Price:  $9.99

Seller: Clozure Associates

Tablet: iPad

Educational Aspects:

• Fine Motor Control
• Letter Recognition
• Phonemic Awareness
• Word Recognition
• Reading Fluency
• Object labeling with nouns
• Sentence Formation
• Wh-questions

Description:

This app works on teaching children core vocabulary sight words to help improve reading fluency.  Based on the Dolch Word List, First Sight Words Professional consists of over 300 of the most common words in the English language.

Review:

The First Sight Words Professional app is simple to use and allows for individualized sight word practice.  You can choose from seven sets of sight words, including the following: “All Words,” “Pre-Primer” “Primer” “Grade 1” “Grade 2” “Grade 3” and “Nouns.”  Once you choose your sight word set, a target sight word appears with a Minspeak icon/picture.  Although ideal for most words, some of the Minspeak icons are abstract and may be difficult for the user to attach meaning to the target sight word.  After you correctly drag each given letter into the corresponding box and spell the word, the Minspeak icon spins to the top of the screen and makes a short sound effect, which may be rewarding to some users.  This app is great in that it has many options for word management to help personalize the sight word sets, such as: choosing word order (i.e. shortest to longest), presentation of letter sound (phonic) or letter name, the maximum word length, letter hints, and auto advance to the next word.  From a speech therapist’s perspective, this app is great to work on academic speech goals such as learning letter names and sounds in order to help with word recognition and reading.  It can be fast-paced and used as drill practice in order to learn sight words.  However, if you turn off the ‘auto advance’ option, it can also be used to work on speech goals such as sentence formation with the target sight word, object labeling of nouns, and answering wh-questions related to the target sight word.

Pros:

• Simple to use

• Six sets of sight words
• Several options for word management
•  Good for drill sight word practice

Cons:

• Not free (costs $9.99)
• Some abstract Minspeak icons
• User needs decent motor skills to drag letters
• Lacks a variety of sound effects or picture movements

First Sight Words Professional is a fun and interactive app, great for individuals who are beginning to spell and read.  With its many options, it can be individualized to each user’s level.  However, it has a high price point for the simplicity of the app.

Click to view and/or purchase First Sight Words Professional!

Provided by: Stefanie Meyer, M.S. CCC-SLP