Nouns & Sounds

Reviewers: Headstart Students and Louise Dannehl
Assistive Technology Funding Coordinator/Consultant
Cozad, Nebraska
ldannehl@esu10.org
Nebraska Educational Assistive Technology (NEAT) Center

Nouns & Sounds
Laureate Learning Systems, Inc.
http://www.laureatelearning.com
Hybrid CD-ROM for either Mac or IBM with User's Manual
Published: 1998
Reviewed: March, 2000
List Price: $105
Rating: 10 on a scale of 1 to 10, Way Cool!

Nouns & Sounds is a program designed to provide children with opportunities to develop and build auditory awareness, perception, and discrimination of environmental sounds. Throughout the program, a child receives feedback through both auditory and visual modalities. The program is written for children with special needs but I believe any young child would benefit from and enjoy use of the program. Practice and skill-building of both receptive and expressive language is possible with Nouns & Sounds.

Nouns & Sounds includes seven different activities with user options within each activity. A description of activities follows:

Activity 1 - "Introducing Nouns and Sounds" is a listening activity in which the child is introduced to a common environmental sound i.e., train, while a lifelike picture of a train appears on the screen. Auditory awareness is the theme of the activity.

Activity 2 - "Matching Nouns and Sounds" requires auditory discrimination by the user . A picture appears which is named and the sound given. The user then sees two or three pictures and is asked "What picture makes this sound?" The user makes a selection aided by unsolicited visual cueing if the teacher chooses.

Activity 3 - "Is This the Right Sound?" asks the child to decide whether the sound given matches the picture shown. The response is given by choosing the head nodding yes or the head shaking no. Auditory discrimination is the necessary skill for this activity.

Activity 4 - "Exploring Noun Sounds" gives the child the opportunity to see pictures of 6, 8, or 12 nouns, then click on a picture to hear it identified and to hear the sound. The activity strengthens the child's recognition of noun/sound pairings.

Activity 5 - "Identifying Noun Sounds" asks the child to identify the correct picture which answers the question "Which one makes this sound... ?" The activity may be set to display 6, 8, or 12 pictures from which to choose.

Activity 6 - "Concentrate on Noun Sounds" is a game of concentration in which the user chooses two cards from a face down array of 6, 8, or 12 cards and attempts to match two identical sounds. The option exists to find matches based on sounds alone without the pictures. That option requires great auditory memory.

Activity 7 - "Remember That Sound" requires the child to listen to a sound played by the computer, then after a delay, find the correct picture from a choice of either two or three pictures. The length of delay is variable and determined by the teacher.

Laureate produces terrific software for children with or without special needs. Many options exist within Nouns and Sounds which make it possible to customize the program for individual users and to accommodate a wide range of users. The teacher can choose the nouns to be introduced within the lesson either by single noun or by a complete category. The Preferences dialog box provides choices which include different scanning options or direct select, hiding the mouse cursor, response time for scans, and color options, among others. The user experiences success aided by subtle cueing within each activity and can be rewarded with animation if the teacher chooses. The animation includes dancers doing a variety of dances which are entertaining and rewarding.

A user log can be created for an individual user which tracks the activities the student has completed, progress made, and remembers the settings from the last session. There is a window within the user log in which teacher notes can be inserted to further document student behavior, success, preferences, etc.

Nouns and Sounds, in true Laureate fashion, provides motivating, attention-grabbing activities for children which help to build auditory and language skills. A minor annoyance for me, the adult, is that the program runs with the screen set at 800 x 600, and my monitor is normally set at 640 x 480, meaning I have to change it every time I start up the program. A minor annoyance and not important enough to lower the rating of the software.

My Headstart students, some who use English as a second language, loved the software and the environmental sounds. They were able to maneuver through the program with very little teacher support, even to the point of changing activities and beginning a new activity. I believe any young child would enjoy and benefit from Nouns and Sounds, but it is especially appropriate for children with special needs and for English as a Second Language students.

Definitely a 10 - Way, way cool!!!

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