Hearbuilder Phonological Awareness
Hearbuilder Phonological Awareness gallery
What parents need to know
Parents need to know that HearBuilder Phonological Awareness is a subscription-based program that helps kids develop phonological awareness, the ability to pick up on the sounds in spoken language, which can improve reading. Conversely, reading improves phonological awareness, so some emerging readers might struggle with some of these auditory exercises that test attention and listening skills as well. Kids will advance through rock band-themed activities; note: since the app is generally for classroom use, you may want to work through the games along with your child.What kids can learn
The rock-band theme works wonderfully for developing phonological awareness, and each activity is brief enough to challenge students and keep their attention. Listening activities require concentration and focus.
Broad range of activities develop phonological awareness as they challenge students at three levels, and help them develop phonemic skills and improve listening skills.
Free introduction includes several activities but doesn't track progress. Subscription plans range from individual student options to full school district plans.
What's it about?
Kids work on nine phonological awareness skills: Sentence Segmentation, Syllable Blending, Syllable Segmentation, Rhyming, Phoneme Blending, Phoneme Segmentation & Identification, Phoneme Deletion, Phoneme Addition, and Phoneme Manipulation. The activities' story revolves around a rock-band theme, with each activity relating to the band -- album titles, making music, getting new band members. In the activities, kids hear words and manipulate them, changing vowel sounds or beginning sounds to create new words -- all of which must be identified by how they sound. They can hit the redo arrow to hear the instructions and words again, but no visual hints are offered.
Is it any good?
HEARBUILDER PHONOLOGICAL AWARENESS is designed with classrooms in mind, but parents may find it useful to check kids' awareness of sounds. The activities are game-show style, with voice-overs asking questions and giving options for kids to choose answers from. The rock band backstory is fun; the music theme will get kids excited, while it underscores the sound/listening concepts. The activities themselves are challenging and require focused listening skills; parents would most likely want to sit with kids one-on-one to work through them.
Families can talk about...
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Families can talk about syllables and sounds in words and be careful to speak clearly and enunciate well around pre-readers.
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Practice reading aloud with your kids; help them with challenging words.
App details
| Devices: | iPad, Android, Kindle Fire |
| Price: | Free |
| Pricing structure: | Free to Try |
| Subscription price: | $59-$199/year |
| Release date: | April 9, 2014 |
| Category: | Education |
| Topics: | Music and sing-along |
| Size: | 76.30 MB |
| Publisher: | Super Duper Publications |
| Version: | 1.4.1 |
| Minimum software requirements: | iOS 6.0 or later; Android 2.2 and up |
