AUSTRALIAN PC USER - FEBRUARY 1998
Reviewed by Linda Bruce

Phonics Alive! 1 teaches the sounds of letters in the alphabet as beginning, medial and ending sounds. Now its fine sequel, The Sound Blender, presents sound blends essential for students to confidently decode unknown words and helps them to spell correctly.

Through finely structured and amusing activities, the Sound Blender teaches (yes really!) digraphs, diphthongs, silent letters and suffixes, for example "ch, sh, een, kn, ar, aw, au ith, wr and et". At school, while teachers teach class groups, individual students can work at their own pace through 12 sequenced modules, each taking approximately 15 minutes to complete. Each module contains an introduction, rhyming exercises, blending exercises and a keyboard exercise while stickers in lower case letters help familiarise younger students with the keyboard.

Both Phonics Alive! 1 and the Sound Blender are unusual in that they can be profitably used by any student who needs help with phonetic spelling, and who finds it difficult to figure out new words. It's also great for ESL students. Both programs track student's progress so that in the classroom, you can cycle students through the activity, and check later to see which blends individuals and the group have mastered, and which you may need to teach the class as a group next. Every primary school class and teacher would benefit from having a copy.