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What Makes Steps4Kids Handwriting So Special?
Unlike many other handwriting tutorial products on the market, the folks at Steps4Kids, LLC decided to take a different approach. Instead of boring and redundant, or whimsical animation that is focused more on visual appeal than instruction, Steps4Kids steps out of the norm and created an entirely new idea in application for tutorials.
In speaking with Lucile Lynch, one of the Steps4Kids team and full-time mother, she expressed how "only part of the entire need in teaching children to write is in actuality being covered." Having been a teacher in pre-school and elementary students many years ago, my attention was immediately capture by that statement. I wanted to understand what she based that statement upon. The answer was right in front of me, yet like many other people I failed to see it.
When a product of this sort is under development, the general rule of thumb is to thing of the "average" in school or homeschooling; special needs and other children are completely ignored or simply forgotten. The Steps4Kids team decided to step out from the norm and pay attention to every child and their needs in learning to write. This makes the product quite special, just as special needs students are "special and unique."
The Process Of Learning To Write
The process of learning to write can be quite boring to many children but Steps4Kids has given this learning a whole new spin. This was accomplished by using real film footage which is set to calming music, with easy-to-follow visual and verbal instructions. This approach to tutorial instruction serves analogy for the old saying "music soothes the savage beast".
A human being in essence is a savage beast that has the skills to control our naturally aggressive instincts by choice. Music is known to be a quite effective tool to elicit specific emotional responses from a person, including a sense of calm and relaxed state of mind. Steps4Kids has taken advantage of that fact and applied the use of it in this product.
Each segment of the DVD has been carefully authored to deliver nothing but the very best combination of audio, visual, and tactile stimulation to the brain. As a child is using this product, their critical skills are being developed far greater in virtually every sense. A child is not just learning to write, but rather developing and improving no matter what their mental or physical state may be.
The Primary Key To Unlock The Door
With the ever increasing demands of kindergarten and first grade, and increased incidents of disabilities among children, the Steps4Kids™ team determined that there was an important need that was not being addressed effectively. They identified that the primary key to unlock the door to a receptive mind in a child was to use visual modeling to help all children with handwriting skills, the majority of which statistically are visual learners.
For centuries books have been used as the "visual" tool for learn by example when the teacher was busy with other tasks, but the same application of a child learning by the example of a teacher writing on a chalkboard cannot be taken home, and is now where close to as effective as a child seeing another child writing on the screen in front of them as they write themselves. Steps4Kids™ brings learning by example to an entirely new level for all children to learn.
There Is Even More To Steps4Kids™ Handwriting DVD
In this 3 track DVD, it introduces the viewer to how to write both upper and lowercase manuscript letters on lined paper, letter sounds, 104 sight words used in kindergarten up through 2nd grade, easy-to-remember tips on how to avoid letter reversals and it even provides fun drawing exercises using letters throughout the DVD to keep children fully engaged.
The Steps4Kids DVD is already a powerful tool for all children, but there is even more to it! The DVD directs viewers to free colored .pdf writing templates available through the Steps4Kids website, thereby extending writing support beyond the DVD itself. For teachers and homeschooling parents alike, this is a valuable feature. (Steps4Kids, LLC will also provide custom writing templates for parents and other educators for free once a request is submitted to the email address specified on the DVD.)
A Powerful Must-Have Product With High Product Ratings
Steps4Kids Handwriting DVD is without question, a powerful must-have product I can personally highly recommend. In the evaluation of the product it showed many features that are so sorely needed in the handwriting tutorial process for children, even more so for children with disabilities or special needs.
Now we come to the portion of the review which briefly explains each individual rating of this product and how this rating was reached.
The ratings for this product are listed below.
Content Quality: Rating Level 5 - The content quality of this educational product was nothing but the very best. With the creator of Steps4Kids Handwriting DVD being an occupational therapist, she has an edge on grasping the teaching of children in terms of how to write. This is especially so with children who have special needs that require more attention. Very strong detail was committed to ensure simplicity and functionality in the content with a productive result from its use.
Educational Value: Rating Level 5 - The educational value is is quite high. The choice to implement a method of using real film footage which is set to calming music, with easy-to-follow visual and verbal instructions, creates an incredible learning environment. A child is not just learning to write, but rather developing and improving no matter what their mental or physical state may be. It is beyond question that this product contributes substantially to critical skill development and self-improvement.
Marketing Value: Rating Level 5 - The marketing value of this product is quite high. This is based upon a compilation of the scores from the product evaluation ratings and results from the hands-on evaluation testing with 10 different children of various age groups, skills, and needs. The potential of this product is well above average and has rated the highest score available in its class. When you consider the factor of it being applicable for use for almost all ages, it proves the potential marketing value to be nothing but the very highest.
Reading Response: Rating Level 4 - All of the children displayed keen interest in reading what they see on the screen, but it was not immediate. It seems to take the children a few moments before they overcome the phobia of reading and begin to realize the unique way of learning. This caused a docking of one point off the scoring which brings it to an above-average score for this rating, but just short of the maximum points.
Simplicity: Rating Level 5 - Simplicity is encapsulated with this teaching method. Simple, easy to follow instructions which are illustrated through the visual and audible functions of the DVD. Couldn't be much more simple than that.
Visual Appeal: Rating Level 4 - When it comes to visual appeal, this was a small challenge. With so many children doing a hands-on evaluation, it took serious effort to make notes on each and establish a profile of the visual appeal for each child. In our testing and evaluation, combined with the responses from the hands-on participants, it is easy to see that the Steps4Kids Handwriting DVD holds high visual appeal, but at the same time just short of the mark have the highest rating. In this case it simply wasn't appealing enough where you would be drawn to it at first glance. This is a product which is a companion based structure; a family member of teacher is needed to draw the child to their initial use of the Steps4Kids Handwriting DVD.
Altogether, the combination of each individual score rating demonstrates this is a product which we can highly recommend for home school teaching, general consumer purchase, and educational industry use. A limited few product can garner the points to earn not just acceptance to be inducted and be able to bear "The Toy Man Seal of Approval. Steps4Kids Handwriting DVD has gone beyond the norm and become the recipient of the highly coveted "Award of Excellence".
| EVALUATION RESULTS - From evaluation for induction into "The Toy Man® Product Guide" | | Overall Rating: 5 | Seal of Approval: Approved | eco-Recognition
Seal: Not Eligible | Award of Excellence: Approved | eChoice Award: Selected |
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THE TOY MAN® SEAL OF APPROVAL
"The first and original Seal of Approval...
designed for product recognition and validation."
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THE TOY MAN® AWARDS
"The globally recognized awards that are received by a limited few...
and give a product the well earned recognition it deserves!"
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