ConnSENSE Review: First Words I, First Words II, & First Verbs

Laureate's Sterling Editions of First Words I and First Words II and First Verbs

First Words I, First Words II, First Verbs Sterling Editions
Laureate Learning Systems
110 East Spring Street
Winooski, VT 05404-1898
1-800-562-6801
http://www.LaureateLearning.com

System Requirements:
Windows 300 MHz CPU or higher; Windows 95, 98, ME, NT4.0, 2000, XP or later; 64 MB RAM; 40MB available disk space; Windows compatible sound card; 8Xspeed CD-ROM
Macintosh PowerPC with a 300 MHz processor or higher; Mac OS 8.1 or later; 64 MB RAM; 40 MB available disk space
Published 2002
Cost: $235 single program; $470 for all three; reduced pricing available for multiple copies; demos available at 1-800-562-6801
Program evaluated on a PC on a school, classroom-based, networked computer.

Reviewed by: Janet LaMarre Lamarrejc@mansfieldct.org, Preschool Special Education Teacher & Terry Fers, Speech-Language Pathologist Goodwin Elementary, Mansfield, CT
Reviewed November 2002

Rating: A+

This is a computer-administered tutorial program that trains receptive vocabulary and is designed for use by people with diverse abilities, including very young children with special needs and adults with developmental disabilities. First Words I and First Words II include 100 words, which are among the earliest nouns to be understood by a typically developing 18 month old. First Verbs include 50 of the earliest verbs to be understood by typically developing 2 year olds. The program comes with an appendix of pictures and photographs used in the program. Each program offers five training levels, Instructional Introduction, Single Picture Training, Basic Two-Picture Training, Intermediate Training, and Advance Training.

We particularly liked the different representations of the same word, for instance there were several pictures or photos of different types of dogs. This encourages generalization from the beginning. You can select either pictures or photographs and both are very authentic-looking. One of the children who used the program is also learning English as a second language and this proved a motivating training tool for him.

The animation by both the character Blob, used to reinforce correct answers when an incorrect response is given, and by the character Zot, who appears periodically to teach the concept were extremely entertaining to the children we targeted to use the program.

The "Optimized Intervention " is a feature that allows teachers to create individualized instruction for language intervention. There are many variables that are easily changed to meet the needs of individual children, such as animation, cueing, picture type, response time, background, response target, and the text. For instance, we worked with several young children new to the computer and we were able to choose a very large cursor that matched the smaller one they will typically see.

For several of the children it was fun for them and motivating for them to repeat the easy-to-learn phrases that are repeated often throughout the program. Miles enjoyed several segments where Zot opened presents to show a ball and typed on a computer to make a book. He repeated these phrases to me, such "Its a birthday surprise!" and wanted me to act them out with him.

The "Sterling Administration System" is a program feature that makes it possible to easily build and maintain student files, analyze performance data and write comprehensive reports. However, for this feature to be useful, it has to be very carefully monitored by the adult. If an adult is not closely observing the use of the program, the results of the session may not accurately reflect the childs performance. For instance, after a few minutes of successfully using the program, Sam decided that he wanted me to label the alternate picture each time. If I failed to do so, he would select that, incorrect, picture and look at me. Therefore, to get the maximum use of the program an adult should be working with the child and using the program as a tool to facilitate language development.

The technology coordinator in our district had to install this program because of our schools security system. He ran into several snags when doing this. He describes the problems as follows: Our school system uses the program Fortress 4.0 as a security system on our Windows 95 and 98 machines. The security software controls access to several parts of the operating system and certain sets of system level files and resources. To run the First Words I, First Words II, and First Verbs programs several security settings inside Fortress had to be modified to allow the program to run. The conflict was undocumented in the program manual. Our procedure was to use a "trial and error" method on Fortress settings to make the accommodations allowing the program to operate. Users that have this type of security software in place (or similar programs such as FoolProof and WindShield) will need a solid working knowledge of the security software or assistance from a school based technology support person to adjust their security settings before the program will operate. Also in our school setting the video setting for QuickTime 5 had to be adjusted in the Control Panel to place QuickTime 5 into "safe mode" to allow the portions of the program that are QuickTime driven the ability to run. However, that adjustment was particular to this one set of computers in our school with similar video cards and drivers that have had historic problems with QuickTime.

We used this program with children, ages three to five, who are both typically developing and with special needs. Older children quickly became bored with the program. Younger children could have benefited from a touch screen, as many of them are confused about the use of a mouse and this hampers really learning the words. This modification is available in the program, but not on my classroom computer.

Janet says, "I will admit that I am biased in my review. I have used Laureate software since my Apple IIE days. I've updated as my computers have changed and new editions have come out. But, this latest edition's improvements have been the best so far, so it's just made a great program even better!"

Laureate Learning Systems maintains a website at http://www.sterlingeditions.com where helpful tips, updates, an interactive "Ask Dr. Wilson" page and tutorials are available to users.