Basic Skills Software for Improving Reading

For Beginning Readers

Research has provided strong evidence about the critical role of phonological awareness in helping students grasp the alphabetic principle and read individual words accurately and fluently (e.g., National Reading Panel). Many early learning software programs contain activities that help students attend to and learn about the sound system of our language. These activities include:

• Reciting nursery or other rhymes
• Rhyming words
• Counting or clapping syllables in a word
• Categorizing sounds (e.g., which words start with the same sound: cat, cup, pot)
• Segmenting phonemes (e.g., say the sounds in "pat")
• Blending phonemes (e.g., "say /a/, /t/; now say it fast")

Keep in mind that activities designed to promote phonological awareness are conducted orally, with teachers and students listening to and saying words and sounds. They are not dependent on the child's ability to read letters and words.

Two programs, Daisy's Castle and DaisyQuest (Great Wave Software), contain activities that require students to practice rhyming; count sounds in words; blend words and sounds; and isolate beginning, middle, and ending sounds in words Several research studies have shown that practice with these programs has a positive impact on a number of phonological awareness, word analysis, and word identification skills (Barker & Torgesen, 1995; Foster, Erickson, Foster, Brinkman, & Torgesen, 1994).

Fast ForWord (Scientific Learning Corporation) was developed from the research of Tallal and Merzenich (e.g. Tallal et al., 1996; Tallal, Miller, Jenkins, & Merzenich, 1997) about sensory integration deficits in children with language learning impairments. Fast ForWord software uses acoustically modified speech and adaptive computer games to help users develop phonological awareness and language comprehension skills. The program is available only through a clinician who is trained to use the system by Scientific Learning Corporation.

Earobics (Cognitive Concepts) is a comprehensive program that includes software, group activities, books, and staff development. The software is available at two different levels for children ages 4 to 10, and a third version is available for older, struggling readers. Seventeen different games provide practice in activities such as sequencing sounds, rhyming, phoneme blending and manipulation, and following oral directions.

Bailey's Book House (Edmark) contains rhyming activities and a game designed to help children practice segmenting words into onsets (initial sound) and rimes (the vowel and letter following it). Letter names and sounds are reinforced through an activity in which students can choose a letter from the diagram of a keyboard, hear its sound, and view pictures of words that start with that sound accompanied by the words themselves and their pronunciations

In A to Zap (Sunburst) also reinforces knowledge of letter names and sounds. A colorful keyboard is displayed on the screen. Children can click on a letter of the alphabet to hear its name and view animated sequences of actions and words that begin with the sound of that letter.

Reading Who? Reading You! (Software for Success, distributed by Sunburst) is designed to provide supplemental phonics instruction by teaching: letter-sound correspondences, phonemic awareness, and common sight words. As students use the program they build word lists, use words in sentences, and apply decoding skills in the context of original poetry. Words are introduced in a sequence designed to help students recognize onsets and rimes. Students must meet specified criteria for accuracy in each activity before advancing to the next, although the program can also be used in a more exploratory mode. Student progress is stored so that each new session is based on past performance.

Simon Sounds it Out (Don Johnston) contains 31 levels, each providing practice in frequently used sets of sounds (e.g., sk, eed). Each level consists of 5 lessons which focus sequentially on (a) beginning, (b) ending sounds, (c) combining beginning and ending sounds, (d) spelling, and (e) reading by matching words to pictures. The program carefully monitors students' progress and makes adjustments based on performance.

The Tenth Planet Literacy Bundle (Sunburst) is comprised of six literacy titles, each providing practice on a specific decoding skill, ranging from consonant sounds to vowel patterns to roots, prefixes, and suffixes. Each program can be purchased separately.

Titles in the Reader Rabbit series (The Learning Company) are organized by skill ranges (e.g., Reader Rabbit's Learn to Read with Phonics to Reader Rabbit 3) and provide practice in a variety of basic phonics skills.

Whereas the programs described above focus on the practice and reinforcement of word recognition through decoding, Sentence Master (Laureate Learning Systems) concentrates on high-frequency sight words. The program provides practice through game-like activities and then presents stories in which the vocabulary is controlled to include only those words students have mastered.