Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Neo keyboard writing and spelling game

We have been experimenting with the Alpahsmart Neo keyboard further, to much success. It's a very handy device to prompt output. An interesting game to try is typing messages to each other. My child is particular responsive to this. So a parent or sibling types a question or comment, then passes the keyboard to the child and the child types a reply. Usually it's just fun messages like: do you want a cup of tea? Who do you think will win the hockey tonight?

Today we tried an alternative with a spelling angle. I would deliberately type mistakes in my messages and see if my child could spot them. It's much easier to spot spelling errors when it's someone elses message.

The other thing I like about the NEO is it's so light, so it's like handing over an average sized book and the keyboard is manageable for small fingers because the keys are bigger.

This exercise also works very well with pen and paper, but use the keyboard when the child is fatigued and doesn't feel like writing, or if you want to get some typing practice in.

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