iTunes App Review: “Word Wall HD”

Word Wall HD – Emantras Inc

Released: April 13, 2011

ABOUT THE APP:

Help your child develop early reading skills with Word Wall. Watch them develop into confident and strong readers.

Introduce your young reader to Word Wall – an interesting and engaging app that helps beginning readers practice reading and writing skills through numerous funtastic activities!

Word Wall helps early to beginning readers learn to read and write by:

•Hearing, visualizing, vocally repeating and writing down letters and words.
•Providing activities that cater to budding readers using multiple learning styles such as spatial, visual, tactile, language-oriented, logical, or rhythmic.
•Engaging kids with four well-designed reading games that reinforce recognition of age appropriate sight and word family words.
•Providing structured learning for ESL/EFL and special needs students to help develop or improve their reading and writing skills.

Whether by assembling a jigsaw puzzle together in Jigsaw Words or playing a memory match game in Hide a Word, Word Wall provides hours of fun and practice in early reading skills engaging young readers to become successful and confident readers.

Take a look at how your child can learn with Word Wall:

See – young readers view letters and words along with a reference picture and visual cues. This reinforcement strengthens the association between the picture and the word helping them to remember and recall each word.

Hear – each letter and word is phonetically sounded out and repeated reinforcing letter-sound associations.

Say – young readers are prompted to say the words and repeat the words heard
repetitively, thereby helping to strengthen comprehension and memory skills.

Write – young readers generate narrative and writing skills that encourages visual and word connection.

Key Features:

•Kid-pleasing graphics and colorful interface
•Interesting and simple activities
•Over 75 sight words, and 12 word families with 65 word family words
•Caters to multiple learning styles
•Reinforces early reading skills

MY THOUGHTS:

This app is awesome!  It has so much in it that my boys (Ages 2 and 4) play with it constantly and have yet to get bored.  When you first open the app there are two main parts to choose from:  Writing ABC and Writing Words.  With Writing ABC you drag a letter down to a box and a child’s voice repeats the letter and sound of it.  With Writing Words you select a 2-letter group, drag those letters down to boxes and a child’s voice with sound out the letters and word.  Then a child will use those letters in a word.  For example, choosing “AT” will sound out the word “AT” and then use that word in a sentence such as “She plays at the park.”  Then you can drag a letter down in front of “AT” such as a “B” “C” F” and so on and it will sound out that word!  I think it is a great way for kids to learn how different letters make different words and sounds.

Other than the main two parts, there are four games to choose from:  See and Find, Hide a Word, Bubble Words, and Jigsaw Words.  Each deal with letters and words and make learning fun!

• See and Find – is memory-like flash cards but instead of matching two pictures, you pick a picture and the corresponding word.  So you pick a picture of a Ball and the word “Ball.”

• Hide a Word – you use a spotlight to find words in the dark and then when you find the word it says the word and shows a picture of it.

• Bubble Words – shows you a picture and then you have to drag the corresponding letters to spell out what the picture is.  So a picture of a Queen will show and you have to pick the bubble letters and drag them in order to the bubbles.  This one is a little hard for my 4 year old but I think he will catch on eventually.

• Jigsaw Words – is a picture of something with a letter on each piece.  You have to put the pictures together of the puzzle piece to spell the word.  So there will be four pieces of a BOAT and you have to match all the pieces together to spell BOAT.  This one again is a little tricky for my 4 year old but he is grasping how to match up the pieces.

Overall, I am very happy with this app.  It really focuses on letters, sounds, and corresponding words and pictures.  I think it will definitely help my boys and love how bright and fun looking the app is, which helps the appeal to my kids!  For the price too, you can’t beat it!

BUY IT: You can download Word Wall HD – Emantras Inc for your iPad for $0.99

Mom and More Disclosure: I received this app to review in exchange for my honest opinion. Please see my Disclosure Policy.