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A1 Sight Word Spelling App

Mindprint Rating

Tags

ELA: Writing Elementary School iOS App

Skills

Mindprint Expert Review

Pros

  • Children have unlimited tries to spell the word correctly.
  • Children can always go back to previous words.
  • The words are age appropriate and are presented with a clear picture of the object.

Considerations

  • This app is not engaging or fun.
  • There is no indication that the word is spelled correctly, there is only a popping sound for wrong answers. Students must assume the word was correct and press "next" to proceed to the next word.
  • This app promotes paid upgrades and has distracting ads.

Mindprint Expert Review

A1 Spelling App Free is a very basic spelling app geared toward younger children. The user chooses spelling words from six age-appropriate categories including animals, numbers, food, colors, body, fruit and vegetables. The words include many sight words and new vocabulary (e.g. ginger, okra, elbow). There is a clear picture for each word so some may acquire new vocabulary while others may just lose interest in the app. The child sees pictures and hears the names of various objects. Beneath the picture are several boxes, one for each letter of the object’s name. The user spells the name of the item by using the letters of the alphabet on the keyboard. The word names and letters are spoken by various children. Not all of the words are spoken clearly, and the various voices saying the letters might make the listening process difficult for some users. Only letter names are used, not the true sound the letter symbolizes which does not develop a child’s phonics skills or understanding of the "alphabetic principle." The brightly-colored letters are arranged in alphabetical order—not QWERTY-style. This might be confusing for a child who has had experience using a keyboard. The background images and ads are distracting and give the app a very cluttered appearance. Although children can hear the word repeated, choose "help" to see the letters of the word out of order, or hear the word spelled, there is no option to see the word spelled correctly which would be helpful for developing spellers. Ultimately, this app has too many weaknesses to be helpful for spelling practice and would not engage most users.

Academic Benefits

Improves academic skills

  • Provides sufficient and varied types of practice problems to maximize understanding and generalization of the targeted skill/concept
  • Manufacturer claims alignment with Common Core/Known Standards
  • Presents educational concepts accurately
  • Explains answers so students can learn from mistakes
  • Better for teaching the skill to new or struggling learners
  • Better for practicing or refreshing the skill
  • Skills are practiced through authentic, meaningful problems (not just rote practice)

Fun

Engaging for the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Appropriate for a broad age range to use and enjoy
  • Subject matter and problems are relevant, interesting and authentic to students
  • Visually appealing to children in the target age range
  • Provides virtual rewards or incentives after meeting specified goals or objectives
  • Provides a "break activity" between academic problem sets
  • Offers ongoing, progressive challenge
  • Overall - Enjoyable. Given the option, students would choose this option

Easy to Use

Understandable for children in the Mindprint recommended age range

  • Has a free or trial version
  • Provides teaching guidance for adults to support the child and set appropriate goals
  • Provides an age-appropriate tutorial/first time users can work independently
  • Student should be able to use independently after first use
  • Has a multi-player option to foster in-person collaboration or cooperation
  • Multiple users can save a profile
  • Student graduates to the next level or topic only after meeting a benchmark
  • Can play without sound and not distract others
  • Students can save work between sessions
  • Can effectively understand and monitor student's progress (email report or in product)
  • Provides options to play in languages other than English/Good for ELL
  • Presents information in multiple formats (voice over, pictures and text, etc.)
  • Overall - Easy to use

Cognitive Concerns

May not be advisable for students with the following cognitive needs

  • Attention
    • Shows advertisements
    • Promotes purchases or upgrades to students
    • Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
  • Fine Motor Skills
    • Requires challenging finger movements, motor precision or physical manipulation
  • Organization
    • Students might need support with navigation
  • Spelling
  • Verbal Memory
    • Audio is not clear or voice is robotic
  • Visual Discrimination
    • Shows advertisements
    • Promotes purchases or upgrades to students
    • Visually distracting with too many pictures, problems or moving objects
    • Students might need support with navigation
  • Vocabulary
  • Working Memory
    • Audio is not clear or voice is robotic
    • Students might need support with navigation

Manufacturer Description

A1 Spelling App is an easy to use engaging app that help kids learn common spellings. The kids see a picture and hear the word and then type the spelling using the on screen key pad.

Over 150 words in 6 different categories.

'Spell-It' Tapping on the button will spell the word, kids listen to it and learn how to spell it. The best way to memorize the spelling is listening to it. Great feature, along with Help, see next.

'Help' hides the unneeded alphabets on the keyboard, so the kids only sees the alphabet that makes the spelling. That way they know what letters make the word and they start trying to put them together, great feature to start building that initial confidence.

'Say-It' says the word out loud. Though the pictures are cool, but what if the kid doesn't know what the picture stands for.

Really the application thats needed to master these 150 words.

Remember repetition helps to memorize these words, so more the kids use the app the better they start to get with these words.

Kids get early exposure to, easy spellings like car, dog, cat to tough ones like zebra, pizza, truck, onion etc.

Each category starts with easy words and move towards difficult ones. The 'Other' category has the most common words that the kids must know and has the most words among all the category.

Simple and easy to use App, allows small kids to engage in learning activity without much parents involvement.

Remember to help your kids become good readers...