Left Right, Left Right
by Jo Westwood, Matthew Richard Wilkes
I.E.C. Software
1986

Although the games on this tape are specifically aimed at children with dyslexic problems, they may also be enjoyed by many young children who are not dyslexic. The first game, BeeDee gives children practice in distinguishing between b and d which are often confused. The aim of the game is to shoot all the letters which start the name of the object displayed, so that, if a dagger is drawn, all the d's must be shot away.

Before the game begins, some useful hints are given which encourage the child to form a mental picture of the shape of the word. He is told, for instance, that 'the word for bed looks like a bed, and so to write b you put the bed post first', and 'the word for dog has a tail hanging down. The dog is very sad if you forget that his nose comes before his ears. So to write a d you put his nose first.'

When the game begins, a mark is deducted from the score each time an incorrect letter is shot at. The seven pictures which appear on the screen are chosen randomly from 12, and the level of difficulty increases each time.

City Maze is a game which requires directional awareness to anticipate the movement of a little car. The player has to drive the car across the city without crashing into a wall, and can choose between an easy and a difficult game. The words 'left' and 'right' are displayed clearly at the bottom of the screen, and an adult working with the child, could reinforce these words as the game proceeds.

Doors is another program which reinforces the left/right concept. Behind each of the doors, clearly labelled Left and Right, may be found enemies (snakes, spiders, and skeletons), and these must be killed with the correct weapon axes kill skeletons, fly spray kills spiders, and daggers kill snakes. To be successful, the player must read the words which appear above each door, pay due care and attention to the words for the enemies which all begin with s.

All of these games are extremely simple, with attractive and colourful graphics; BeeDee and Maze are particularly enjoyable to use. Doors is, perhaps, not so much fun, having less of an arcade-type approach. Having tried out these games both with very young children, and with older pupils with learning difficulties, I can vouch for their usefulness, and for their success in stimulating children to improve their performance.

Control keys:
BeeDee 2 move left, 9 move right, SPACE fire.
City Maze 2 move left, 9 move right.
Doors 2 opens the left door, 9 opens the right door, SPACE to go on.

COMMENTS

All of the IEC Software programs are very attractive and easy to use. Jo Westwood has used her experience as an educational psychologist to devise games which children will enjoy playing and which will keep them interested and motivated long enough to improve their skills. Children with learning difficulties often become bored and frustrated by their lack of success, but these games give them a real chance to do well. Matthew Wilkes, too, has used his talents to great effect, and I look forward to seeing more of his work in the future.

---

REVIEW BY: Rosetta McLeod

Blurb: MATTHEW'S STORY To my mind, one of the most interesting educational applications of the micro lies in its potential for helping those with specific learning problems. Few publishers, however, have directed themselves to this area. Now IEC Software has come up with some programs useful both with children experiencing certain problems, and with very young children. IEC was set up by educational psychologist, Jo Westwood, who turned to computers to find ways of helping children affected by dyslexia, often known as word-blindness, Dyslexic children have great difficulty in learning to read, tending to confuse letters such as b and d. Jo decided her pupils needed practice in observing the differences between letters without being distracted by their similarity. A game involving discrimination between two letters linked to pictures and associated words beginning with the sound was needed, The game element had to be particularly strong to sustain the children's interest, so that they would practise. Jo, however, was not a programming expert, so the task of writing the game fell to teenager Matthew Wilkes. Matthew came to Jo's notice when, having been fooling around in class, his teacher asked him to write 50 lines - 'I must learn to use my good brain wisely'! The lines were duly done, but were not handwritten on school paper. They had been printed from a computer using an italic script! Jo seized the opportunity, and channeled Matthew's 'good brain' towards writing a program to her design, and so IEC Software was conceived. Unfortunately, the company is finding it difficult getting its games accepted by the retailers, who seem to turn down small software firms on principle, regardless of the quality of their product. I hope IEC succeed in their aim of getting on the shelves of the High Street stores, but if you have problems tracking down the games, they can be obtained direct from IEC at 77 Orton Lane, Womboume, Wolverhampton. WV5 9AP. The retail price of each of the cassettes for the 48K Spectrum is £8.95 Rosetta McLeod