Super Why!

 

           

           My two-year-old has recently started singing the alphabet song. She sings, “A, B, C, W, X, Y, Z, NOW I KNOW MY ABCs! NEXT TIME WON’T YOU SING WITH ME…!!” Whoops. Beginning reading—specifically phonics—is my professional specialty, so I may take these things a little too personally…  That said, I was amenable, but not expecting much, when she wanted to play her older sister’s Super Why! game on the iPad.

            Super Why! is a PBS Kids show, but we don’t watch it at home; I’ve seen it a few times, and vaguely think of it as the show where those cartoon kids jump into a book. But Autumn clearly knew the show: she recognized the icon and chose the app herself. They must watch it at her babysitter’s house.

            At any rate, she opened the app and chose to play Princess Presto’s Wands Up Writing game. When the game opens, you see a four-letter array and three lines for letters. Princess Presto explains that you need to listen as she says the letter sounds so that you can choose the correct letter to spell the word. For Autumn, the first sound was /m/. Then you are supposed to choose the M from the array. So Princess Presto asked, “What letter makes the sound /m/?”, and Autumn turns around to me and asks, "Mom, which one is the M?" At that point, I stopped what I was doing and started paying more attention. Since when does my toddler know her letter sounds?! But she does—she got the next few right as well. I don’t know if this phonological knowledge is a product of watching Super Why! with the babysitter or what, but we’ve been playing with the Super Why! app all week now.

            In addition to Princess Presto’s Wands Up Writing game (which is called that because you are asked to trace the letter with your finger after identifying it by sound), there are three other interactive games in the app. You can practice rhyming with Wonder Red; go on a letter hunt with Alpha Pig; or finish sentences to save stories with Super Why. Each one is visually appealing to match the PBS show. More importantly, the designers got the educational aspects just right: the sounds are crisp and clear, everything is spelled correctly, and the games move at a pace controlled by the app user. Believe it or not, this is not the standard in every app. I have reviewed many a free phonics app available for the iPad, and it is often the case that there are small errors in the apps: In the really pretty and innovative Endless Alphabet app by Callaway Digital Arts, for example, the vowels make their short sound as you drag them into the word, but that is often not the sound they make within the word being spelled (the o’s in “kazoo” sound nothing like the short o sound). And Super Why! does more than just practice phonics: in other games, children practice reading words, comprehending stories, and recognizing letters, among other beginning literacy skills.

             In sum, if you are looking for a solid app for practicing beginning reading in a game-like atmosphere, this is $2.99 well spent. Both of my kids like it, and I like what they are learning from it.