FAQ
Why does the syllabication of a word not match my dictionary?
Dictionaries do not separate words into syllables in a manner that is designed to teach spelling and reading skills. Also different dictionaries don't always agree on the way a particular word should be divided into syllables. Even different formats of the same type of dictionary may disagree on how a word should be divided (e.g. the syllabication of the word 'clever' in Webster's online dictionary uses a division of 'clev-er', while the printed 11th edition of Webster's dictionary uses 'cle-ver' instead). The exact syllabication of words is somewhat subjective and differs even amongst experts.
In Simplex Spelling Phonics 2 & "Advanced Phonograms" we syllabicate words in a phonics based manner that reinforces the rules of open and closed syllables to help students learn to spell and read. Even this approach requires some subjective decisions to be made on where the syllable breaks should appear for some words as there is not always only one correct way to separate every word. The goal in Simplex Spelling is to separate the words in a manner that makes it easiest for a student to remember the correct spelling of the word while also following phonics based rules for syllabication when it makes sense.
Note: The initial release of Phonics 2 had a few syllabication errors that were quickly adressed in an update that became available soon after the app was launched.
Does Simplex Spelling HD allow you to create/edit your own spelling lists?
No. At this time Simplex Spelling does not allow you to create/edit your own spellings lists. We do however think that this would be a great feature. If this is a feature that you feel strongly about, please send us some feedback via our support page.
What is "reverse phonics"?
Spelling in many ways is the opposite skill to reading. When you learn to read you learn letters and letter combinations and what sounds they can make. With spelling you know the sound in a word, but not the letter combination required to spell that sound. In Simplex Spelling our app breaks words down into the smallest units of sound and then teaches kids what letter combinations can make that sound. This is our unique "reverse phonics" approach.
So for example if you are trying to spell the word 'sat', the hint system would break the word into three sounds for the student 's' 'a' & 't' If the child clicked on the 's' hint it would show two choices: a letter 's'; and a letter 'c'.
This because a soft 'c' can make the 's' sound when it is followed by the letters E, I or Y in the English language.
The contextual spelling rules in the powerful hint system of our spelling app also teaches students this soft 'c' spelling rule, so that they understand when a letter 's' must be used in a word instead of a letter 'c'.
An example of a soft 'c' would be in the word "city". Where the letter 'c' makes the 's' sound, because it is followed by the letter 'i' (which is a spelling rule).
Simplex Spelling provides a hint system that breaks down every word provided in our spelling app into its smallest (or simplex) units of sound. It does this for all phonograms in the English language including the more complex letter combinations such as 'tch', 'oul', 'ough' etc.
How do I practice just the words that I haven't mastered yet?
There are two ways to practice words that have not been mastered.
1) After reaching the end of a word list, the button on the Main Menu will change to display "Missed Words". Clicking on this button will create a list of just the words that have not been mastered yet.
2)
Upon reaching the end of a spelling list, a summary of how many words were mastered is displayed. If you click on the "Keep Practicing" button, you will be presented with a "review" list that contains only the words that you have not yet mastered.
What are the spelling lists that are included in Simplex Spelling?
If you already own Simplex Spelling, you can view the words in each spelling list from the "Your Progress" menu by clicking on the graph icon at the bottom of the screen. In addition we have a complete listing of all the word lists on our website:
1) Simplex Spelling HD word lists.
2) Simplex Spelling Free Lite word lists.
3) Simplex Spelling Phonics - Rhyming With CVC Words.
4) Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 word lists.
5) Simplex Spelling Phonics 2 word lists.
6) Simplex Spelling Phonics - Advanced Phonograms word lists.
How are the spelling list organized?
Simplex Spelling Phonics 1, Phonics 2 and Advanced Phonograms organize all the spelling lists by one or more of the following: phonograms; word patterns; and spelling rules. The word lists in these apps also build on the concepts covered in earlier lessons.
Simplex Spelling HD - Dolch Sight Words has a different organization to the word lists that it contains.
The color groupings of the lists in the HD version correspond to each of the different Dolch word list categories according to Edward Dolch's classifications.
Green - Pre-primer
Blue - Primer
Purple - 1st Grade
Brown - 2nd Grade
Red - 3rd Grade
Orange - Dolch NounsWhen Edward Dolch created these lists he used the categories above primarily for non-native English speakers. For native English speakers Edward Dolch expected that all of the Dolch words should be mastered by the end of first Grade.
Why is there no sound?
The most common reasons for not hearing any sound in the application are:
1) The device's mute button is turned on.
2) The volume setting on the device is set too low.
3) The volume setting in the app's settings menu is set too low (the settings menu is accessed by tapping on the white cog icon on the bottom tool bar).
Shouldn't the phonogram at the end of the word Blue be a two letter "ue" phonogram?
Some phonics curriculums may teach a "ue" phonogram for the sound at the end of the word Blue. However, the "u" phonogram also makes the correct sound for similar words ending in "ue" and a "silent e" is required for words ending in "u" (such as Blue), because English words are not supposed to end in the letter "u". As the "ue" phonogram is already covered by another phonogram and an English spelling rule we feel it is better to teach it this way so that students have less rules to learn.
Note: In case you missed it, Simplex Spelling has a contextually relevant "hint star" below the "silent e" on the phonogram list that helps you understand why the word is spelled this way.
Wouldn't Simplex Spelling be even better if it gave out stickers or other things to collect?
At Pyxwise we don't think so, as we believe it is better for students to learn through intrinsic motivation. Stickers are an extrinsic motivator. Please read this wikipedia article on intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivators for more information about motivation. The problem with extrinsic motivators, is that they cause the student to focus on the reward rather than the joy of learning and the task itself. Once all the stickers/rewards have been collected students tend to lose interest and become unmotivated to continue. We believe that Simplex Spelling is a fun and interactive product that motivates students intrinsically to "want to be better spellers". Some studies have shown that students that are intrinsically motivated are in general more academically successful.
However that being said, it could be argued that our "success words" are a "subtler" form of a extrinsic motivator. The "success words", and especially the "mastered" word, are definitely a huge motivator for children. The focus of the "success words" is to give feedback directly on the task of spelling. As each child is different and you probably know best whether or not your student would work best with or without the "success words", we have included a way to turn them off in the settings menu.
Is there support for a QWERTY keyboard layout along with both lower and upper case letters?
Yes, Simplex Spelling supports these as well as other options that can be set individually for each user account. Simply click on the cog/settings icon that appears either at the bottom or top of the screen to view all the options that are available on the Settings Menu.
What languages are supported?
All of the Simplex Spelling apps are English only at this time and teach only English spelling.
However, our Simplex Spelling apps support spelling for the different forms of US, UK and Canadian English.
The text isn't appearing when I type in the name for a new user account. Is there any way to fix this?
We are currently aware of a single user that encountered this issue. However, as we can not reproduce this issue on any of the devices that we test with, it makes it difficult to track down and fix. You can still type the name and create an account, you just have to be careful because what you are typing is not displayed. At Pyxwise, we are committed to quality and really want to track down and fix this issue. If you are encountering this issue, we ask that you please contact us and provide us with information about what type of device you are using (e.g. iPad1, iPad2, iPhone 3GS, iPhone 3, iPod touch 3rd generation, iPod touch 4th generation, etc) along with the version of iOS that is installed on your device (on the device go to Settings->About->Version to get the version iOS version number). We thank you in advance for helping us to track down and fix this issue asap.
Simplex Spelling is failing to start. Is there anything I can do to fix this?
We had a report from one user that was unable to launch Simplex Spelling. Investigation determined that the cause was due to the device being completely full. Simplex Spelling requires space to be available on the device in order to save each user's progress and settings. If you are unable to start Simplex Spelling and your device is almost completely full, we recommend deleting some content that you are no longer using from your device (such as an unused app) and then attempting to start Simplex Spelling again. If this does not resolve the issue, try deleting Simplex Spelling from your device and reinstalling it and the problem should go away. We will be looking into providing better error messaging in the future to help users with this issue.