iPhone Giveaway of the Day - WordToob: Language Learning

Video Modeling made simple and fun! WordToob is designed to make learning words and new skills fun and engaging through pre-stored and customized videos. People of all ages and intellectual levels enjoy watching videos. With WordToob they can now play an active role in learning while doing what they love. Customizing the app with personalized videos is easy but the learning experience is powerful!

WordToob includes:

• Pre-stored board with the 25 words most 2-year-olds know
• Pre-stored board with common emotions
• Pre-stored examples of an alphabet board and adaptive skill board
• Infinite ability to create your own boards
• Speech recognition so that the learner can practice saying words

Learning language requires combined information from the senses, whether just beginning to learn one’s native language or learning a second language. WordToob makes this fun and easy by pairing words with illustrative videos. The learner not only benefits from playing WordToob but also through engaging in creating personalized videos. Personalized videos can be easily created with the iPad camera and attached to words within the app to maintain novelty and increase motivation.

Language skills that can be learned using WordToob include:

• Learning new words
• Recognizing words you hear
• Improving articulation

Video modeling is a highly researched and effective method of teaching. New behaviors and skills are learned by watching a video of someone else or themselves performing the target behavior then imitating that behavior. Video modeling has been used to teach social skills, communication skills, play skills, perception of emotion and adaptive skills. The entertainment aspect of videos motivates and reinforces the engagement of the learner.

Video modeling has been found to be exceptionally effective in teaching individuals with autism. Some of the reasons may be that the learner only has to attend to a restricted field of focus, the repetitive presentation of models and situations, less demand for face-to-face interaction, and their ability to process visual information more readily than verbal information. Studies show that skills taught through video modeling are generalized and learned faster.

WordToob makes video modeling easy. The app includes a board that illustrates emotions. New boards are easy to create and personalized videos are simple to include giving the teacher, parent, or therapist the freedom to target many different skills limited only by their imagination.

Some video modeling uses include:

• Learning social skills
• Recognizing emotions
• Visual schedules
• Learning adaptive skills
• Show and tell, storytelling