First Words ATF app for iPhone and iPad

FIRST WORDS.
This is a simple, easy to use, no frills app. It has been developed for convenience, aimed at casual use as well as for the classroom. However, unlike many early learning aids, this app is “age appropriate”, making it accessible to all and useful for those with additional learning needs. The app can be re-visited frequently for short, quick revisions and the counter can be used for setting personal goals.

This app is a perfect assessment tool for teachers, parents and students.

USING THIS APP
1. Select the number of ‘First Words’ you wish to practise.
2. Click the ‘play’ symbol to advance through the words.
3. The objective is to speed up random word recognition.
4. The counter can be used to create goals.

Learning note: Advance to the next level at your leisure but be prepared to go back to re-enforce where necessary.

SOCIAL WORDS
This screen is aimed primarily at those with a learning disability, to enable them to learn to recognise words which will help them develop independence skills in a wider environment. This also gives the teacher/mentor an opportunity to teach the student the meaning of the words.

PRACTISE MAKES PERFECT
When teaching reading it may be that we do not put enough emphasis on “DATA OVERLOAD”. A pupil can struggle to read even though you are sure they know the word, purely because there are too many words in front of them. The greater the student’s ‘sight vocabulary’ the easier reading becomes, enabling a greater degree of comprehension. With practise, improvement in speed of neurological processing, anxiety in coping with more words per page is reduced, giving the student more confidence to try new words.

As stated earlier, we have purposely randomised the words to avoid rote learning. However, due to this randomisation, words will occasionally appear consecutively, particularly in early stages.

This is a progressive learning tool, therefore the first 12 words will appear within the first 45 words and so on.

ACTIVE THERAPY FOUNDATION
Active Therapy Foundation is a UK charity with aims of promoting social inclusion, providing innovative and dedicated coaching therapy programmes, making "Active therapy" available to all, thus developing skills and enabling individuals to participate more fully in society.

Active therapy explores ways of developing higher achievement levels for people with disabilities. It pushes the boundaries of “accept and adapt” and has a direct approach to systematic problem solving.

The programme is practically based, working on the principle of self-achievement. It is designed to explore ways of giving a feeling of achievement at ALL levels of ability, breaking down the skills sufficiently so that EVERYONE CAN SUCCEED.