Description
This newest version of Simplex Spelling teaches English spelling and reading skills by using a powerful combination of phonics lessons, spelling/word patterns, our unique “reverse phonics” approach and contextually relevant spelling rules.
Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 teaches a full year of spelling curriculum and features over 450 high frequency spelling words to help build literacy. It provides 42 instructional lessons in phonics and spelling rules. Each lesson builds upon the skills learned in previous lessons, and students piece their spelling words together in a fun and interactive way. Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 uses our unique “reverse phonics” approach that acts like a personal spelling coach and guarantees success on every spelling word.
Spelling patterns and a wealth of spelling knowledge are contained within a beautifully simplistic interface. The powerful hint system phonetically sounds out each word while letting the student see all of the possible ways that a word can be spelled phonetically. Each word can be pieced together from its smallest or simplex sounds, and spelling hints and rules are provided to students in context and only as they are needed. Children can easily pick up and use Simplex Spelling as the introductory spelling list contains spoken instructions that gently guide the child through the app’s entire feature set.
Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 builds upon all of the great features from Simplex Spelling HD with new instructional lessons, additional spelling hints and tips, and choices for US, UK, and Canadian spelling.
Spelling is an auditory skill whereby words are sounded out from left to right. In fact, MRI scans done of the brain during studies on dyslexia have shown that in effective readers the brain reads sound by sound[1][2]. Spelling in the English language comes with a number of difficulties. In normal speech, many of the sounds are indistinct, and even if the sound is easily identified, there are often many different letter combinations that can make that sound. In order to address these issues, Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 provides the student with a hint button that can be used to sound out a word from left to right and display the different letter combinations that can make each sound. When the sounds are indistinct, the word is simply spoken normally within the sentence. However, the student will be able to hear each individual sound when he or she uses the hint button to sound out the word.
Strong spelling programs such as Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 can protect a child against learning disabilities. If a word is learned as a whole object, its letters are more likely to be scrambled. The words within Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 are sounded out and pieced together from left to right, thus training the brain to read effectively and efficiently. Students who are strong spellers are better communicators, and their work is considered more credible, as the reader is able to focus on the content rather than on the spelling errors.
Some people believe that they don’t need to learn their spelling patterns and rules and that they can just rely on a spell checker. However, a spell checker will only catch between 30 – 80% of spelling errors as it cannot tell which word was intended. For example, all of the following words are spelled correctly (see, sea, for, fore, four, wait, weight, made, maid, be, bee, to, too, two, rite, write, and right). A spell checker will let these, and many other words, pass even if they are not the words intended by the author. For a spell checker to be helpful in suggesting a word, the author needs to be a reasonably competent speller. The spell checker will only suggest the correct word if the attempted word is a close approximation.
Many studies have shown that phonics is a more effective means of teaching spelling and reading than using flash cards and the whole word approach. A 7 year study on phonics in the UK showed that students who learned their literacy skills with a full synthetic phonics approach were on average 3 years ahead of the rest of the population in their word reading skills after receiving 7 years of phonics instruction. Hence, in recent years the UK government has changed their country’s entire educational system over to a full synthetic phonics approach.
Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 takes phonics education to a new level by combining effective phonics lessons with our unique reverse phonics approach. This comprehensive phonics program is combined with contextually relevant spelling rules and reminders to teach students “How to Spell” English words. Studies have shown that not all good readers are good spellers, but good spellers invariably make good readers.
Simplex Spelling resources
Word Lists.
Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 Word Lists
The majority of the words for Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 were taken from the top 1000 most frequently occurring words in the English language, but does not include the Dolch words lists which are covered in our other spelling app Simplex Spelling HD. These high frequency words were then supplemented, where required, with additional other common English words based on word/spelling patterns to help enforce the concepts within each lesson.
Introduction
top, not, on, onto, into, spot, to, go, icon, so
1] Short a (a)
bag, bad, sad, sat, hat, gas, act, band, camp
2] Short a (a)
fact, flat, sand, stand, past, glad, plan, plants, grant
3] Short o (o)
job, mop, hop, prop, drop, crop, gone, cost, lost, lot, slot, soft, loft
4] Short i (i)
bit, fit, hit, sip, tip, trip, list, win, kin, skin
5] Short u (u)
dug, rug, bug, bus, fun, gun, bun, sum, cup, plus, hunt, dust, rust, trust
6] Short e (e)
led, web, wet, met, yet, felt, held, west, rest, test
7] Short e (e)
pen, hen, den, end, send, spend, step, sent, spent, kept, else
8] Long a (a_e)
base, case, care, ape, cape, lane, late, rate, state, safe, scale, trade, waste
9] Long a (ai)
tail, rail, fair, gain, pain, paint, train, wait, aid, paid, laid, raid, afraid
10] Long a (ay)
bay, hay, lay, pay, pray, clay, stay, tray, railway, gray (grey*) (grey**)
11] Long o (o_e)
dove, drove, stove, broke, broken, joke, poke, pole, hole, hope, rope
12] Long o (o_e)
note, vote, close, close, nose, rose, spoke, stone, bone, tone, lone, alone
13] Long o (oa)
oats, oak, soak, soap, loaf, load, float, coast, toast, board
14] Long o (ow)
row, low, mow, bow, blow, slow, flow, glow, grown, crow
15] Long i (i_e)
dive, drive, live, alive, vine, fine, mine, nine, wipe, wise, rise
16] Long i (i_e)
pile, mile, tile, tide, wide, wife, wire, tire (tyre*), entire, side, inside
17] Long u (u_e)
cube, cute, mute, mule, fumes, fuse, muse, amuse
18] Long e (ee)
deep, feed, feel, free, fleet, meet, week, seem, seen, steel, speed
19] Long e (ea)
deal, eat, beat, heat, hear, ear, dear, fear, clear, ease, east, least
20] Long e (ea)
mean, meat, real, tea, pea, plea, flea, sea, seat, speak, steam, team, near, year
21] Short o (a)
wan, wand, wasp, swap, swan, swab, swat, salt, halt, false, talk, stalk
22] Double Letter Endings
hall, mall, wall, tall, till, bill, fill, fell, sell, shell
23] Floss Rule (Double Letter Endings)
miss, pass, less, dress, class, cross, across, fitness, cliff, stiff, staff, refill, install
24] sh
shop, ship, shape, shake, share, sheet, shut, rush, cash, crash, fresh, finish, publish
25] th
path, than, thin, thus, cloth, clothes, month, method, within, without, teeth, breathe, beneath
26] ck
kick, lick, tick, sick, sock, rock, neck, pack, truck, thick
27] qu
quiz, quit, quite, quilt, quick, queen, equal, square, liquid
28] ch
inch, rich, chin, chips, chop, chose, cheek, chest, chalk, bunch, brunch, lunch, speech
29] er
ever, river, silver, winter, enter, fiber (fibre*)(fibre**), meter (metre*)(metre**), member, chapter, rubber, teacher
30] tch
fetch, catch, match, patch, scratch, itch, ditch, witch, switch, ketchup
31] ng
sung, stung, clung, king, spring, string, strong, belong, living, length
32] ar
art, arm, bar, barn, star, yard, dark, sharp, farther, apart, apartment
33] or
nor, born, sort, short, shore, core, cord, corner, order, forth, forest
34] y ending
lady, tiny, body, copy, army, easy, enemy, empty, fifty, ability
35] Soft g
age, huge, page, stage, danger, charge, large, logic, giant, gigantic, gym
36] Soft c
force, cent, center (centre*) (centre**), city, citizen, ice, nice, face, race, space, dance, instance, recycle
37] x
fox, fix, mix, tax, taxi, exit, exam, extra, expect, exactly
38] oo
foot, book, cook, hook, shook, hood, stood, wool, woof, wooden
39] oo
zoo, zoom, boot, choose, cool, pool, tool, room, moon, noon, afternoon
40] ir
sir, stir, shirt, squirt, firm, chirp, circus, circle, birth, third, thirst
41] ur
burn, turn, return, occur, current, church, during, further, surface, surprise
42] y endings on words containing a soft c, or soft g
icy, spicy, policy, fancy, mercy, energy, allergy, analogy, apology, legacy, agency, strategy, democracy
* UK spelling.
** Canadian spelling
initial Launch Trailer
What others are saying
SpecialNeeds.com
“Simplex Spelling is a top educational app for learning reading, spelling, and phonics, and after just the introductory lesson, it’s easy to see why.”
“Simplex Spelling points out that spelling is an auditory skill in which words are sounded out from left to right, and children can use the auditory cues and the hint button to help their brains develop and learn how to sound out words. “
“Simplex Spelling by Pyxwise is one of the most intensive and effective spelling applications available. The instruction is direct and easy to understand, and many children can use the app independent of their caregivers or educators.”
Fun Educational Apps
“Simplex Spelling Phonic 1 is another top spelling app by Pyxwise Software for iPhone/iPod/iPad.”
“Simplex Spelling Phonics offers is an easy to use, bright and clear spelling app. There is no distraction so kids can go on with learning. The method offered helps improve English spelling and reading.”
“We also liked that each word is used in a sentence which helps Kids improve their vocabulary and comprehension.”
“It offers a set lists of word and does not give you the flexibly to use your own words. We tend to agree as the goal of this app to is teach and learn the basics behind spelling. Each list corresponds to a group of words and adding other words would confuse the kids. It is not a spelling app to practice instead it is a teaching app where the goal is to learn the rules and set lists of high frequency words.”
“Simplex Spelling Phonics 1 is a great spelling app using the phonic[s] approach that we like! Kids can learn the foundations and basic rules behind spelling and thus ensure long term results. It is clearly presented, easy to use. It is a learning app in the sense that it does not offer any gimmick or animation, the whole focus is on learning how to spell and sounds rules. Another Fun Educational Apps Top Picks!”
Awards
Sources
1.Drs. Sally and Bennett Shaywitz (2003). “Neural Systems for Compensation and Persistence: Young Adult Outcome of Childhood Reading Disability.” BIOL PSYCHIATRY 54:25–33
2.Drs. Sally and Bennett Shaywit (2002). “Disruption of Posterior Brain Systems for Reading in Children with Developmental Dyslexia.” BIOL PSYCHIATRY 52:101–110