your words and the digits for the symbols. You can use several fonts in a single document (there are 19 different fonts altogether) to achieve the mix of symbols you want.
This month we made a few small fixes for Windows 8 compatibility, and have continued to add materials to the relatively new section in "Using Language" called "Wh Questions". Sixteen new tasks have been added, all using the Sentence Maker model.
The aim of this section is to provide material to teach comprehension of "Wh" questions (eg who, what doing, what, and where), and to support expressive language focussing on sentence structure. The Sentence Maker model incorporates the principles of Colourful Semantics (a system of colour coding the key elements in a sentence). A range of modifications allow the user to tailor the task to suit the needs of the client and the therapy goals, eg de-selecting colour coding and/or deciding whether to display the written sentence to match the picture.
The subsections are organised to allow you to first of all teach the vocabulary using the "one element" section (eg who, what doing, what or where). Then you can gradually expand length and complexity of sentences using the "two element" (eg who-what doing), "three element" (eg who-what doing-what), and "four element" sections (eg who-what doing-what-where). There are now 6 "actors" (who), 18 verbs (what doing), 19 objects (what), and 8 places (where). These are used in various combinations resulting in a current total of 184 separate tasks in this section.
As with all eLr materials, we welcome feedback about this model and section. This may include ways that you are using the material and suggestions for improvements.
Seventeen new tasks have been added to the "Using Language - Wh Questions" section. This is a relatively new section which provides material to teach comprehension of "Wh" questions (eg who, what doing, what, where), and to support expressive language that focuses on sentence structure. All of the new tasks use the SentenceMaker model which incorporates principles of "Colourful Semantics" (a system of colour coding the key elements in a sentence).
A range of modifications allow the user to tailor the task to suit the needs of the client and the therapy goals, eg de-selecting colour coding and/or deciding whether to display the written sentence to match the picture. The new tasks appear in all subsections, ie one, two, three and four elements. In these activities, the role of the clinician/support person is central to provide reinforcement and feedback and to expand sentence responses where appropriate.
As with all eLr materials, we welcome feedback about this model and section. This may include ways that you are using the material and suggestions for improvements.
Twenty new tasks have been added to "Using Language - Wh Questions". This section was introduced last month using a newly developed model, which we've now renamed "SentenceMaker" to more accurately reflect the processes involved in the activity.
The aim of this section is to teach comprehension of "Wh" questions (eg "who, what doing, what, where"), and to support expressive language focusing on sentence structure. The model incorporates the principles of Colourful Semantics (a system of colour coding the key elements in a sentence), and enables you to modify the activity depending on your goal. The modifications allow you to:
The subsections are organised to enable you to introduce each element separately, and then build sentences starting with 2 elements (eg who + what doing), progressing to 4 elements (eg who + what doing + what + where). Within each subsection tasks are organised according to level of complexity. For example, a task with "6 people, 4 actions" is more complex than a task with "2 children, 3 actions".
As with all eLr materials, we welcome feedback about this new model. This may include ways that you are using the model and suggestions for improvements or additional content that can be considered.
This month we have opened a new section in "Using Language" called "Wh questions", using a new model called QuestionPics with 33 initial tasks. The aim of this section is to strengthen comprehension of "Wh" questions and the understanding of sentence structure.
Subsections in "Wh questions" are organized to allow you to start at a very basic level (one element) and build up skills by the addition of further elements. The first subsection, "One element", includes 3 sets of tasks: "Who", "What doing" and "Where". "Two elements" covers "Who + What doing", and "Three elements" includes "Who + is + Where" and "Who + What doing + Where". Further subsections such as "What" and additional tasks with more examples will be added in the coming months. The "Help" for each task ([?] at top right corner of the screen) provides information about how to use the model and further tips to extend the use of these computer based tasks into everyday activities.
QuestionPics incorporates the concept of "Colourful Semantics" which was developed by Alison Bryan (1997), a speech and language therapist in the UK. This approach uses colour-coding to highlight parts or elements of sentences. A subsequent evaluation of this approach (Bolderson et al 2011) with six 5 to 6 year old children found that therapy using this approach was effective, as scores on the Renfrew Action Picture Test (RAPT) and the Bus Story revealed that the child's grammar skills, mean sentence length and the ability to include a greater amount of information, all improved in therapy compared to the baseline measurements. They concluded that this approach warrants further investigation using a larger study.
The elements targeted in QuestionPics to date are as follows:
As with all eLr materials, we welcome feedback about this new model. This may include ways that you are using the model, suggestions for improvements and scenarios that can be considered.
References:
Seventeen new tasks have been added this month, and seventeen existing tasks have been revised in "Reading and Spelling - Verb tense endings - Irregular". All tasks use the WordChanger model and cover the following areas:
Within each section the tasks are organised to provide practice with the two forms of the past tense with a singular subject (eg "The baby slept/was sleeping all through the night" and a plural subject (eg "We sold/were selling our house to our best friends."). This clearly demonstrates the specific part of the verb phrase that is modified when the tense changes. The simple past tense subsection has been organised to group the verbs into patterns. For example, some verbs change to a "t" or "d" (eg lose/lost, spell/spelt), and others involve a vowel change (eg break/broke, drink/drank, blow/blew).
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