LET'S SPELL OUT AND ABOUT.
copyright R.M.Dunn 1989

Program code and graphics by Richard 
and Jayne Dunn. (Squirrel Soft)
Educational    advice   by    Maxine 
Clewlow.

INFORMATION FOR PARENTS.

Thank you for buying this product. I 
hope it gives your children as  much 
pleasure as it has given mine. I was 
spurred to write this program by the 
lack  of educational software  using
the potential of  the  Amiga .I have
been  inspired  by  a  well    known
picture  dictionary and I hope  that 
you and your children will enjoy the 
result.  I  have produced additional 
scenario disks which will work  with 
this  program   and   by  so   doing 
create a picture dictionary of  many 
of the aspects of life that a  child 
may encounter by the age of 4. It is 
exciting  for  children  to  explore 
everyday scenes and if they learn to 
spell  or  at  least  to   recognise 
commonly  used words while  they  do 
this- well so much the  better.  The 
program   is   designed   to   teach 
children  the shape of  letters  and 
some  of  the  most  commonly   used 
words.  It  has been planned  to  be 
used  by  children from 4 to  9  and 
operates    at   different    levels 
accordingly.   I  have  incorporated 
sampled     speech    to     improve 
interaction   and  help   with   the 
learning of letter sounds.  This  is 
NOT   however  intended  to   be   a 
phonetic based learning program  and 
does not therefore use phonetics.

I would suggest that young  children 
use  the "game" to  become  familiar 
with   using   a  computer,    mouse
manipulation and letter recognition. 
The game is entirely driven with the 
mouse  and uses lower  case  letters 
throughout.

Instructions for the program.

The program will run  on  any  Amiga
configuration  but  any  accessories
including second drives will need to
be switched off or  removed  if  you
have only 512k of  memory.  The best
thing is to  turn  the  computer  on
with the disk  in  drive  df0.  This
will  automatically load   and   run
the program.





There are three Let,s Spell scenario 
programs.  AT THE SHOPS, AT HOME and 
OUT  AND ABOUT.  They can be  played 
independently  or the disks  can  be 
interchanged during a game.   
Once  the  program  has  loaded  you
will  be  presented  with  a   title 
screen.


Next you will be given the option to
view  an  information summary screen.
Lastly a  menu  picture ( of  a  bus
station  if   using   this  disk  or
another  scene  if  you  are   using
another scenario ) will appear.  The
mouse  pointer is a little girl  but 
this can be changed to a little  boy 
by pressing the right mouse button.

The  child has been animated at  the 
request  of  my daughter  who  often 
just  plays  about  at  this   level 
wandering  about.


If the child is moved to one of  the
busses a bell will ring. If the left
mouse button is pressed  the  screen 
fades  and a new one displaying  the 
scene chosen chosen   will appear.

The  pointer  becomes  an  arm   and 
moving  this  over  the screen  will 
cause a bell to ring when it is over 
an item on the screen. Pressing  the
left  mouse  button  replaces   this 
screen with a spelling screen.

The spelling screen.

This  shows  a lower  case  alphabet 
set,  a finish box,  an "oops"  box, 
two small teddies, a teddies face, a 
picture  of the item selected and  a 
thermometer.

There are several levels of play.

To select the lower age group (4  to 
6) click on the small teddy with the 
pointer using the left mouse button. 
The  spelling  of the  item  in  the 
picture  will appear  as  uncoloured 
boxes.  All the child needs to do is 
place   the  pointer   on   matching 
letters  in  the alphabet  grid  and 
click  the mouse  left  button.  The 
first  box  will fill  with  colour. 
This is done until all the boxes are 
filled  and then the finish  box  is 
clicked   on.   If  a   mistake   is 
made clicking  on the oops box  will 
uncolour the last box filled.
A correct answer is rewarded with  a 
smiling face,  a tune and a  message 
The screen then switches back to the 
room.  THE  TUNE CAN BE  STOPPED  BY 
PRESSING  THE LEFT MOUSE  BUTTON.  A 
wrong  answer is greeted with a  sad 
face  and the word  is  respelt.  As 
this  is  done correct  letters  are 
associated with a bell sound whereas 
incorrect  letters  are   associated 
with  a  shooting  sound  while  the 
letter  is  changed to  the  correct 
one. The child can then try again.

The  next  age range (6-9)  can  be 
selected  by pressing on the  larger 
teddy (this is the default setting). 
No  letters  appear  and  the  child 
needs  to  spell  the  word  without 
help.  This is done in the same  way 
as  in the lower age group.  I  have 
adopted  a standard  primary  school 
reading technique to help those  who 
have just progressed up from  letter 
matching (age 5-7).


This  is  the  LOOK,COVER,SPELL  and
CHECK  method.  If the teddies  eyes 
are   clicked  on,   the   word   is 
displayed and sounded for about four 
seconds.The child can then have a go 
at spelling it.  Success and failure 
are treated as before.

 Lastly in both age ranges and  with 
the  cover  method  the  help  of  a 
thermometer   can  be  obtained   by 
clicking  on it.  This will  show  a 
rise of temperature when the pointer 
is  close to the  correct  letter.IF 
THE  MOUSE  MOVES OFF  THE  ALPHABET 
GRID OR MORE LETTERS HAVE BEEN  USED 
TO  SPELL  THE WORD THAN ARE  IN  IT 
THEN  THE THERMOMETER  WILL  FREEZE. 
This can give the child some measure 
of independence from the parent.

Exiting the screen is via the wayout 
sign  and  returns you to  the  main 
menu (the bus station).      Exiting
here gives you the chance to  change 
the  scenario disk for another  one. 
Just answer no to the question  "Are 
you   sure"  and  then  follow   the 
prompts. Answering "yes" will finish 
the game.  A list of the words spelt 
correctly this session will then  be 
shown.This  list can be printed  out 
( Epson  "80"  printer ) to  keep  a
permanent  record for you to  assess 
your  childs progress.  I hope  that 
this   program   will   reward   and 
stimulate your child to improve it's 
spelling  and word  recognition.  My 
aim   is   to   allow   the   childs 
imagination to play  "out and about"
( or whatever other scenario disk is 
chosen ) and in the process discover 
the  shape of the  words  associated 
with  everyday objects and to  learn 
how the letters sound.

I  hope you and your children  enjoy 
this  program  as  much  as  I  have 
enjoyed  writing  it.   If  you  are 
interested in other scenario disks ,
special   remedial   versions   or
other  language versions (currently
French with German out soon) or would
like  to  comment  on  this  program 
don't hesitate to write to me at the 
address below.

If  you  have enjoyed  this  program 
please  tell your friends but  don't 
copy  it for them.  This program  is 
copyrighted and may only be used  by 
you  or your  family.  Profits  from 
educational  software are small  and 
will  be  used  to  develop  further 
program ideas.

SOFTSTUFF SOFTWARE
19 Quarry Hill RD,
Tonbridge,
KENT. TN9 2RN
Tel 0732 351234
Fax 0732 770234


15th August 1990