GB2282910A - Alphabet and numeral teaching aid - Google Patents

Abstract

The aid for teaching a child letters of the alphabet and numerals comprises one or more letters or numerals each marked with different colours to indicate starting and finishing points of a respective letter or numeral, one or more intermediate points of a respective letter or numeral and, one or more intermediate points of a respective letter or numeral. In one arrangement, the teaching aid comprises a set of cards each coated with plastic and each printed with a letter of the alphabet marked with different colours to indicate starting and finishing points of the respective letter.

Description

This invention relates to teaching aids for children and more especially a teaching aid to assist a child to learn the shape and outline of letters of the alphabet.

In one preferred arrangement, this invention concerns a self-instructing aid intended to teach children how to write and simultaneously learn the sounds of letters of the alphabet using colour-coded letters. Preferably, the letters are embossed with one or more lines defining the outline of each letter and may be accompanied by pictures indicating the letter to be learnt and tracing sheets to allow the child to progress from feeling the shape of the letter to being able to write it. In this respect, the invention can be used for most stages during which the child learns to read and write the letters of the alphabet and minimises errors implicit in these activities.

Currently available teaching aids include: 1. Sand paper cut-out letters mounted on cards which allow children to feel the shape of a letter, and develop a muscle memory and a sense of writing direction for it. However the tactile attraction of this method is insufficient to maintain a child's interest for long periods of time.

2. Books with pictures whose initial sound indicates the phonic of the letter to be learnt by tracing it out in a dot-to-dot fashion.

3. Wipe clean cards consisting of letters printed on a plastic coated card which the child can write over in order to get an idea about how a letter is formed.

Again a marker and arrows indicate how the letter should be formed. The size of the letters depends on the age of the child and typically varies from 1-6 cm.

Both methods (2) and (3) usually present the child with too many examples which tends to be overwhelming, destroying confidence. Additionally the letters are usually too small, demanding a high degree of hand/eye coordination and finger-tip control which may be difficult for young children. The use of writing implements is implicit and errors in tracing accuracy are evident; attempts to correct these errors interrupt the way in which the strokes of the letters are formed and detracts from the activity 'of feeling' the form of the letter, frustrating the child who likes precision. The rate of a child's development of visual perception hand-eye co-ordination and finger-tip control is usually less rapid than anticipated, since the child invariably makes obvious mistakes leading to frustration and a loss of interest in the activity.

In summary the existing teaching aids described above usually force the child to proceed at much too rapid a rate, producing errors which are not easily controlled, requiring a large amount of input from an attendant adult or teacher.

According to the present invention there is provided an aid for teaching a child letters of the alphabet, numerals and the like, the aid comprising one or more letters or numerals each marked with different colours to indicate starting and finishing points of a respective letter or numeral and, if required, one or more intermediate points of a respective letter or numeral.

An advantage of the present invention is that in a preferred embodiment it allows the child to develop visual perception and hand-eye co-ordination at his/her own rate and, in the initial stages, dispenses with the use of a pen (until the child is ready to use one) which minimises or completely eliminates any tell-tale errors and allows the child to develop confidence with the activity. Colour coding of the letters adds interest to the activity but does not detract from it and once the colour code has been learnt the child can progress from feeling the shape of the letter to drawing the letter and then forming rainbow letters using several different coloured pens by joining bars of colour defining the way that the letter should be formed.

By "colour coding is meant a predetermined order of colours by use of which a letter can be formed. A preferred colour coding is one based on the order of colours as they appear in the spectrum.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to one particular arrangement which comprises twenty-six cards each approximately 15 x 21 cm in size, coated with plastic, with a letter of the alphabet, approximately 7-11 cm high printed on the underside and a picture of a three lettered phonic word (as far as possible) on the upper side, the initial letter of which corresponds to the letter on the underside. The picture may be concealed by a thin plastic flap attached down its left hand side, allowing the picture to be revealed in a manner akin to opening a book. Each page comprises a coloured line running along its bottom edge to indicate the right way up, and a letter, corresponding to the initial sound of the word for the printed picture, in black outline.

The outline of the letter contains a narrow 11feely" line running through its centre, relatively unobtrusive in colour, but is such that it can be distinguished by finger-tips allowing the outline of the letter to be identified. The line is ideally embossed onto the letter, but may be painted on instead.

Four parallel colour-coded lines or stripes, preferably following the colours of the spectrum, printed at the point of entry and at each point of direction change along the letter define how the letter should be written.

Additionally tracing sheets of wipe clean plastic sheets together with means to hold them in place such as pegs, clips or the like may be required so that the child can trace the letter that he/she is to learn.

The order of the cards may be in stroke-related groups so that the child can master particular strokes and, at a later stage, can draw comparisons and contrasts between the different groups. The set of cards may be contained in a box, a ring binder, a set of ring binders or other suitable containers.

The activity is multisensory; it simultaneously requires the use of visual, aural and tactile senses which allows learning to be accelerated, as a weakness in any one of the skills, can be compensated for by the others. Tracing the letters involves movement with the whole arm enabling the child to develop a "muscle" memory for the whole letter.

The book containing the pictures and letters may be placed on a table low enough to suit a child who is invited to sit at it with an adult on his/her non-dominant side.

In use, the adult demonstrates to the child how to use the "feely" line to identify the letter using the index finger positioned in a combination of ways with other fingers of the writing hand, depending on whether the child is able to position the hand in such a way as to hold a pen/pencil or not. The adult opens the book to reveal a picture and indicates verbally to the child what the picture is of and the initial letter corresponding to the picture, on the next page. For example, if a picture of a cat is one side, the letter 'C' will be on the underside, or next page. The adult turns the page, repeats the letter with its phonic sound and gets the child to watch whilst he/she traces out the letter with his/her finger-tips along the feel" lines.Starting at the point of entry of the coloured stripes the adult indicates the first colour, e.g. red and then tracers his/her fingers along the "feebly line of the letter to the next colour e.g. orange which indicates either a change of direction or that the letter is complete. For example, with the letter 'C' drawn below the adult indicates that 'red' is the starting point and then traces the "feely" line to orange where the letter is complete.

c'RED COLOUR-CODFD LINES OUTLINE -/ OF LETTER 11 X | GC^D FFELY OR EMBOSSED LINE - u% ORANGF j The 'orange' is identified as being the end-point and the phonic of the letter is repeated as the letter is completed. The adult then indicates to the child that he/she should now repeat the action and emphasises to the child that red is the starting point and movement along the "feely" line leads to orange, the end point, completing the 'C' for cat. Upon successful completion of one letter the child then has the option to try another letter/picture combination depending upon his/her interest and concentration.

Once the child has learnt the colour code, ie. the order of colours to start, change direction and end, it has the ability to proceed by his/herself to other letters thus learning how each letter should be formed.

The use of a "feely" line allows a child to identify the feel of a letter, before he/she can manipulate a pen effectively minimising any tell-tale errors. As the child develops hand-eye co-ordination, the use of tracing sheets and pens enable the child to trace out the letters according to the colour code progressing from a single trace of the letter, to a trace consisting of a series of coloured lines making up a rainbow letter. The large size and outlined nature of the letters provides a large margin for error as the child develops hand-eye co-ordination which allows him/her to develop self confidence and prevents frustration and loss of interest. There is less scope for error and development of bad habits since a colour code is much less confusing than several arrows.

In writing more complex letters the adult must trace out the letter in uninterrupted contact with the card with the exception of letters such as t, f, i, j, k and x which require either cross-strokes, diagonals or dots.

The order of presentation of the picture and then the letter provides a concept of discovery which is exciting the for child who is able to develop hand-eye co-ordination and visual perceptual skills at their own rate.

The following are alternative arrangements in accordance with the invention.

A series of writing/practice cards containing both pictures and letters or just letters of different sizes depending upon the age-group aimed at, so that the child can see that some letters apply to more than one picture.

An arrangement as described previously but with numbers defined by a number of dots (as on the face of a dice) on one page (upperside) and the written number on the next page (the underside) using a colour code as before to indicate the way in which a number should be written.

Colour-coded stencils or tracing cards to allow the outline of a letter/number/shape/picture to be identified.

Claims (7)

1. An aid for teaching a child letters of the alphabet, numerals and the like, the aid comprising one or more letters or numerals each marked with different colours to indicate starting and finishing points of a respective letter or numeral and, if required, one or more intermediate points of a respective letter or numeral and, if required, one or more intermediate points of a respective letter or numeral.

2. A teaching aid as claimed in claim 1 comprising a set of cards each coated with plastic and each printed with a letter of the alphabet each marked with different colours to indicate starting and finishing points of the respective letter.

3. A teaching aid as claimed in claim 2 wherein the cards also include a picture of a phonic word, the initial letter of which corresponds to the letter displayed on the card.

4. A teaching aid as claimed in claim 2 or claim 3 wherein the cards form pages of a book.

5. A teaching aid as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 4 wherein included in the outline of the coloured letter is a line which descries the letter and which is raised so as to be sensitive to touch.

6. A teaching aid as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 wherein the colours used for the letters follow the colours of the spectrum.

7. A teaching aid substantially as herein described.