Smiletown

Reviewer: Louise Dannehl
Assistive Technology Funding Coordinator/Consultant and Head Start Students
Cozad, NE
ldannehl@esu10.org

Smiletown from Gakugei of Osaka, Japan
Hybrid CD Rom for either Mac or Windows, Brief explanation and set-up guide included
Evaluated on IMAC
Tech support accessed by mail, E-mail or fax Date Reviewed: January, 2000
Date Published: 1998
List Price: U.S. $19.00
Rating: 8 on a scale of 1 to 10, Cool.

Smiletown is described as a fun, basic English course for children from 2 years to 7 years of age. Charlie, Andy, Perry and Charlie's band guide the user through the twelve corners of Smiletown, each of which focuses on a specific English skill which combine to build English skills in three major steps. The user is able to select any of the corners without following any set sequence. The three steps, corners in each of the steps, and their activities include:

STEP ONE: Charlie and his band help children learn the letters in the following activities:
ABC Magic - Child learns the alphabet and sounds by repeating the letter names Big and Small Letters - Child matches upper and lower case letters Let's Write - Child practices writing upper and lower case letters by lifting a cow to the correct starting point of the letter ABC Dance - Child learns the sounds of the letters in words by selecting one of two choices

STEP TWO: Andy helps the children learn spelling and grammar in corners 5-7. Which Letter? - Child selects one of two choices to complete the spelling of a given word
Tag - Child selects letters to spell words while playing Tag Go for It, Andy - Child begins to learn basic grammar by listening to and matching singular and plural nouns with correct verb forms

STEP THREE: Andy and Perry team up to help children learn vocabulary and practice conversation.
What's This? - Child learns vocabulary by seeing a picture of an object and seeing and hearing it's label
Body Parts - Child finds injured body parts according to cues Let's Talk - Andy and Perry demonstrate appropriate conversational sentences for different situations; the user can also record conversation Color Fun - Child learns to identify color names in a game format Number Fun - Child practices number identification in a game format

The children who tested Smiletown were four and five year olds, some with English as their second language. They liked the program and enjoyed the characters (all of whom are gentle, expressive, and low-key). For students who have experienced more fast-paced programs and who are experienced with the computer, I believe Smiletown would be a little tame. As a teacher, I appreciated that.

Instructions for the game format activities are minimal and in Color Fun and Number Fun, difficult to understand. Mouse manipulation was difficult for the less experienced, but I believe that would get better quickly. Even those with little English were able to participate and model actions of students with more experience.

The thing I, as a teacher, like best about Smiletown is the positive reinforcement and overall positive feeling of the program. It does contain skill practice in areas mentioned, but I believe the ages of 2-7 are misleading. I don't know any two-year-olds who are learning letter names and sounds. The 4-5 year-olds were just beginning those skills. Several of the activities involve a long wait time (Body Parts) during which the students (and I) started clicking to see what we were supposed to be doing. The description of Smiletown as a fun, basic English course for children from 2 to 7 is a stretch, but children would enjoy it as a supplement to other instruction on a short-term basis.

Return to ConnSENSE Bulletin