SOUNDS AND RHYMES

• Over 16 learning activities
• Skills taught range from vowel sounds to consonant blends
• Practise a single rule or any combination
• Simple to setup and use
• Easily track the progress of pupils

Starting with single sounds and culminating in the identification of rhyming words, a progression of tasks aims to develop recognition of short vowels and automatic response to sounds within words.

The Sounds task concentrates on the standard five vowel sounds, presenting several practice formats varied between the pupil listening to the initial sound of a word and matching it to a vowel or grouping simple three letter words by their middle letter.

The Rhymes task covers many topics - initial and final consonant, word endings, rhyming words, matching words, odd word out and others. Each of the tasks can be practiced with or without the aid of textual clues, making the task purely auditory if required.

With this latest incarnation of the program a new feature has been added (in response to countless requests). The program can now be used to help students with consonant blends as well, with the ability to choose from initial blends (frog), final blends (past) or both (sprang).

A recent review which appeared in the Times Educational Supplement said:

Developed by a team at Bangor University, who really understand the learning needs of children with reading difficulties and/or dyslexia, Sounds and Rhymes offers more than 20 games and activities, which build children’s awareness of basic letter sounds and how these correspond to written letters.

A bright, uncluttered interface ensures that the focus is on learning. Graphics and animation add visual interest and reinforce user actions. Sampled speech is used to introduce letter sounds and words, if desired, and teachers can select which sounds are practised in a session. Other options allow teachers to define the overall presentation of the program (sound effects, animations, graphic style).

Each exercise is delivered in short sections, since frequent, brief practice sessions are recommended. Three main areas are covered: vowel sounds, rhymes and consonant blends. Activities encourage children to match vowels to pictures, identify initial vowels and consonants, sort objects into vowel groups, select missing initial and final consonants, match or make rhyming words and identify words which don't rhyme.

Most activities are completed via drag-and-drop, or point-and-click interactivity. Pupils can also key in text to practise the spelling of consonant blends. User feedback reinforces correct answers with a tick and/or a graphic response (a picture fills a space in a grid, for example). If an incorrect answer is selected it simply disappears. If two incorrect responses are made, a new word is presented. In this way, mistakes are never reinforced by negative feedback. A 'Show Me' feature demonstrates how consonant blends are constructed.

Report files record pupils' responses and enable teachers to track progress. These are displayed in a browser and can then be copied into any wordprocessor for printing.

A basic User Guide clarifies installation, setup, program contents and game instructions.

Although the program offers useful practice and the games are sure to be enjoyed by pupils, the number of items available for some activities is limited (only 5 words are offered in the Initial Letter activity, whereas a greater number of randomly generated items would give more solid practice). Likewise, although it is possible to define which activities will run in a session, users are not able to select these freely from a menu and can only locate a particular exercise by moving through the games in sequence. But these are minor irritations - overall the program offers good value for money.