Comments on: Why We’re a Bit Wary of Software (But Still Curious)

By: Cynthia Vereide

Cynthia Vereide — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 20:34:15 +0000

I am so impressed using Teachtown with a 5 year old foster child. While other ed softwares are not on his level, Teachtown is. The “busyness” of other programs isn’t there. Just one thing at a time to do, or match. The spoken directions are simple. My guys vocab has increased greatly since starting this program 1 1/2 months ago. He is in his 100th or so lessons, with 3o some mastered. I would give this a try and not wait for summer. My little guy is in school all day most days, (preschool and therapies), and he still wants to do it.
Cynthia Vereide (Washington State)

By: Bonnie Sayers

Bonnie Sayers — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 02:20:14 +0000

Kristina – have you done the trial yet? I am thinking now might be a good time while home on vacation.

By: Cathy Mealey

Cathy Mealey — Fri, 02 May 2008 11:57:19 +0000

We have been devoted TeachTown fans for one year and I can’t say enough about what a fantastic teaching tool this has been for Liam (age almost 7). We signed up for the free trial and then we were hooked! The reporting features are fantastic – you can see exactly how many trials, prompted and unprompted, were necessary for your child to master a particular section. They suggest lots of supplementary activities to help reinforce or teach a lesson. It is highly customizable for the moments when Liam only wants to focus on animal or letter lessons. The people at the company are fantastic and very helpful. We ultimately had TeachTown written into Liam’s IEP because he was making such tremendous progress on it, and it was so much better than having him play the same Elmo games on pbskids.org day after day! Liam frequently asks for TeachTown at home and at school, and he seems excited by the “reward” segments that come after a set number of trials.
Even if your child is not as much of a computer lover as Liam, do give the 30 day trial a chance. I have spread the word to other parents who might not know about TeachTown, and most reviews have been positive. I am so glad they are getting some good press because their product has been fantastic for us, and given Liam ABA type instruction at a price we can afford and a method he prefers!

By: Marla

Marla — Fri, 02 May 2008 04:51:10 +0000

Very interesting. I went to the site and spent a long time looking at it. I think M is advanced past this software but had something like this been available for me to purchase when she was younger I certainly would have given it a try. You can’t beat the monthly cost of it and you can even get a free trial. I hope that most of the tasks are computer related and not expecting lots of one to one activities with parents. I know I would have loved something where M could have worked on the computer rather than me constantly playing with her when she was younger. We never did ABA but looking over it I would not hesitate to try it.

By: Storkdok

Storkdok — Fri, 02 May 2008 02:23:12 +0000

Thanks for the information, Kristina! A free trial sounds great! I need to fill in some hours for this summer, too!

I also got “The Transporters”, the DVD on emotions from Dr. Simon Baron-Cohen and have been using it for almost a year. Alex likes it a lot, it is similar to Thomas Train only better, I think. I got a message from Dr. BC a couple of months ago, they are going to be distributing this DVD in the USA starting this summer. You can read about it and try an episode at http://transporters.tv

I also got Dr. BC’s “Mind Reading” DVD about a year ago, and it is good, although Alex prefers The Transporters at age 7.

Alex has learned a lot about emotions from these interactive DVDs and is now constantly trying to figure out how people around him are feeling by their voices and facial expressions!

Every little bit helps! And I especially like the “free trial”! Thanks for the tip!

Karen

By: Kristina Chew, PhD

Kristina Chew, PhD — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:29:03 +0000

Hi Bonnie, yes, comments with links usually end up in the moderation queue and (argh!) sometimes in the SPAM box. I just found your comment and took it out (and I’ll be answering your question about the dentist by the end of the evening, sorry I have not yet done this). Would love to know what you think of those programs—-

By: Bonnie Sayers

Bonnie Sayers — Fri, 02 May 2008 01:02:18 +0000

Are comments with links taking longer to post? I did one when this was first posted and then tried again when I did not see it and got an error report that it was a duplicate.

I had posted the link to stages software and said I wanted to do the 30 day trial as well and that I have a packet from Laureate and have not gotten around to using it yet.

By: Jennifer

Jennifer — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:16:05 +0000

My district bought the Discrete Trial Trainer for my students several years ago. It’s not online, but it’s extremely customizable and not visually cluttered at all. It also comes with a range of reinforcers (mini-games); I’ve never yet had a student that I couldn’t get engaged in one of them.

Generally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of discrete trial (it can be done well, but I believe should be only a portion of a child’s education) but it’s a wonderful format for the computer.

Maybe Charlie would prefer that, as its interface is so much less visual?

(Also, I’ve tried a variety of Laureate programs with many kids…not too many of them like them.)

By: Bonnie Sayers

Bonnie Sayers — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:33:29 +0000

I have been considering doing the 30 day free trial as well. I have a sample packet from Laureate software that I never got around to reviewing and seeing how Matt would like it.

During K-1 that teacher used this system that Matt really seemed to enjoy.

http://www.assistivetech.com/p-stages.htm

By: Regan

Regan — Thu, 01 May 2008 20:15:06 +0000

Thanks for the post.
AT one point Eleanor was glued to the computer. Now she can take it or leave it. Her preference is to have company while she uses it, and since I have to sometimes clarify or additionally teach something confusing in the program or fix it when there’s a bug, it works.

Overall, the computer has been positive; at a time when pros were saying that Eleanor was not able to receptively process, I took video of her able to process quite a bit on the computer. The problem was that the real-life method of instruction was so aversive that she was not motivated to comply. That led to a major change in instruction. At one point she was not happy about having stories read to her, but liked listening to them on the computer; we eased in backwards from computer version to book version and that was helpful.

I agree with you about too much stuff going on. It’s not always reinforcing for Eleanor and gets in the way of the instruction. Headsprout, careful design and all, tanked. We did better with a structured in-person DI curriculum.

So it depends. I try to screen the program ahead of time to get my take. I’ll give something about a week, and if the ice is not thawing by then, it’s probably time to look at something else.