First Words II

$235, Win 98, Win XP, Mac OSX

Teaches: special education, vocabulary, language

CTR Review

The following review was done by Kelly Riley, graduate student at Eastern Michigan University and a special education teacher. This tutorial expands a child's receptive vocabulary using words associated with common objects. It can be used with a mouse, a single switch, keyboard, touch screen or a compatible pointing device. For my classroom, these multiple accessibility options are great. I used a single switch device with scanning to do this review. Getting to the fi rst menu is quick and easy and the instructions are clear. There are teacher controls that can be activated as well as progress charts for multiple students, and it is possible to set a time limit for each student. Many of my lower functioning students can only handle an activity for a very short amount of time, so this timer is very helpful. The program has five training levels. Level 1 covers cueing and feedback. Level 2 is single picture scanning which is also instruction, cueing and feedback, but the pictures on the screen move farther apart. Level 3 is basic two picture training which is the same as level 1 and 2, but gives the student a choice between two pictures rather than one. Level 4 takes away the cueing feature and provides only instruction and feedback, and Level 5 gives feedback only. These are nice levels to have because it starts out giving the student a lot of help so he or she can be successful and then slowly allows the student to become more independent. Other content includes a testing activity, some supplemental activities and a wonderful feature called optimized intervention, which monitors student performance and adjusts the training levels and program variables accordingly. For young students who are low functioning, the software design is great. There are not a lot of distractions, the pictures are clear and the sounds are meaningful. The price ($235) includes a printed set of vocabulary cards.