[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” menu_anchor=”” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” class=”” id=”” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_position=”center center” background_repeat=”no-repeat” fade=”no” background_parallax=”none” parallax_speed=”0.3″ video_mp4=”” video_webm=”” video_ogv=”” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_loop=”yes” video_mute=”yes” overlay_color=”” video_preview_image=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”” padding_bottom=”” padding_left=”” padding_right=””][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type=”1_1″ layout=”1_1″ background_position=”left top” background_color=”” border_size=”” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” border_position=”all” spacing=”yes” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” padding=”” margin_top=”0px” margin_bottom=”0px” class=”” id=”” animation_type=”” animation_speed=”0.3″ animation_direction=”left” hide_on_mobile=”small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility” center_content=”no” last=”no” min_height=”” hover_type=”none” link=””][fusion_text]
“Make a splash this summer with your clients using Syllables Splash! This application is an under the sea motivational dream! With an underwater diving theme and characters to assist in syllable awareness, this application is not only great for phonological awareness but fun!“ Consonantly Speaking
Syllable Splash is a fun and engaging way to teach children the important skill of syllable segmentation. A multiplayer app designed with younger children in mind, Syllable Splash is colorful, fun, and easily adapted to the child’s zone of proximal development. With nearly 1000 images and words from one to four syllables in length, Syllable Splash is sure to provide many opportunities for learning this fundamental skill while the fun under-the-sea theme helps keep the child engaged.
“We think that increasing a child’s ability to recognize syllables in words can be a very productive activity. If a child can increase their ability to say one syllable at a time after seeing or hearing a word, that has been shown to increase a child’s ability to spell words! That makes this a great app for early readers and spellers to use in order to increase their phonological awareness skills.” Twin Sisters
The purpose for Syllable Splash is to encourage literacy skills and phonological awareness. Phonological awareness and syllable knowledge are important for breaking long words into readable chunks1. Many children without these skills may resort to guessing or bypassing the word completely2. In addition, Syllable counting is an integral skill necessary for the Kindergarten/First grade Language Foundations area of the Common Core State Standards3. Syllable Splash allows the parent, SLP, or teacher to teach this basic skill many of children are lacking. When the adult continues asking questions about the picture, the student is encour aged to expand language skills.
“Although Syllable Splash is designed to mainly practice the task of syllable counting, in our opinion, it can also be used for increasing spelling awareness, multiple syllable word reading skills, and for practicing verbal expression of 1 to 4 syllable words. We typically are targeting one or more of these goals with the students that we see at our speech clinic, so that is why we think this app is terrific!” Twin Sisters
[one_half]
Adding a student:
You must add a player to the application prior to starting the game. To add a student press the “Add a Player” button. From the new pop up window, you will choose an avatar, take a photo, or choose a photo from the camera roll to associate with their profile. You will add the name on the line to type the user’s name via the keyboard. Press “Done” to add the user to the list of user profiles.
You can edit profiles later by double tapping on the user’s photo.
You can also add user profiles by importing students at the same time via the free Therapy Report Center (TRC) application.
[/one_half]
[one_half_last padding=”0 0 0 10px”]
[/one_half_last]
[full_width padding=”20px 0 0px 0px”]
Starting a game:
After you select the students, just tap play to start the activity. Syllables Splash allows you to play with one or multiple students at the same time. The students will take turn selecting the correct answer each time.
With each turn, an image or word is displayed on the viewing window of the underwater submersible. The child can press in the window area to hear the narrator read/state the word aloud. The child decides how many syllables the word has by choosing the correct number (1, 2, 3, or 4). If the child chooses incorrectly, a mini-animation eliminates the wrong choice.
[one_half padding=”20px 0 0px 0px”]If the user needs help, the child or the clinician can press the “Help” button shaped as a starfish and an animated turtle will clap the syllables in the word.
[/one_half]
[one_half_last padding=”20px 0 0px 0px”]Watch out for the shark that appears when a wrong answer is selected!
[/one_half_last]
At the end of the session, a report card is generated indicating how the student has done. This report card is stored within the app; however, it can be exported into the Therapy Report Center, emailed, or printed from within the app as well. The report card is a useful tool for progress monitoring and report writing.[/full_width]
[one_half padding=”0px 10px 20px 0px”]
[/one_half][one_half_last padding=”0px 0 20px 0px”]
[/one_half_last]
[full_width]
Syllable Splash is customizable from the opening screen and inside the app itself. From the select participants screen, the adult can choose the level of syllable difficulty (1-4) and the response for an incorrect answer.
Syllable Splash also includes a setting that will automatically adapt to fit the child’s skill level. In the beginning, the adult has the choice of the number of foils (incorrect choices) available (1-3) and to automatically increase the difficulty. If the child scores 10 correct answers in a row, the app will automatically add another foil (up to 3). This is an easy way of increasing the difficulty level to keep it within the child’s zone of proximal development.
[one_half padding=”20px 10px 0px 0px”]From inside the app, the adult can choose between an image or, for the older student, the written word.
Syllable Splash is being used in regular education classrooms!
“Syllable awareness facilitates fluent and effective decoding (identifying an unknown word in print) and encoding (hearing and recording the sounds in an unknown word in writing). The Syllable Splash iPad app is utilized to support student identification of the number of syllables in a spoken word during guided and independent application.” Jannifer Davis[/one_half]
[/full_width]
[one_half padding=”0 10px 0 0″]
[/one_half]
[one_half_last]
[/one_half_last]
[one_half padding=”0 20px 0 0″]
Reviews:
Nikki Heyman“Syllables Splash is a ready- made option that is great for tagging onto the beginning or end of a session for some extra practice. For parents, this is an easy to use App that empowers them in helping their child develop some of the phonological awareness skills necessary.”
http://talkingtalk.co.za/app-review-syllables-splash/
Jenna Rayburn“This app can be used to target a lot of phonological awareness goals. We used the same words to target rhyme and alliteration too! The app has a built in feature that increases difficulty automatically if selected.”
http://thespeechroomnews.com/2013/05/syllable-splash-app-review-giveaway.html
“Syllable Splash is a great tool for educational and clinical speech language pathologists who work with younger students on improving their phonemic/phonological awareness skills. It provides high quality learning expectations in a fun manner. For this reasonable low cost, it is well worth the money.”
AppAble.com
[/one_half][one_half_last]
Sources:
1. Spelling City (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.spellingcity.com/syllables-segmenting.html
2. Toman, C. & Moats, L. (n.d.), Six Syllable Types. Reading Rockets. Retrieved from
http://www.readingrockets.org/article/28653/.
3. English language arts standards . (n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.corestandards.org/ELA-Literacy/RF/K/2/b
[/one_half_last][/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
