Word Wizard for Kids School Ed app for iPhone and iPad


4.6 ( 1056 ratings )
Games Education Educational Word
Developer: Pierre Abel
7.99 USD
Current version: 6.4.6, last update: 1 year ago
First release : 21 Jul 2011
App size: 327.44 Mb

• "Speak ‘N Spell for the iPad Generation" - The New York Times •

Word Wizard is an award-winning app used in schools that offers several unique reading and spelling activities for children ages four to 10.

--Learn to Read by Building Words --

• The Talking Movable Alphabet activity allows kids to experiment with word building and phonics thanks to the advanced text to speech engine (the first step in learning to read)
• Any text can be written and spoken
• 2 child voices + 5 adult voices (US, UK & Australian voices)
• Uppercase & lowercase letters, numbers, digraphs, ABC or QWERTY keyboard
• Many settings to adapt the activities to the child’s needs (letter size, assign images to words, high contrast modes for kids with visual impairment,...)

-- Learn to Spell using the Talking Movable Alphabet and your word lists --

• 3 spelling activities that increase in difficulty
• 200 built-in word lists (about 2000 words)
• Add your own words to create unique spelling quizzes!
• Add your own images to illustrate your word lists
• Keep tabs on your children’s progress with detailed reports

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• Used in Schools (140K units sold to schools)
• "This is an important breakthrough in reading instruction" - The New York Times
• "This is a fantastic app for young children, right through to children in later elementary school " - Wireds GeekDad
• Editors Choice Award for Excellence in Design - Childrens Technology Review
• Winner of a Parents’ Choice Award
• More than 290K units sold!
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Talking Movable Alphabet Activity
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• Pronounce and spell-check any word, number or sentence
• Natural Sounding Voice - three American voices, one British voice, and one Australian voice
• Letter sound (phonic) or name when a letter is touched in the alphabet
• Alphabetic or QWERTY layout, letters, numbers, consonant digraphs (like “th”) and vowels digraphs (like “oo”)
• Uppercase or lowercase letters
• Keyboard emulation option
• 4 letter sizes available (allowing for more or fewer letters on the board)
• Customized word pronunciation, if necessary
• Accessibility: external keyboard support and 4 high contrast modes available
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Fun Spelling Activities
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3 spelling activities of increasing difficulty are provided to adapt the activity to the child’s spelling level. You can use the built-in word lists or create your own.

1 - "Word Practice" says and displays the word to spell, and asks the child to spell it using the talking movable alphabet
2 - "Scrambled Letters" says the word and displays the letters needed to build the word or sentence, and asks the child to reorder the letters.
3 - “Spelling Quizzes” is a standard spelling test. The app won’t move onto the next word until the child has correctly spelled the word, helping them to remember its correct spelling.

• 200 built-in word lists: Words for beginners, Dolch Words, 1,000 most frequently used words, body parts and more
• Create custom Word Lists by entering your own words and sentences
• Import and export Word Lists you’ve created
• Hints are available should kids not know how to spell a word
• Colorful animations are displayed when a word is completed
• Once a quiz is completed, interactive animations are available as a reward

-- Users & Reports --
• Unlimited number of users
• Detailed Spelling Test Reports per user (can be exported in PDF)
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More Accolades
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• The New York Times
"This is an important breakthrough in reading instruction because it leverages the iPad’s size, powerful speech synthesis abilities, and touchscreen so that every letter can be a building block of phonetically accurate sound"

• Childrens Technology Review
Editors Choice Award for Excellence in Design - 4.8 stars out of 5 - "Turn your iPad into a talking alphabet/language generator - and the perfect tool for a child just starting to experiment with letters and their sounds"
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Please send any feedback or suggestions to support@lescapadou.com

Pros and cons of Word Wizard for Kids School Ed app for iPhone and iPad

Word Wizard for Kids School Ed app good for

My kids (3 and 5) cannot write yet but this app has really helped them to realized the different sounds of the letters. Very nice to be able to configure the accents too. Im a very big fan of LEscapadou apps, they make learning become so fun!
What a wonderful app. Having grown up in the sixties and learning phonics, I believe this app will help my grand children to learn language.
This is useful for both my 5 year old and my 3 year old. Great concept!
What We Liked: Every homeschooling family with young children has at least one set of magnetic alphabet letters or tiles. Keeping track of these letters, particularly with toddlers in the house can be quite tricky, so Word Wizard seemed like an answer to prayer for me. It is so much more than a magnetic letter set though! The unique text to speech mechanism allows children to both freely play with letter combinations and to practice building meaningful words in structured spelling practice. This app has huge potential if you are teaching with phonics – you can sit down with a child and segment out simple words together, and explain more complex spelling rules as your child grows by showing how the sound of the word changes as new letters are added. I love that you can create your own customized spelling list as well. My daughter loves the animation screen and is very motivated to work through a few lists of ten words each so that she can enjoy different animations that she can draw and play with when she is done. The dictation (the app asking your child to spell a word and then having them build it) approach to spelling is incredibly effective and time-tested. This is a truly innovative, new tech way to use this technique with your children and keep them interested in the entire spelling/word creation process. What We Didn’t Like: This app would be even more incredible if it included some statistics, tracking, and reporting functions that would let you have multiple children using the app whose spelling results it would keep track of as each list is completed. As it is, you have to assign a list, and then hope you can get a hold of the results screen before your child dives into the animated reward segment of the app. My daughter did mention that the voice is a bit unclear at times. Computer speech generation has come a LONG way, but you can tell it’s still computer generated and a little bit off. Overall: Throw your remaining motley crew of alphabet magnets away – Word Wizard is here! Whether you are teaching the alphabet, spelling, or reading with phonics, Word Wizard is an app you should definitely add to your list of must-haves for the grade school years. Disclosure: I received a promo code to download this app.
This app is great! I bought it for my 8 year old, who has disabilities, but its been AWESOME for my typically developing 5 year old as well. I LOVE that you can have the letters "say" either their phonetic sound or their letter name. Both my girls love making silly phrases and hearing them read aloud. Sometimes when the girls arent listening well, I type in a message and play it to them to get their attention. Great app. PS: weve also had fun with this app in school as a really fast alternative voice for my older girl. She doesnt speak, and its really quick and easy to simply put a few word choices into the top and let her choose a word to respond with. Great reinforcement for literacy and just a wonderful app.
I use this app in my classroom to have students spell words, they are very motivated to use it and I like that the letters are phonetically spoken.

Some bad moments

LEscapadou is one of the best app developers out there. If they have created it, it should be 5 stars, and this app is no exception. I love that it really teaches kids how letter sounds go together. The interaction after a few correct answers is also wonderful. The ability for parents to work with the "settings" is fantastic. Overall, I LOVE THIS APP for my kids to learn spelling!
We are just beginning to use this app for its intended purposes, as we have spent a good deal of time just playing with the movable alphabet screen. My entire family enjoys creating messages for each other for fun. My daughter, who is using this for spelling is delighted by the animations that tell her when shes correct, and I like the simplicity of the layout. It is colorful, but not too busy. In addition to the many other assets of this app mentioned in other reviews, I must add that I have had a completely positive interaction with the developer. I had a few questions which he quickly and thoroughly answered.
Both our 4- and 6-year old grandsons love playing it. For them its a game that competes w other-nonlearning (imho) games. It has lots of important features, like a parent being able to silence sounding out curse words or only a parent being able to access tools. Let me echo that the developer is very responsive to (even my stupid) questions.
I like this apps very much, its so cool to hear native voice on each word. Its very clear and so smart made.
We use this app in our school as a part of our multisensory phonics program for students with dyslexia and other reading disabilities, and we love it! Students can manipulate letters, hearing their sounds as they are touched and words as they are formed. Spelling lists can be customized, so students can practice a preset pattern or group of words. I recommend this app to parents as well - its a great way to practice spelling words each week!
I recommend this app to all of the clients that need help with reading and spelling when I do a consultation/training. I love the interaction and the spelling tests! I use them mainly for uniquely challenged individuals so that FINALLY they can learn with multiply senses engaged.

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