This is a spelling aid for children. It is an on screen
dictionary which can be used alongside a wordprocessor. When the children are stuck on how
to spell a word they can type it into the spellbank. Spellbank provides a list of possible
correct spellings, the child clicks on the correct spelling and then on 'insert' to add it
into the text. The words offered are generally a good match and most of the time the word
the children wanted was available.
Specific spelling banks can be built up for individual children and topics. There was
some scope here for working collaboratively with the children to make these. It gave the
opportunity to discuss spelling, to talk about words which may be a problem generally and
words which may be a problem related to a certain topic. Working this way meant that some
more adventurous words could be put in the spellbank to help extend the child's
vocabulary. Unfortunately lists of words can be somewhat daunting to some children and
there is no way around this with this particular program.
This work was mainly carried out with special needs children, although if I continued
using it I would use it with more able children, as this particular spelling program is
not the best for supporting children with special needs.
On the whole neither I nor the children this product particularly easy to use and
unfortunately I got little help from the Semerc helpline.
The main disadvantages to this program are:
- That it's not an integral spell checker, which means that children have to realise they
do not know how to spell the word and then look it up using spellbank.
- That the wordbanks are difficult to read for special needs children for whom generally
this type of software is seen as helpful.
Words from the spellbank can be spoken which helps to some degree.
- The individual wordbank facility was the most useful part of the program.
- Some children have continued to used spellbank independently but most have returned to
using the computer's spell checker.
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