GB2585904A - An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy and maths skills - Google Patents

Abstract

An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills comprises a series of individual letters 3 or numbers formed from a solid material; a main body 2 having front and rear faces, at least one recess 8 formed in the main body 2; the recess(es) 8 and letters/numbers 3 formed so that each letter 3 can slot into and substantially fill a corresponding recess 8; the recess(es) 8 formed on both the front and rear faces 4, 5 of the main body. Multiple bodies may be connectable via magnets.

Description

An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy and maths skills FIELD The present invention relates to an apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills. The present invention also relates to an apparatus for assisting with 5 the teaching of maths skills. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for teaching reading, writing and maths by allowing a user to recognise sounds associated with letters and words by using physical representations of letters and words. Even more particularly, the present invention relates to a multi-functional and multi-sensory apparatus for teaching children to recognise letters of an alphabet, to read languages that rely on the alphabetic principle using either a phonics or whole-word approach, and to assist in learning to read and write.

BACKGROUND

When children learn reading, writing, and basic math, this usually requires considerable involvement and assistance from adults. Learning reading and writing from scratch normally takes a child around one year with nearly full-time contact time provided by a qualified teacher. Although this system works and has been proven for hundreds of years, it can disadvantage children who do not have access to high-quality teachers.

There are a number of inventions that are used to assist with the learning process. 20 For example, mobile or tablet apps such as Learn with Homer are often used to teach children the basics. However, these can lack a physical interactive aspect that keeps children engaged.

In this specification where reference has been made to patent specifications, other external documents, or other sources of information, this is generally for the purpose of providing a context for discussing the features of the invention. Unless specifically stated otherwise, reference to such external documents is not to be construed as an admission that such documents, or such sources of information, in any jurisdiction, are prior art, or form part of the common general knowledge in the art.

SUMMARY

It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills which goes some way to overcoming the abovementioned disadvantages or which at least provides the public or industry with a useful choice.

The term "comprising" as used in this specification and indicative independent claims means "consisting at least in part of". When interpreting each statement in this specification and indicative independent claims that includes the term "comprising", features other than that or those prefaced by the term may also be present. Related terms such as "comprise" and "comprises" are to be interpreted in the same manner.

As used herein the term "and/or" means "and" or "or", or both As used herein "(s)" following a noun means the plural and/or singular forms of the noun.

Accordingly, in a first aspect the present invention may broadly be said to consist in [TO BE COMPLETED ONCE THE CLAIMS ARE FINALISED] With respect to the above description then, it is to be realised that the optimum dimensional relationships for the parts of the invention, to include variations in size, materials, shape, form, function and manner of operation, assembly and use, are deemed readily apparent and obvious to one skilled in the art, and all equivalent relationships to those illustrated in the drawings and described in the specification are intended to be encompassed by the present invention.

This invention may also be said broadly to consist in the parts, elements and features referred to or indicated in the specification of the application, individually or collectively, and any or all combinations of any two or more said parts, elements or features, and where specific integers are mentioned herein which have known equivalents in the art to which this invention relates, such known equivalents are deemed to be incorporated herein as if individually set forth.

Therefore, the foregoing is considered as illustrative only of the principles of the invention. Further, since numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art, it is not desired to limit the invention to the exact construction and operation shown and described, and accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Further aspects of the invention will become apparent from the following description which is given by way of example only and with reference to the accompanying drawings which show an embodiment of the device by way of example, and in which: Figure 1 shows a first embodiment of the teaching apparatus of the present invention, comprising a main body, and a series of separate letters, the main body having recesses formed in it's front and rear faces to receive the letters in use.

Figure 2 shows detail of the teaching apparatus of figure 1, showing further detail of 5 the letters and recesses.

Figures 3a and 3b show an embodiment of main body and an embodiment of a series of letters formed in a preferred form of 'cursive' text.

Figure 3c shows an embodiment of a series of letter blocks formed with a preferred form of 'cursive' text.

Figure 4 shows an embodiment of a lower case 'I' formed as a unitary item, the joint between the separate parts that form the letter marked by scoring.

Figures 5a and 5b show detail of a second embodiment of the present invention, comprising a series of individual letter blocks, each block configured to receive a single specific character on one or both of it's front and/or rear faces.

Figure 6 shows an example embodiment of a single letter block, showing detail of the recess for the letter, and the underscoring.

Figure 7 shows detail of an embodiment of a magnetic connection mechanism that can be used to connect individual letter blocks in series, the figure also showing detail of the recess and underscoring.

Figure 8 shows examples embodiment of individual punctuation mark blocks that can be used with the individual letter blocks of figures 5 to 7.

Figure 9a shows an example embodiment of an apostrophe block that can be used with the individual letter blocks of figures 5 to 7.

Figure 9b shows examples of other types of punctuation that can be used.

Figures 10a and 10b show embodiments of letters formed as different allograph types.

Figure 11 shows an example embodiment of Individual number blocks, similar to the individual letter blocks of figures 5, 6, and 7.

Figure 12 shows a schematic view of an embodiment of speech box, comprising a 30 box with a front face, rear wall, side walls and end walls, the side and end walls connecting via dovetail joints, the box containing a central processor, a microphone, speakers, a touch screen, and a camera, the microphone, speakers, touch screen, and camera connected to and controlled by the processor.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments of the present invention, and variations thereof, are shown in figures 1 5 to 12.

A first embodiment of the teaching apparatus 1 comprises a main body 2, and a series of separate letters generally numbered 3.

Multiple Letter Main Body As shown in figures la and 1 b, the preferred form of multiple letter main body 2 comprises an elongate unitary member having a front face 4 and a rear face 5. The main body 2 preferably has a thickness such that it can stand upright on a lower edge or base, with the main body extending along the surface, such as a tabletop or floor or similar, on which the main body 2 is standing. The front face 4 and rear face 5 comprise a series of recesses 8 in the shape of characters -in this embodiment, the letters 3. As best shown in figure 2, the recesses on the front and rear faces 4, 5 are for capital and lower case letters, respectively.

The main bodies illustrated in figures 2a and 2b show the example name, as for figures la and lb. Figure 2c shows a normal A-B-C for the Roman alphabet. It is preferred that the embodiment shows a child's favourite word, such as for example 20 their name, as shown in figures la and lb, and 2a and 2b.

In the preferred embodiment, the main body 2 is formed from wood, as this is an attractive material that children enjoy handling.

As shown best in figures 2c and 2d, both the front and rear faces 4, 5 have a common base line 6, which is positioned at the same height on each face. For the capital letters, this forms the base above which the entirety of the letter is positioned. Several of the lower case letters (e.g. 'p' or 'q') have tails or elements that extend below the base line 6.

In the preferred embodiment, three main bodies 3 are used to make the entire alphabet, as shown in figures 2c and 2d. The main bodies have magnets at the top and bottom edges so they can be stacked and connected together horizontally or vertically to make the full alphabet. The magnets are positioned on the bodies so that the boards will only stack and connect with the alphabet in the correct configuration (that is, no magnets at the top of the board with the first letters nor at the bottom of the board with the last letters).

In a variation of the body 2 described above, the body can include integral electronics and components for audio output. The integral electronics and components in this embodiment comprise an audio chip, and a speaker. The audio chip includes recordings of the name for the particular body. In the preferred form, three buttons are located on the outer surface of the body, and are connected to the audio chip. Depressing these buttons plays a different version of each of: the full name; the individual letters of the name, and; syllables, depending on which button is depressed.

Upon successful completion of the alphabet in the right order and pressing one button, the software provides audio feedback, such as for example by singing an alphabet song.

Letters The letters 3 are configured to fit or slot into the appropriate recesses in the main body 2. In the preferred form, the letters are formed from wood or plastic, to fit snugly within the recesses. The letters 3 and recesses are shaped so that there are no sharp corners or edges.

A preferred form of 'cursive' text for the upper and lower case letters is shown in 20 figures 3a, 3b, and 3c.

The font (shape and outline) of the letters for the text of the letters is constructed so as to be advantageous to children learning their letters and words, as follows: The letters are symmetrical, where appropriate. This requirement goes against modern typographic convention, which is often counter-intuitive for children. For example, in modern typography, the letter 'S' usually appears rotationally symmetric (same shape when rotated 180° along the Z axis), but in actuality is not. The human eye tends to give more weight to top spaces, so in modern typography the convention is to have the top bowl of the letter 'S' smaller than the bottom bowl, so that the top and bottom appear optically equivalent. This is frustrating for children if using blocks that are formed following this convention, as the letter 'S' only fits in it's slot in a specific orientation. Children can become confused and unable to make it fit in the slot outside of this orientation, and it can take them time to realise that the letter is upside down. Symmetry avoids this frustration.

Similarly, the cross-bar of the letter 'H' will be exactly in the middle of the shape, instead of slightly higher as it is in most fonts for optical equivalence.

In contrast, four lower case letters -'d', 'U, 'p', and 'q' -are deliberately formed asymmetrically. These lower case letters are the same shape in space (e.g. a reversed 'd' is the same as a right-way-round 'b'), which is known to be confusing.

The lower case print typeface for these letters is different for each one, so that a letter will not fit into a slot other than the intended slot.

In summary, the typeface includes symmetry when it has no semantic meaning, and is asymmetric when it does.

No glyph fits fully into the slot of another letter, e.g. the "M" does not fit in the "W' and vice-versa; the "I", the "I" and the "1" do not fit into one another's slots. The objective is to teach children to discriminate between these similar shapes. The only exception is the parenthesis.

Certain letters are formed so as to be building blocks for other letters, as described in 'compatibilities' below. For example, the letter 'F' is deliberately shaped so that it can fit inside the space intended for the 'E'. When children learn to write the former they can simply add a bar at the bottom to write the latter. The letters are formed as building blocks when the letters are not substitutes.

As another example, the "V" turned 180° along the Z axis should fit inside the "A" but not simply because the stroke width is thinner, but because the angle part is the same shape and the "A" has an additional cross-bar. These compatibilities convey that some letters are building blocks for others, reduces the number of independent strokes to learn, and facilitates learning to write. Such compatibilities are used when it is clear that glyphs are not substitutes because one part of the glyph is clearly missing, as in "E" and "F". When glyphs are substitutes or look substantially alike, such as the hyphen and the minus sign, incompatibilities prevail.

In the case of mirror-reversible letters, that incompatibility takes preference over other compatibilities, so no compatibility is included around the round bowls or the vertical stems. For example, both the 'o' and the 'I' could be formed so as to fit inside 'b', 'd', 'p', and 'q', and the 'I'. However, if this were the case, the shapes would not have enough dissimilarities so as not to fit inside one another -they would be the same shape in space and confusing as outlined above. For this reason, the 'c' is shaped so as to not be able to fit inside the 'eg' space, as it can then be confusing as to why the 'c' fits inside the 'e' but not the mirror-reversible letters b, d, p, and 'q'.

In the preferred embodiment, the typeface is metrically compatible with Arial Rounded MT Bold, except in cases where the incompatibilities prevail (e.g. for 'b', 'd', 'p', 'q', 'u', n, and when joining the loose parts of some glyphs).

When joining loose parts, such as the dot on the lowercase 'i' or the lowercase 'j', the joint is formed so that it has enough overlap so that it does not break, and the joint is marked, for example by scoring 11, to mark that there are two separate parts to the letter. This is shown in figure 4. The rule here is that the part written on top of another/lower part is given a full outline (that is, for example, the dots on the 'i' and 'j' have a full outline. Similarly, the lower bar on the 'equals' sign is also given a full outline).

The typeface in lower case is also designed to indicate how to write the letters. For example, the "bpdqg" have a notch in the joint between the vertical stem and the bowl to indicate that one writes these in two different strokes. Similary, the bowls of all letters are round instead of square because that is how one will write them. The letters with a stem at the left with a shoulder at the top have a slight protrusion to the left and a notch to give an indication of where the shape starts when one writes it.

For the uppercase letters, vertical symmetry is required (the shape is the same when reflected around the vertical Y axis) in the following letters: 'A', 'H', 'I', 'M', '0', 'T', 'U', 'V', 'W', 'X', and 'Y'.

Horizontal symmetry (the shape is the same when reflected around the horizontal X axis) is also required for the letters 'B', 'C', 'D', 'E', 'H', 'I', '0', 'X', and 'K'.

Rotational symmetry (the shape is the same when rotating the letter 180° along the Z axis) for the letters 'H', 'I', 'N', '0, S, X, and 'Z'.

Further requirements for the uppercase letters are as follows: * The 'I' fits inside all letters with a vertical stem ('B', 'D', 'E"F"H"K"L"M"N"P' R"T' * The 'V rotated 180° along the Z axis fits inside the 'A'.

* The 'W' has a variation as a juxtaposition of two V's.

* The '0' fits inside the 'Q'.

* The 'P' fits inside the 'B' and the 'R'.

* the 'F' fits inside the 'E' * the 'F' fits inside the 'E' (with the same horizontal size on the cross-bar) * the 'C' fits inside the 'G', the '0', and the '0'. Further requirements for the lowercase letters are as follows: * The following letters have vertical symmetry: 'i', 'o', 'v', 'w', and 'x'.

* The following letters have horizontal symmetry: 'd, 'o', and 'x'.

* The following letters have rotational symmetry: 'o', 's', 'x', and 'z'.

* The 'i' fits inside the 'j'.

* The letters b, d, p, and 'q' do not fit into one another.

* The 'c' does not fit inside the letter spaces for the letters lb"d"e"g"o"p', and 'q', nor inside the letter space for the round allograph of 'a'. This ensures the incompatibility between the mirror-reversible letters; and if the 'c' fit inside the letter space for e"o"g' it may confuse children who would wonder "why does the c fit inside the o but not inside the d?".

* For the same reason, the 'o' does not fit inside the letter shapes for 'U, 'd', 'g', 'p', and 'q'; and the 'I' does not fit inside the letter shapes for 'b', 'd', 'k', p', 'q' However, for letters that would form incomplete strokes, the shapes can be formed to fit. For example, the'' can be shaped to fit inside the 'I' because the vertical stroke of "I" is clearly incomplete, and therefore confusion is minimised.

* the 'I' does not fit inside the letter shape of (uppercase T) and vice-versa.

* the 'n' does not fit inside the letter shape of u', and vice-versa * the 'w' has a variation as a juxtaposition of two 'v"s * the 'n' fits inside the letter shapes of 'm' and 'h' * the 'r' fits inside the 'n', and therefore the 'm' and the 'h' * the 'I' fits inside the 't * the does not fit inside the 'y' because one writes the v without lifting the pen and the 'y' by lifting the pen.

* the does not fit inside the 't Where numbers are used, their requirements are as follows: * The '0' and '8' should have vertical symmetry.

* The '0', '3' and '8' should have horizontal symmetry.

* The '0' and '8' should have rotational symmetry.

* The '6' and '9' are formed so as to not fit into each other's slots.

* The '0' is formed so that it does not fit inside the '0' or 'o' slots.

* The '2' and '5' are formed so as to not fit into each other's slots * the '1', lowercase 'I', and uppercase 'I' do not fit into the letter shapes of one another * the '4' has three variations: closed (where the vertical stem joins the oblique stroke), open (where the vertical stem does not join the oblique stroke but is otherwsie aligned), and open parallel (where the oblique stroke is nearly parallel to the vertical stem), to fit different cultures depending on which is more common * the "7" has four variations, with and without the cross-bar; and with a straight oblique stroke or a rounded one.

For punctuation, the requirements are as follows: * The 'full stop/period' and 'colon' have rotational symmetry * The left parenthesis is the same shape as the right parenthesis when rotated 180° along the Z axis (the only exception to the rule that a glyph cannot fit in the recess of any other glyph) Each parenthesis fits inside the shape of the '0' (zero).

* The full stop/period is shaped so as to fit inside the slot for the colon (top or bottom) and the semicolon.

* The comma is shaped so as to fit within the slot for the semicolon.

* The full stop/period is shaped so as to fit inside the dots on the lowercase 'i' and 'j'.

* the hyphen fits in the horizontal cross-bar of the letter shape of G' (and the vertical one, if any) * the hyphen does not fit in the shape of the quote Where maths signs are used, their requirements are as follows: * The maths signs are formed so as to use the full space of the wooden blocks * There are vertical, horizontal, and rotational symmetries between the 'x', '+', +', and'='signs.

* The minus sign ('-') is shaped to fit within the quotient sign ('+') and inside the two slots of the equals sign ('=').

* The multiplication and plus signs, and the lowercase 'x' are formed so as to be incompatible and not fit into each other's slots.

* The minus sign from math, the hyphen, and the quote from punctuation do not fit into each other's slots The letter set can be used for languages other than English, with the appropriate 10 modifications. For languages that use accents, such as for example French, the following requirements apply for the shapes and slots used for the accents: * The circumflex accent ( ) and trema ( ) should have vertical symmetry.

* The trema ( ) should have horizontal symmetry.

* The trema ( ) and tilde ("-") should have rotational symmetry.

* the colon and the trema should be formed so as to not fit into each other's slots.

* The grave and acute accents ( ) should be formed so as to not fit into each other's slots.

* the glyphs consisting of a single stroke (hyphen and quote from punctuation, minus from math, grave and accute accents) do not fit into each other's slots * except where explicitly noted here, all glyphs are incompatible and do not fit into each other's slots, unless they are physically constrained so (for example, since the period fits inside the dot of the exclamation mark, it will also fit inside the stem of the exclamation mark, but this is OK because students can clearly see that a big part is missing) To assist with the teaching of the difference between vowels and consonants, in the letter sets as described above, each vowel letter in wood or another similar material also has a corresponding version in transparent material. A transparent material allows the light to pass through, which is conceptually similar to vowel sounds, where the sound passes through the mouth. This setup is specific to each language, for example 'Y' is a vowel in French but not in Portuguese, so 'Y' has a transparent version in the former and not in the latter.

In the preferred embodiment, each of the letter slots on the main body 2 has a notch on the wooden mortise to allow easy removal of the plastic letter from the mortise. Alternatively, or as well as this, a knob can be provided on the top side of the letter to allow easy removal of the letter from the slot.

It is preferred that the size and stroke width of the typeface is optimised to avoid sharp corners that can potentially cause injury, to be robust and thick enough so that it is difficult to break the material (e..g the use of 5mm thick acrylic to form the letters), while still keeping each letter as a distinguishable shape. For cursive letters, this effect is achieved with an engraving of the stroke. For characters composed of two shapes (e.g. 'i', and 'j'), the two shapes are joined, with sufficient overlap that the connection is unbreakable. The connection is then laser-scored to provide a visual indication that it is a different shape. This also helps to prevent these characters being lost or swallowed by small children.

Generally, users enjoy the tactile feedback when one letters fits substantially exactly in the correct slot. Therefore, the slots and letters are in the preferred embodiment configured such that the depth of the slots is substantially exactly the thickness of the letters, so the letter lies flush with the surface of the body, and a user can sweep their hand over the top without encountering or feeling an edge.

The cursive letters are formed with an engraved central stroke that forms a line 20 shape of the letter within the larger letter shape. This allows a user to follow the central stroke and make the shape of the letter with their fingers.

Individual Letter and Number Blocks As described above, the main body 2 is formed so as to have a specific word or phrase or pattern (e.g. the alphabet) formed on it's front and rear faces.

In a variation of the embodiment described above, the individual letter blocks 300 can be formed as an individual letter or series of Individual letters that can be combined to allow students to form any word they want. This teaches students the principle of the alphabet, and that it is possible to rearrange the same letters in one word to make a new word.

In this embodiment, the frequency of letters is optimised from the Essex Children's printed word database. For example, for French and Portuguese, the letter set includes five letter A's and one Y, and specific letters and accents, such as C cedilla and OE, Verna', 'circonflexe', 'tilde', 'acute accent', 'grave accent', and 'single quote'.

The single letter blocks 300 are formed with the same concept of upper case letter slots at the front and lower case letter slots at the back/rear.

The individual letter blocks 300 are shown in figures 5a, 5b. As with the body 3, these are formed from wood so as to be attractive for children to pick up and play 5 with. Each block has a main body 302, and front and rear faces 304, 305, with recesses 308.

Each letter has an underline scoring 306 to represent the baseline of the typeface. This assists with helping students to detect the orientation of a letter, and to remember that some letters extend below the baseline (such as for example the descender on a lower-case 'p'). It is preferred that the line is below the baseline of the font so as to avoid cutting into the shape of most letters, but that the line is not positioned so far below that it makes the descenders look short, such as for example the tails of the 'g' and the 'q'. An example is shown in figure 6.

The underline has the further advantage that in some languages it can act as a top 15 line. For example, in Bengali letters hang from a topline, with some ascenders above that line. The blocks could easily be adapted for use with this alphabet, with the cut baseline that now sits below the roman letters positioned at the top for Bengali.

A connection means on the side of the letter bodies 300 allows students to chain them together to make words. In the preferred embodiment, magnets 310 are used as the connection means. An example is shown in figure 7. The polarity and placement of the magnets only allow chains with possible meaning. That is, it is only possible to chain letters if they have the same orientation (not letters that are upside down).

In alternative forms, a hook-and-loop fastener or other alternative connection devices 25 could be used. However, it is preferred that magnets are used.

The connection mechanism can be used to teach and enforce rules for the use of accents in languages other than English. For example, in French the A and the E can take accents, so these are the only letter bodies to have magnets at the top and bottom as well as the sides. The 'accent' magnets are oriented with a north pole at the left and a south pole at the right and can couple with a block with an accent, which has a south pole at the left and a north pole at the right. Bodies 300 with accents have blank rear faces, so when reversed to lowercase the letter has a block at the bottom but no accent. The accent can go at the top if it shows the front. Examples of accent blocks are shown in figure 8.

If present, accents may or may not have pairings. if they do, only the grave accent has a back accent, which is the acute accent, to teach that the two accents serve a similar purpose. If they don't, then the magnets help to enforce some rules for accents. The width of the body 300 for accents is the same as for letters, so the accent block can be positioned on top. The height is less than that for the letters. The concept of accents at the top also applies to diacritics at the bottom (such as the tail or "ogonek" in Polish) to enforce that such diacritics can only go at the bottom of letters.

Some languages use punctuation such as an apostrophe as part of the word. For example the English word 'don't', and the French word 'aujourd'hui'. A special body 300 can be used for the apostrophe, which has the same height as the blocks used for the letters, and a narrower width. An example of this is shown in figure 9a. Examples of other types/forms of punctuation are shown in figure 9b.

In a further variation, individual blocks or letter bodies 300 can be used for teaching allographs. For example, the lowercase letters 'a' and 'g' have two different forms, which are called allographs. These are taught by having a block that has the same uppercase A at the front and a different lower case shape at the back, as shown in figures. An example of these is shown in figure 10.

Individual number blocks are also used, for the numerals from '1' to '20', and the 20 basic mathematical symbols for + (plus), and multiply and divide. Examples are shown in figures 11a, 11b and 11c.

Two correspondences between the front and rear faces apply to the number blocks: * front = 10 -back (e.g., 0 with 10, 1 with 9, etc.) * front = 10 + back (e.g., 0 with 10, 1 with 11, etc.) For the basic mathematical operators/symbols, the -(minus) is located on the rear face of the + (plus), the division symbol is located on the rear face of the multiplication symbol, and the right parenthesis is located on the rear face of the left parenthesis. The equal sign has a blank rear face. All of these blocks can if required use a magnetic attachment at the side faces, similar to the letters A user can use the maths blocks to form example sums. For example, they can form the sum "1+1=2" below the camera 405 (described below) and have this recognised and checked for correctness. A user who forms an incorrect sum (e.g. "1+2=2") is encouraged to change the blocks to make the statement correct.

For the individual blocks outlined above, it should be noted that all of the letter blocks of the preferred embodiment have the same size, so they look compatible and can be chained together. The blocks for the accents which are in use positioned on top are not as tall/high as the normal letter blocks, and the apostrophe block has a narrower width. Specific specialist blocks such as the French OE have a larger width.

It should further be noted that the recesses 8 in the main body 2, and the recesses 308 in the bodies 300, are slightly differently shaped and sized to the letters 3, as described below: There is an offset dimension of 0.3mm to assist with insertion and removal. This clearance was tested extensively and has been found to be the minimum sufficient for the materials used (5mm thick acrylic and plywood). Further, rounded fillets have been used in order to prevent sharp angles, for example at corners. The fillet is kept to the minimum possible size, in order to keep the shape of the recess recognisable. Optionally, each shape has an extra notch of a half-circle to aid in the removal of the piece.

Further, the 'negative' areas in the shapes of the recesses 8, 308 (the blank spaces in a letter shape, such as for example the centre portion of an 'a' or an 'e') are sized so that they are large enough not to easily break.

Speech Box A speech box 400 is used to assist with the teaching of speech and spelling.

The box 400 is shown schematically in figure 12. The box 400 comprises a front face 410, a rear wall 411, side walls 412, and end walls 413, the side and end walls connecting via dovetail joints 414. The box 400 contains a central processor 401, a microphone 402, speakers 403, a touch screen 404, and a camera 405. The microphone 402, speakers 403, touch screen 404, and camera 405 are connected to and controlled by the processor 401. There are basic user controls on one of the ends faces, comprising buttons 407, and spaces 408 where a user can add customisation options such as their name, plus decorative elements such as letters 409.

The outer shell of the box 400 is formed from wood, for the reasons outlined above. The walls of the outer shell connect via the dovetail joints 414, so children easily understand how the box fits together from two-dimensional sheets into a three-dimensional box.

The central processor 401 can be for example a Raspberry Pi.

The touch-screen 404 is adapted for displaying words and symbols and for touch input.

The camera 405 is positioned and adapted so that it can take pictures of wooden blocks positioned underneath it, on the same surface on which the box is resting.

The camera 405 is connected to the central processor 401, which is programmed to recognise the characters via an Optical Character Recognition programme/software. The recognised word can be output as audio via the speakers 403.

The software is further configured for speech recognition, so that if a user (a child) asks a question such as for example "how do you write mummy'?", this will be picked up via the microphone 402, transmitted to the processor 401, which will then send instructions to the screen 404 to display the spelling of the word 'mummy' on the screen. A user will be able to say a word, and in return have the screen 404 display the word, spelled out in upper case and/or lower case.

The box 400 also comprises a cable for connection to an external power source such 15 as a mains outlet. However, it is preferred that this connection also allows connection to an alternative power supply such as for example a solar panel, so that the box can be used in areas without grid connectivity.

It should also be noted that the speech recognition and speech synthesis software can be embedded into the controller so it can work without an internet connection.

It is further preferred that the box also comprises a communication means such as for example a phone or satellite connection, so as to enable connection to the internet when such connection is not readily available (e.g. in remote locations where a domestic wi-fi connection or similar may not be available).

As outlined above, the camera is configured for character recognition of characters positioned underneath the camera lens. A user can assemble letters into words, place them under the camera, press a button, and hear the sound of the word which they have spelled out. For example, students speaking/learning English can assemble 'T', 'E', and 'A", press a button, and hear the word 'TEA' pronounced out loud. They can then explore the language, for example the same three letters can spell out "ATE" and "EAT".

In the first step, the formed word is sounded out, along with its phonemes, for example [t] and [i] for "TEA". The sounding of these phonemes will be staggered from simple to complex: * single letter to phoneme, e.g. CAT with [c] [ae] and [t] * digraph to phoneme, e.g. TEA with [t] and [i] * single letter to affricate, e.g. the Z in MOZART sounds [dz] The second step starts when all phonemes and graphemes are included. The screen 404 will then display the graphemes that correspond to the current phoneme on the 5 screen.

The third step will show on the screen the segmentation of the word into grapheme syllables and blend the individual phonemes into phoneme syllables.

In the fourth step, the controller will also teach decoding strategies by sounding the relevant spelling rule, e.g. "EA" often makes the [i] sound (the closed, front, unrounded vowel) as in "TEA" and "EAT", but sometimes it makes another sound (the open-mid, front, unrounded vowel) as in "tearing apart". These strategies are especially important for orthographically deep languages like English, Portuguese, and French.

The character recognition using the camera 405 works as follows: When a letter is positioned under the camera, the first step is to detect the colour of the wood used for the body 300.

Secondly, the processor 401 simplifies the region of the detected colour to a rectangle.

Thirdly, the processor 401 detects the pixels inside the rectangle that are not the colour of plywood, and compares each area to the letter/number files in it's processor memory, selecting the letter from it's memory that is the best fit -the one with the smallest distance in pixel space. Another classification algorithm could also be used, such as neural networks.

As a final step the processor joins or chains letters in each rectangle into words. If 25 multiple rectangles are detected, the processor forms the words into a sentence.

The same system can be modified if required to use edge detection, such as Canny edge detection, rather than colour detection.

As there is a learning benefit to playing with letters and sounds, even if these do not form distinct, known words, the software loaded into the processor 401 is adapted to 30 synthesise the pronunciation of new words that users form using the individual letters.

For example, if a user spelled out 'wugs', this is not an actual word in the English language. However, most adults in English-speaking countries would known to pronounce this as [W-gz] , where [-] stands for the open-mid, back, unrounded vowel, because the [w] is often the first phoneme of words starting with "n' ("wig', "water", "well"), and [gz] is often the pronunciation of words ending in "-ugs" ("bugs", "drugs", "hugs", "mugs", etc). The software is loaded with the phonetic transcriptions for a given language, and/or a summary relevant for synthesising new words, and can then in turn produce the pronunciation that most likely respects the spelling in a language. This allows users to experiment with different combinations and learn phonetically.

In a similar fashion, the software is also configured to make further or alternative suggestions for words similar to the one formed by the user, so as to teach new words with minimal effort. For example, if the student forms the word "don", the software suggests to form another, similar word, such as "nod" or "done", by scrambling the letters (if another word is possible), or by adding a letter or letters (if not). These suggestions take into account word frequency in the target language and strike a balance between more common words and new words (e.g., if the software has shown "donut" multiple times, it would then suggest "donor").

It is preferred that a user can upload their own custom sounds to the central processor 401, via the microphone 402. This allows users such as small children to hear a familiar voice saying a word such as their name. Alternatively, remotely-located users can record and upload words and phrases to a website, with these then downloadable to the central processor 401, so that the end user can hear their voice.

The present invention has the following advantages: users enjoy playing with the different colours over and over (the letters in the embodiments described above are preferably formed from different colours so a word will be made up of multiple colours), and develop visual memory of the letters. A user can learn relevant common words, such as "mummy" and "daddy", quickly, or custom words of direct relevance to a user.

Physical and virtual worlds are combined so that physical puzzles that a user enjoys completing are included, along with software that accompanies them in their learning and which adapts to their progress.

The present invention provides an all-in-one educational device for teaching reading, 35 writing, and basic maths. It comprises physical puzzles with letters and numbers.

The invention is appropriate for any language with the principle of the alphabet, where a word is made of a reduced set of letters, such as the 26 Latin letters in English. Thus, it applies to all western languages and some oriental languages.

As the product is self-contained, it can be shipped to low-resource areas where good 5 teachers would not go, such as disadvantaged neighbourhoods, refugee camps, or remote villages without a nearby school in emerging countries.

Claims (41)

1. Claims 1. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills, comprising: a series of individual letters or numbers formed from a solid material; a main body having front and rear faces, at least one recess formed in the main 5 body; the recess(es) and letters/numbers formed so that each letter can slot into and substantially fill a corresponding recess; the recess(es) formed on both the front and rear faces of the main body.
2. 2. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 10 1 further comprising a base line formed on both the front and rear faces, the base line in the same position on both faces.
3. 3. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 1 or claim 2 wherein the recesses on the front face are formed so as to receive capital letters, and the recesses on the rear face are formed so as to receive lower-15 case letters in use.
4. 4. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 wherein the main body further comprises a plurality of magnets on at least one of the top and/or bottom edges to enable connection to a second main body.
5. 5. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 4 wherein the magnets are positioned so that the main bodies can only be connected in a single orientation.
6. 6. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 5 further comprising an audio chip, a speaker and user controls, the main body configured to hold the audio chip and speaker internally, the controls connected to the audio chip and positioned so as to be accessible from the exterior of the main body, manipulation of the controls causing the audio chip to play one of: the full word; the individual letters, or; the syllables, formed by the recesses in the main body.
7. 7. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 6 wherein the audio chip is configured to provide audio feedback on successful completion of positioning all of the letters in the recesses.
8. 8. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7 wherein the main body is formed to have a thickness enabling it to freely stand on it's lower edge.
9. 9. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any 5 one of claims 1 to 8 wherein the main body is formed from wood.
10. 10. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 3 further comprising a connection means on each side of the main body to allow two or more of the main bodies to be chained together in use.
11. 11. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 10 10 wherein the connection means comprises at least one magnet on each side of the main body.
12. 12. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 10 further comprising secondary blocks comprising one or more of: accents; punctuation, the secondary blocks and main body blocks adapted for mutual 15 connection in the appropriate position and orientation via a connection means.
13. 13. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 12 wherein the connection means comprises magnets.
14. 14. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 1 wherein the main body comprises a recess formed with any one of the numbers 1 20 to 20 or a basic mathematical operator symbol.
15. 15. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 14 wherein the recess(es) and corresponding letters/numbers are formed with an offset dimension of substantially 0.3 mm.
16. 16. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any 25 one of claims 1 to 15 wherein the letters are formed substantially symmetrically when there is no semantic meaning.
17. 17. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 16 wherein the lower-case letters 'd', 'U, 'p', 'q' are formed incompatibly.
18. 18. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 17 wherein the recess or recesses are formed as building blocks for other letters where appropriate.
19. 19. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 18 wherein glyphs that are normally formed as two separate parts are formed as a unitary item with the joint marked by scoring.
20. 20. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any 5 one of claims 1 to 19 wherein vowel letters are formed from a transparent material.
21. 21. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 20 wherein the size and stroke width of the typeface for the letters and numbers is configured to avoid sharp corners.
22. 22. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any 10 one of claims 1 to 21 wherein for letters that are formed as a cursive font, the stroke is engraved onto the surface of the letter.
23. 23. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills, comprising: a central processor; a microphone; at least one speaker; a screen, and; a camera; a box configured to hold the central processor, microphone, at least one speaker screen, and camera; the microphone, the at least one speaker, the screen, and the camera connected to and providing input to the central processor, and receiving commands therefrom; the box and camera mutually configured so that in use with the box placed on a 20 surface, the camera is positioned to read letters and/or numbers placed on the surface below the camera, the central processor configured to recognise the letters and/or numbers via Optical Character Recognition.
24. 24. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 23 wherein the central processor is configured to output the letter, letters, or full word read by the camera as audio output via the speaker.
25. 25. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 24 wherein the processor memory comprises phonetic transcriptions of word central processor is configured to synthesise the pronunciation of new words, the processor memory comprising phonetic transcriptions of letter and letter combinations.
26. 26. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 24 or claim 25 wherein the central processor is configured to output a word as both the full word and separate phonemes.
27. 27. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 26 wherein the central processor is configured to output the phonemes in a staggered order from simple to complex.
28. 28. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 5 26 or claim 27 wherein the central processor is configured to display the corresponding graphemes on the screen.
29. 29. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 24 to 28 wherein the central processor is configured to make further word suggestions based on the recognised letters.
30. 30. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 23 to 29 wherein the central processor is further configured for speech recognition and can receive spoken input via the microphone and display the answers to spoken spelling queries on the screen.
31. 31. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 23 to 30 wherein the central processor carries out Optical Character Recognition by detecting the main colour of an item placed under the camera, simplifying the detected colour region to a regular shape, and detecting pixels within the rectangle that are not the same colour as the main colour, the central processor comparing the shape formed by the non-main-colour pixels to letter/number files within the memory of the central processor and selecting the letter(s) and/or number(s) from the memory that have the smallest distance in pixel space.
32. 32. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 23 to 30 wherein the central processor carries out Optical Character Recognition via Canny edge detection or neural networks, the central processor comparing the shape detected to letter/number files within the memory of the central processor and selecting the letter(s) and/or number(s) from the memory that are the best fit.
33. 33. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 23 to 32 wherein the box is formed from walls connected together by dovetail joints.
34. 34. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 23 to 33 wherein the walls of the box are formed substantially from wood.
35. 35. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 23 to 34 wherein the screen is configured as a touch screen and can receive input via direct contact, and display words and symbols.
36. 36. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any 5 one of claims 23 to 35 further comprising a cable for connection to an external power source.
37. 37. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 36 wherein the cable is adapted for connection to a mains power supply, the central processor, microphone, at least one speaker, screen, and camera adapted to receive 10 mains power.
38. 38. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in claim 36 or claim 37 wherein the cable is adapted for connection to an alternative power supply, the central processor, microphone, at least one speaker, screen, and camera adapted to receive power from the alternative supply.
39. 39. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 23 to 38 further comprising a communication means adapted for connecting the central processor to the internet.
40. 40. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 23 to 39 wherein the processor is configured so that a user can input 20 custom sounds to the processor memory via the microphone.
41. 41. An apparatus for assisting with the teaching of literacy skills as claimed in any one of claims 23 to 39 wherein the processor is configured so that a user can input custom sounds to the processor memory via a remote interface such as a web portal.