Visual Teaching Alliance

New iPhone App: LetterReflex – Overcoming Letter Reversals

Apr 11, 2012

New iPhone App: LetterReflex – Overcoming Letter Reversals

Bette Fetter Creative Activities for Kids at Home 0 Comment

BinaryLabs introduce LetterReflex, an app for children ages 4+ featuring kinesthetic learning techniques to help kids tell the difference between b’s and d’s, p’s and q’s, as well as other commonly reversed letters and words. Letter reversals are to be expected by any young child learning the alphabet, the cause is a lack of directionality. To address directionality, the first concepts that need to be understood are the directions of “right” and “left.” LetterReflex helps children overcome common letter reversals in a game format that is inviting, engaging, interactive and user-friendly. Best of all, kids LOVE playing this app.

The first activity, Tilt It, uses kinesthetic learning to teach left from right. The player is asked to make a letter- b, d, p or q- by tilting the screen in order to move a ball to the upper, lower, right or left area of the screen and into the spot in which the letter’s circle portion should be placed. When in the correct location, the letter forms. When the ball lands in the spot, the letter is also pronounced, signifying the player is correct. The game gets progressively more difficult as the player succeeds and moves to the next level.

The second activity, Flip It, allows them to practice what they learned while honing their letter and word discrimination skills. The player is timed and the parent/teacher can document progress in speed, accuracy, and level achieved by the child. There are also the tracking and progress reports, making it easy to see what needs work as well as the ability to email the reports from the app.

“A key reason for letter reversals is that kids don’t really know their left from right. They may know that the letter loop of a ‘d’ should go on the left side, but they get their left and right mixed up” said Frank Jensen, CEO of BinaryLabs. “LetterReflex takes advantage of the iPad/iPhone’s tilt and touch screen interface and uses kinesthetic learning techniques to help them form an instinctive association of left and right to correct letter formation. They have to tilt and motion left and right and up and down to succeed using the app.”

The app is now available in the iTunes App store for an introductory price of $1.99, and is being targeted at occupational therapists, teachers and parents who are engaged in their children’s development.

For more great apps for your kids, visit:

www.bestappsforkids.org and www.teacherswithapps.com