Hemispheres Think Write-Pony app for iPhone and iPad

Make learning to write relevant and fun for young children.

Think Write is an interactive teaching and learning platform for children between the ages of 4 and 8 years. The APP includes activities which teach children the correct formation, height, size and spatial placement of all 26 letters building knowledge and skill through four modules of learning from early mark making to independent writing. Think Write uses a pre-cursive font, with a lead-in and lead-out stroke, preparing children for joining letters when they are ready.

Helping children learn to write the cursive letters correctly can help them build the right skills for learning Developed by an occupational therapist with over 28 years of clinical experience.

As any teacher and parent will know, learning to write is a complex process, a skill that children will learn to develop over many years. Think Write is a programme that has been developed with the stages of motor learning in mind.

Module 1: Cognitive Stage: children are trying to figure out what is needed, learning is conscious and important as it will form the foundation of the motor patterns for letter formation. Think Write has 5 loveable Animal Characters to help children build knowledge ‘bundles’ storing information on the rules that underpin letter formation, height, size and spatial placement.

Module 2: Basic Movement Patterns: Movements are large, often uncontrolled and controlled consciously often using ‘self-talk’. Think Write offers different pre-writing activities for conscious motor control, moving left to right, drawing patterns and shapes, building visual perceptual skills for directionality and form constancy, whilst also playing games to practise and reinforce children’s understanding of the animal characters from module 1.

Module 3: Associative Stage: More subtle movements are being practised in this phase. Learning and understanding from Module 1 and 2 is applied to link together each animal character with their associated letters and letters. Think Write offers activities and games which teach children how to form the letters correctly, activities so children can remember which letters belong to which animal character. Other games teach children how to write capital letters, learn the alphabet sequence and link print and cursive letters.

Module 4: Autonomous Stage: Movement is becoming more controlled. Less emphasis is placed on the cognitive control of movement and with extensive practise children reach the autonomous phase, greater accuracy emerges with the ability to think about other aspects of writing. Think Write recognises that children develop into this phase at different times. Think Write offers children different activities to learn how to join letters together to make new sounds, words and sentences.

Key features of the APP
1. 4 modules of learning, building cognitive awareness, pre-writing skills, to letter formation and joining.
2. Puzzles and games to reinforce children’s understanding and knowledge of the animal characters and their letter families.
3. Memory ames and activities to reinforce letter categories.
4. Interactive teaching activities for use in the classroom to teacher letter families.
5. Interactive games so children can learn to form the letters correctly.
6. Guided writing activities to learn capital letters.
7. Sequencing activities to learn the alphabet.
8. Matching games to associate printed letters with cursive letters.
9. Guided association for joining letters together to make new sounds.
10. Guided association for joining letters together to make words.
11. Printable PDF sheets for pen and paper practise.
12. Games to link letter symbol with sound and animal
13. No in app purchases