Bats in the Cave app for iPhone and iPad

Bats in the Cave is the Professional version (record keeping and emailing options) of Little Bats. Bats in the Cave is the second in a series of apps for early reading or remediation of reading in an engaging format. With the purchase of Bats in the Cave, parents, teachers, and therapists can download a free teaching manual (supporting research and suggested activities and worksheets). Bats in the Cave addresses early reading through phonemic awareness and phonics as well as providing auditory bombardment of sounds for speech students. In addition to teaching phonemic awareness and reading it can be used to address other skills; i.e. articulation, English as a second language (hearing the English sounds and words repeatedly), spelling, and left-to-right visual tracking.

Bats in the Cave teaches both phonemic awareness and phonics simultaneously. The words are in chains in which only one sound is changed at a time. The words may or may not rhyme. The important aspect is that the student learns to become aware of these single changes. An example of a 5 set chain is “mad – mat – bat – bit – sit”.

Repetition is important for learning. Bats in the Cave repeats the three sounds in each word (as the student touches the letters – active learning) two times. The word is then spoken 3 times after the sounds have been combined into a word. Then the student is tested on reading the words by touching the word named. The teacher is able to email the statistics to self or to the parents.

Bats in the Cave addresses the consonant-vowel-consonant syllable structure with the silent “e” in the first groups of words. It then mixes the CVC with silent “e” with the short CVC from Fat Cat App for added reinforcement. Future apps will address more complex syllable structures (4 and 5 sounds per syllable) as well as some common spelling rules; “c” vs “k” spelling, etc.

Skills addressed:
Reading: Consonant-Vowel-Consonant, long vowel with silent “e” and Consonant-Vowel-Consonant short vowel for reinforcement.
Phonemic Awareness
Phonics
Letter recognition
Articulation through auditory bombardment of sounds
English as a Second Language
Spelling

Design and content: Childrens Publishing and SpeechPathologyApps.com
Artwork: Joan L. McShane
Development: James Rouse of Exceptional Speech Products
Voice-over: Myrna Cabello
Recording Studio: Affordable Sound, Austin, TX.

About Children’s Publishing: Children’s Publishing publishes and sells products to Speech-language pathologists, early childhood and elementary schools, and parents. Childrens Publishing now has the website, www.SpeechPathologyApps.com, to showcase apps by Childrens Publishing as well as other apps that will assist therapists, teachers, and parents in using all tools available to teach literacy, speech and language.

OTHER APPLICATIONS: We appreciate your consideration of all our applications – Tea Time, Cake Time, Bedtime, Sleep Time, I Can Say, and Baby Bunny Bouncing Ball. Watch for our other upcoming apps, Where Has My Dog Gone (prepositions, vocabulary, some reading and print awareness) and Are You Sleeping? (action verbs, vocabulary, some reading and print awareness).