Earobics Connections Student Activities

Earobics Software Guide

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Connections Student Activities

Task and Level Counter

The current task and level are displayed in the Task and

Level Counter located in the lower left corner of each

activity screen. The Task and Level Counter also indicates the

number of levels yet to be completed for the current task

(e.g., Task: 1 Level 2/10 means the student is working on the

second level out of a possible 10 levels for Task 1).

Scoring

A round of an activity consists of 10 auditory presentations

and responses called trials. In some Earobics activities, trials

are displayed at the bottom of the screen indicating whether

or not a response is correct while in others, trials are

displayed along one of the screen edges. Icons indicating cor-

rect and incorrect responses will vary from activity to activity.

See Earobics activity descriptions for detailed

scoring information.

Cursor Availability

To prevent a student from attempting a response before the

auditory prompt is complete, the mouse pointer does not

appear on the screen during auditory prompts. After the

stimulus is presented, the mouse pointer will reappear three

times its normal size, blink green, and return to normal size.

This is the visual cue for students to respond.

Student Response Time

Student response time defaults to 10 seconds for each activi-

ty. If time elapses before the student responds, that response

will be treated as incorrect. If the student requires more time

to respond, click the

Audio Replay

icon to hear the stimu-

lus again and reset the timer.

Select a different response time interval from the Response

Time drop-down box in Student or Group Activity

Preferences to change this option.

Languages

Earobics Step 2 software delivers activity instructions in 9

languages: English, Spanish, Arabic, Cantonese, Haitian

Creole, Hmong, Polish, Russian, and Vietnamese.

Select a different language from the Language drop-down

box in Student or Group Activity Preferences to change this

option.

Continuous Rounds of Play

Looping is enabled by default. This option allows students to

complete a round (10 trials) of a game. The Progress Chart will

display for five seconds and then the student will progress to the

next activity in the list.

To change this option, click once in the Enable Looping check-

box in Student or Group Activity Preferences.

Setting Levels

Educators may select a starting task, repeat a task, disable a

task, or skip tasks for students. Disabled tasks cannot be

played at all, while skipped tasks may be played if a student

progresses or regresses to them.

Click the Enable Looping checkbox in Student or Group

Activity Preferences to allow students to play one round (10

trials) of a given activity. The Progress Chart will display for

five seconds and then the student will progress to the next

activity in the list.

Disable the Enable Looping checkbox in Student or Group

Activity Preferences to customize an activity’s play settings by

selecting starting tasks, disabled tasks, or skipped tasks. Students

will log in, be presented with the Progress Chart and allowed to

select an activity that has been assigned by their teacher.

Collecting Data

Data is collected automatically during normal activity play and

upon early exit by students if they click the

Exit

button. If a

student fails to respond twice due to response timeout, the sys-

tem will prompt the student “Do You Want To Play Again?” If

a student clicks Yes, the system will continue the activity where

the student left off. If a student clicks No, the system will dis-

play the Progress Chart and not record the two incorrect trials

(due to lack of response) but will record any trials responded to

previously during the activity.

Adaptive Training

Earobics carefully monitors each student’s progress. The

software automatically increases or decreases the level of

difficulty for an activity, so a student is always working at the

level appropriate to his or her needs. Some activities

may not advance levels until the start of the next round of

play, even though the criterion for advancement has been

met. See each activity’s description for its adaptive training

criteria.

Connections Student Activities

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Tasks

Task 1:

Auditory memory for digits (10 levels)

Task 2:

Following directions: digits and linguistic

concepts (20 levels)

Task 3:

Following directions: digits, linguistic concepts,

and competing noise (6 levels)

Task 4:

Auditory memory for words (8 levels)

Task 5: Following directions: words and linguistic concepts,

(20 levels)

Task 6:

Following directions: words, linguistic concepts,

and competing noise (6 levels)

Task 7:

Auditory memory for long vowel phonemes

(8 levels)

Task 8:

Following directions: long vowel phonemes and

linguistic concepts (20 levels)

Task 9:

Following directions: long vowel phonemes, lin-

guistic concepts, and competing noise (6 levels)

Task 10:

Auditory memory for short vowel phonemes

(8 levels)

Task 11:

Following directions: short vowel phonemes and

linguistic concepts (20 levels)

Task 12:

Following directions: short vowel phonemes,

linguistic concepts, and competing noise (6 levels)

Task 13:

Auditory memory for consonant phonemes

(8 levels)

Task 14:

Following directions: consonant phonemes

and linguistic concepts (22 levels)

Learning Variables

Auditory memory skills, following directions, and background

noise are learning variables applied throughout the 14 tasks in

Calling All Engines. An explanation of each follows.

Auditory Memory Skills

Calling All Engines provides systematic skill training across

168 levels of instruction. Calling All Engines builds auditory

sequential memory by increasing the number of sounds the

student must remember and by removing visual cues.

Initially, the student sees the symbols as sounds are present-

ed. As the student progresses, the symbols do not appear

until after sounds are presented, requiring the student to rely

on auditory memory skills for his or her response.

Following Directions

Once the student successfully sequences five items without

visual cueing, Calling All Engines requires the student to

follow oral directions containing linguistic concepts (e.g.,

“Before you click on /w/, click on /p/”).

Background Noise

When the student can follow oral directions successfully,

Calling All Engines has him or her focus attention in the

presence of competing background noise. The volume of the

background noise increases or decreases based on the stu-

dent’s performance.

How to Play

Help FireFighter Fly put out the fire in the burning building by

recalling a series of numbers, words and speech sounds, and by

following directions of increasing complexity. Click on the fire

hydrant to bypass the opening instructions and to begin the task.

If looping is enabled for a student or a group of students, Calling

All Engines will start automatically after five seconds once

students log in. If looping is disabled, click on the

FireFighter

Fly

icon on the Progress Chart to begin.

A number appears inside each of the nine windows of the burn-

ing building. FireFighter Fly gives directions to click on a num-

ber. (Note: the cursor will disappear during the presentation of

the number.) Position the cursor over the number heard and

wait until a blue frame appears around the selected window.

Click on the number before FireFighter Fly runs out of water.

After three consecutive correct responses, Calling All

Engines automatically advances the level of difficulty by

increasing the number of digits spoken.

When two or more numbers are presented, click on the

numbers in the order they were presented. Calling All

Engines continues to advance in difficulty by increasing

the amount of numbers, concealing the digits until after

numbers have been spoken, increasing the complexity of

directions, introducing low and high levels of background

crowd noise, and varying the type of sounds presented.

After two consecutive incorrect responses, the level of play

decreases automatically.

Scoring:

correct response, incorrect response

Primary Skills

Auditory Sequential Memory, Attention and Short-term

Memory, Following Oral Directions, Comprehension

of Linguistic Concepts, Auditory Performance with

Competing Signals

Related Skills

Auditory and Phoneme Discrimination, Sound-Symbol

Correspondence

CALLING ALL ENGINES

Calling All Engines strengthens students’ auditory memory and language processing.

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Connections Student Activities

“Click on the sounds you hear.”

Tasks 1–3: Recalling, Sequencing, and Following Directions with 1–5 Digits

Tasks 4–6: Recalling, Sequencing, and

Following Directions with 1–4 Words

Background Noise

Background noise is

systematically introduced,

requiring the student to

listen and focus in the

presence of competing

distractions. The volume

of the background noise

increases or decreases

depending upon the

student’s performance.

Delayed Visual Cueing

As the activity progresses,

students will not see pic-

tures or letters until after

the auditory stimuli are pre-

sented. Delayed visual cue-

ing requires the student to

rely on auditory memory to

complete the task.

Increasing Challenge

As the activity progresses,

the student will recall and

sequence up to five items

in order. The software

automatically adjusts the

number of stimuli depend-

ing upon the student’s

performance.

Tasks 7–9: Recalling, Sequencing, and

Following Directions with 1–4 Long Vowel Sounds

Tasks 10–12: Recalling, Sequencing, and

Following Directions with 1–4 Short Vowel Sounds

Tasks 13–14: Recalling, Sequencing, and

Following Directions with 1–4 Consonant Sounds

Connections Student Activities

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Primary Skills

Phonological Segmentation and Manipulation, Phonological

Sequencing, Auditory Temporal Resolution, Auditory

Temporal Ordering and Pattern Recognition, Auditory

Short-term and Sequential Memory

Related Skills

Auditory Attention, Auditory and Phoneme

Discrimination, Following Oral Directions,

Comprehension of Linguistic Concepts

PAINT BY PENGUIN

Paint by Penguin helps the student increase reading speed and accuracy, and improve spelling by developing his or her ability

to count, segment, sequence and manipulate sounds.

Task 1:

Counting number of phonemes (12 levels)

Task 2:

Segmenting phonemes in a word with simple

syllable structure (6 levels)

Task 3:

Segmenting phonemes in a word with complex

syllable structure (4 levels)

Task 4:

Counting and sequencing phonemes (12 levels)

Task 5:

Segmenting and sequencing phonemes in a word

with simple syllable structure (6 levels)

Task 6:

Segmenting and sequencing phonemes in a word

with complex syllable structure (4 levels)

Task 7:

Manipulating phonemes (24 levels)

Learning Variables

Counting sounds, segmenting words into sounds, manipu-

lating sounds, and auditory feedback are learning variables

applied in Paint by Penguin. An explanation of each follows.

Counting Sounds

Paint by Penguin uses 68 levels of instruction to teach

phoneme segmentation and manipulation skills. It establish-

es the foundation for phoneme segmentation with activities

in counting speech sounds. Paint by Penguin requires the

student to process sounds increasingly quickly by providing

practice at time intervals ranging from 1.0 to .25 second.

Segmenting Words into Sounds

Once the student is successful counting sounds, he or she

learns to segment words into individual sounds.

Manipulating Sounds

As the student’s skills progress, Paint by Penguin teaches the

student to manipulate speech sounds. The student creates

new real and nonsense words by rearranging, deleting,

substituting, and adding sounds. The words progress from

short to long and from simple to complex syllable structures.

Auditory Feedback

Initially, Paint by Penguin provides auditory feedback by

repeating the sounds as the student clicks on the mouse. As

the student progresses, the auditory feedback is removed.

With no auditory feedback, the student learns to respond

independently.

How to Play

Paint masterpieces with Pierre Penguin by selecting a sponge

to count, sequence, segment, and manipulate speech sounds.

Click on a sponge to bypass the opening instructions. If

looping is enabled for a student or a group of students,

Paint By Penguin will start automatically after five seconds

once students log in. If looping is disabled, click on the

Penguin

on the Progress Chart to begin.

Tasks 1-3:

Pierre presents one to three speech sounds.

When Pierre turns to face the canvas and the

Speaker

icon

appears on screen, click the mouse once for each speech

sound heard. A sponge print appears with each click of the

mouse. The number of sponge prints must match the num-

ber of sounds presented.

Paint by Penguin continues at the given level until at least eight

correct responses out of ten are provided. Paint By Penguin then

advances the level of difficulty by changing the interval between

sounds, eliminating auditory feedback, and increasing the num-

ber of sounds presented. After the student becomes proficient at

counting individual speech sounds, Paint by Penguin advances

the level of difficulty by presenting a word. Click on the mouse

once for each speech sound heard in the word. After six or more

incorrect responses, the level of play decreases automatically.

Tasks 4-6:

Pierre Penguin presents one to three speech

sounds. Click on any paint can at the bottom of the screen

to represent the number and order of the sounds heard.

Select a different color for each different sound you hear. Use

the same color for sounds that are the same. Color choices

apply only to a single response; when the next speech sounds

are presented, students may change the colors of paint.

Paint by Penguin continues at the given level until at least

eight correct responses are provided. Paint by Penguin then

advances the level of difficulty by changing the interval

between sounds, eliminating auditory feedback, and increas-

ing the number of sounds presented. After the student

becomes proficient at counting and sequencing individual

speech sounds, Paint by Penguin advances the level of diffi-

culty by presenting words. After six or more incorrect

responses, the level of play decreases automatically.

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Connections Student Activities

Task 7:

Pierre presents a word containing two sounds,

using a different color sponge for each sound. Pierre

instructs students to rearrange the sounds into a new word.

Click on the paint can colors at the bottom of the screen

that correspond to the colors used by Pierre.

Paint by Penguin continues at the given level until at least

eight correct responses are provided. Paint by Penguin then

advances the level of difficulty by introducing more chal-

lenging sound manipulations, eliminating auditory feedback,

and increasing the number of sounds in a word. After six or

more incorrect responses, the level of play decreases auto-

matically.

Scoring:

correct response, incorrect response

“Click on the mouse once for each sound you hear in the word.”

Tasks 5–6: Segmenting and sequencing phonemes in

words with simple and complex syllable structures

Task 1: Counting number of phonemes

Task 7: Manipulating phonemes

Increasing Challenge

As the activity progresses, the

complexity of syllable structure

and the difficulty of the phono-

logical manipulation tasks

become more challenging.

Auditory Feedback

Student initially hears the

sounds produced as he or

she clicks on the mouse. As

the activity progresses, audi-

tory feedback is removed

and the student counts

sounds independently.

Time Intervals

Paint by Penguin helps

students process sounds

by presenting sounds at

time intervals ranging from

1.0 second to .25 second.

Task 4: Counting and sequencing phonemes

Tasks 2–3: Segmenting phonemes in words with

simple and complex syllable structures

Manipulation

Student learns to

rearrange, delete,

replace, and insert

phonemes to create

new words.

Continuous Scorecard

Immediate feedback is provided after each student

response. The student is rewarded for each correct

answer. If the student responds incorrectly, he or she

is shown the correct response.

Connections Student Activities

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Tasks

Task 1:

Blending two syllables into a word (9 levels)

Task 2:

Blending three syllables into a word (3 levels)

Task 3:

Blending four syllables into a word (3 levels)

Task 4:

Blending two phonemes into a word (3 levels)

Task 5:

Blending three phonemes into a word with

simple syllable structure (9 levels)

Task 6:

Blending three phonemes into a word with

complex syllable structure (3 levels)

Task 7:

Blending four phonemes into a word with

simple syllable structure (3 levels)

Task 8:

Blending four phonemes into a word with

complex syllable structure (9 levels)

Task 9:

Word closure: multisyllabic words with final

syllable omitted (3 levels)

Task 10:

Word closure: multisyllabic words with initial

syllable omitted (3 levels)

Task 11:

Word closure: multisyllabic words with

medial syllable omitted (2 levels)

Task 12:

Word closure: simple syllable structure

words with final phonemes omitted (3 levels)

Task 13:

Word closure: simple syllable structure

words with initial phoneme omitted (3 levels)

Task 14:

Word closure: simple syllable structure

words with medial phoneme omitted (2 levels)

Task 15:

Word closure: complex syllable structure words

with one phoneme of consonant blend omitted (2 levels)

Learning Variables

Blending sounds, distinguishing sounds in words, word

closure, and increasing auditory memory are learning

variables applied throughout the 15 tasks in Pesky Parrots.

An explanation of each follows.

Blending Sounds

Pesky Parrots provides 60 levels of instruction in word,

syllable, and phoneme blending, and in word-closure skills.

Students begin by learning to blend two syllables into a

word, and progress to learning how to blend three and four

syllables and then up to four phonemes into words.

Distinguishing Sounds in Words

Pesky Parrots teaches the student to hear subtle differences

in words. Initially, the student chooses from three words

that do not sound alike. As the student’s skills develop, the

response choices become more similar. This encourages the

student to listen to every sound and to make finer discrimi-

nations between words.

Word Closure

Pesky Parrots advances to teaching word-closure skills. The

student learns to recognize a word when a syllable or

phoneme has been omitted by filling in the missing part of

the word. This skill training develops the student’s awareness

of sounds and word-prediction skills.

Increasing Auditory Memory

While the student develops blending and word closure skills,

Pesky Parrots also helps him or her build auditory memory

skills. Decoding words requires at least a two-second audito-

ry memory span, the amount of time needed to recognize a

symbol, recall the sound, and hold and process the sound in

auditory memory. Pesky Parrots provides extensive practice

with listening to sounds and holding them in auditory

memory for gradually increasing amounts of time before

blending them into words. Pesky Parrots gradually increases

the time the student must hold a sound in auditory memory

until the two-second goal is attained.

How to Play

Help Pirate Patch get back his stolen jewels by blending

syllables and speech sounds into words and completing

words by filling in missing syllables or speech sounds. If

looping is enabled for a student or a group of students,

Pesky Parrots will start automatically after five seconds once

students log in. If looping is disabled, click on the

Parrot

icon on the Progress Chart to begin.

Tasks 1-8:

The pesky parrots present two syllables that

make a word. Three pictures appear on the sails of the pirate

ship. When the

Speaker

icon appears on screen, click on the

picture that corresponds to the word spoken by the parrots.

After three consecutive correct responses, Pesky Parrots auto-

matically advances the level of difficulty by increasing the

time between syllables and introducing more similar-sound-

ing response choices. When the student becomes proficient

blending two syllables into words, Pesky Parrots automati-

cally advances by presenting three and then four syllables.

Pesky Parrots continues to increase in difficulty by present-

ing individual speech sounds, varying the complexity of

Primary Skills

Phonological Blending, Word Closure, Auditory and

Phoneme Discrimination, Auditory Short-term Memory,

Auditory Performance with Degraded Signals

Related Skills

Auditory Sequential Memory, Auditory Attention,

Auditory Temporal Ordering, Following Oral Directions,

Comprehension of Linguistic Concepts

PESKY PARROTS

Pesky Parrots addresses blending and word closure to give the student foundational skills for successful decoding.

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Connections Student Activities

sound patterns in words, using longer presentation intervals,

increasing the number of sounds presented, and varying the

similarity of the response choices.

After two consecutive incorrect responses, the level of play

will decrease automatically.

Tasks 9-15:

The pesky parrots present the first syllable of a

word and omit the second syllable. Three pictures appear on

the sails of the pirate ship. Click on the picture that corre-

sponds to the word spoken by the parrots.

After three consecutive correct responses, Pesky Parrots auto-

matically advances the level of difficulty by increasing the

number of syllables in the word. Pesky Parrots continues to

advance the level of difficulty by varying the position of the

omitted syllable, omitting speech sounds, and varying the

complexity of sound patterns in the word

After two consecutive incorrect responses, the level of play

will decrease automatically.

Scoring:

correct response incorrect response

Task 15: Word closure with one phoneme of a consonant blend omitted

Tasks 12–14: Word closure with a

phoneme omitted

Tasks 9–11: Word closure with a syllable omitted

Challenging Foils

As the activity pro-

gresses, the response

choices sound more

alike, challenging the

student to make finer

discriminations

between words before

responding.

Word Closure

Student builds word

closure skills by listen-

ing to words and filling

in the missing syllable

or phoneme.

Time Intervals

The activity builds

auditory memory by

pausing between syl-

lables or phonemes,

first for .25 second,

then 1.0 second and

2.0 seconds.

Syllable Structure

As the activity progresses,

the complexity of the sylla-

ble structure becomes

more challenging.

Tasks 4–8: Blending 2–4 phonemes into a wordTasks 1–3: Blending 2–4 syllables into a word

“Click on the picture of what the parrots are saying.”

Connections Student Activities

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Tasks

Note: Tasks 4-8 are disabled by default but can be enabled

using Activity Preferences.

Task 1:

Discriminating vowels in minimal pair closed

syllables (30 levels)

Task 2:

Discriminating vowels in minimal pair words

with postvocalic /l/ (30 levels)

Task 3:

Discriminating r-controlled vowels in minimal

pair words (21 levels)

Task 4:

Discriminating ba-pa (7 levels)

Task 5:

Discriminating sha-sa (7 levels)

Task 6:

Discriminating ra-la (7 levels)

Task 7:

Discriminating ma-na (7 levels)

Task 8:

Discriminating da-ga (7 levels)

Task 9:

Recognizing diphthongs in a word (4 levels)

Task 10:

Recognizing tense vowels in a word (4 levels)

Task 11:

Recognizing lax vowels in a word (7 levels)

Task 12:

Identifying position of a consonant phoneme

in a word (24 levels)

Learning Variables

Discriminating vowels, distinguishing consonants, and

recognizing sounds and spellings of vowels, and recognizing

the position of consonant sounds are learning variables

applied throughout the 12 tasks in Hippo Hoops. An

explanation of each follows.

Discriminating Vowels

Hippo Hoops uses 155 levels of instruction to teach

discrimination, phoneme identification, and phoneme

sequencing skills. The student begins with practice in

vowel discrimination, listening to a series of one to eight

consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) syllables. The student

learns to detect a change in the vowel phoneme.

Discriminating Consonants

Hippo Hoops progresses to teaching discrimination of

consonant-vowel pairs. Hippo Hoops begins with sounds

that are made easier to discriminate. Acoustically modified

speech is used to make critical cues more easily heard. As a

student's skills develop, he or she is presented with sounds

that are more difficult to discriminate.

Recognizing Sounds and Spellings of Vowels

Once consonant and vowel discrimination is mastered, Hippo

Hoops teaches the student to recognize the sounds and spellings

of diphthongs, tense and lax vowels in words. The student learns

that certain sounds can be spelled in a number of ways.

Recognizing the Position of Consonant Sounds

Hippo Hoops has the student recognize the position of con-

sonant sounds in words. The student identifies a sound as

occurring in the beginning, middle, or end of a word.

How to Play

Score banana points by recognizing and discriminating

sounds and by identifying the position of sounds within

words. Build phonics skills for vowels, vowel digraphs,

diphthongs, consonants, consonant digraphs and consonant

blends while shooting hoops with Hakeem Hippo. Click on

the ball Hakeem holds to bypass the opening instructions.

If looping is enabled for a student or a group of students,

Hippo Hoops will start automatically after five seconds once

students log in. If looping is disabled, click on the

Hippo

icon on the Progress Chart to begin.

Tasks 1-8:

Hakeem Hippo is ready to go one-on-one with

the Rhino. When the whistle blows, place the cursor on the

ball in the rack at the bottom of the screen. Click and hold

down the mouse button and listen as Hakeem repeats one

real or nonsense word. Let go of the mouse button when

you hear a different word.

After three consecutive correct responses, Hippo Hoops

automatically advances the level of difficulty by presenting

more similar sound contrasts.

After two consecutive incorrect responses, the level of play

decreases automatically.

Tasks 9-11:

Hakeem Hippo and his hippo pal are ready to

go two-on-two with the Rhinos. Hakeem presents a sound

that corresponds to the letter or letters displayed on the ban-

ners. When the whistle blows, place the cursor on the ball in

the rack, hold down the mouse button, and listen as

Hakeem presents a list of words. Let go of the mouse button

when you hear a word that contains the sound correspon-

ding to the letter or letters on the banners.

Primary Skills

Auditory and Phoneme Discrimination, Auditory Vigilance,

Phoneme Identification, Phonological Sequencing

Related Skills

Auditory Attention, Auditory Short-term Memory, Sound-

Symbol Correspondence, Following Oral Directions,

Comprehension of Linguistic Concepts

HIPPO HOOPS

Hippo Hoops strengthens reading fluency and spelling as the student learns to identify and discriminate sounds, identify the

position of sounds within words and recognize spelling patterns.

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Connections Student Activities

After three consecutive correct responses, Hippo Hoops

automatically advances the level of difficulty by introducing

more challenging sound patterns, moving from diphthongs

to tense vowels and to lax vowels.

After two consecutive incorrect responses, the level of play

decreases automatically.

Task 12:

Hakeem presents a sound that corresponds to the

letter or letters displayed on the banners. Hakeem says a

word. When the speaker icon appears on screen, click on the

first, second, or third ball in the ball rack to indicate if the

sound is heard at the beginning, middle, or end of the word.

After three consecutive correct responses, Hippo Hoops

automatically increases the level of difficulty by introducing

more challenging sounds.

After two consecutive incorrect responses, the level of play

decreases automatically.

Scoring:

correct response, incorrect response

Task 10: Recognizing tense vowels in a word

Task 11: Recognizing lax vowels in a word

Tasks 4–8: Discriminating consonants in CV syllables

Task 9: Recognizing diphthongs in a word

“Let go of the mouse when you hear the

/e/

sound.”

Acoustically Modified Speech

Computer-generated speech is

used to make critical acoustic

cues more easily heard.

Increasing Challenge

As the activity progress-

es, student discriminates

between vowel pairs that

sound more similar.

Sounds and Letters

Student learns that certain

sounds can be spelled a

number of different ways.

These spelling patterns

are reinforced.

Task 12: Identifying position of a consonant

phoneme in a word

Tasks 1–3: Discriminating vowels

Connections Student Activities

5566

Tasks

Task 1:

Recognizing word endings: open-syllable rimes

(8 levels)

Task 2:

Recognizing word endings: closed-syllable

rimes (55 levels)

Task 3:

Recognizing word endings: rimes containing

postvocalic /l/ (8 levels)

Task 4:

Recognizing word endings: rimes containing

r-controlled vowels (4 levels)

Task 5:

Recognizing word beginnings: single consonants

and consonant digraphs (22 levels)

Task 6:

Recognizing word beginnings: CC blends

(22 levels)

Task 7:

Recognizing word beginnings: CCC blends

(5 levels)

Task 8:

Blending onsets with rimes (12 levels)

Task 9:

Segmenting and deleting phonemes, onsets,

and rimes (6 levels)

Learning Variables

Recognizing rhyming word endings, recognizing onset pat-

terns, blending onsets and rimes, auditory interference and

segmenting and deleting phonemes, onsets and rimes are

learning variables applied throughout the nine tasks in Duck

Luck. An explanation of each follows.

Recognizing Rhyming Word Endings

Duck Luck provides systematic training in recognition and

spelling of common word endings. These word endings are

the most frequently occurring phonological patterns in the

English language.

Recognizing Onset Patterns

As the student’s skills progress, Duck Luck provides practice

in recognition and spelling patterns of onsets, including

consonants, consonant digraphs, and consonant blends.

Blending Onsets and Rimes

Once the student masters recognition of word endings and

beginnings, Duck Luck has him or her blend these onsets

and rimes. The time interval between presentation of onsets

and rimes gradually increases from .50 to 2.0 seconds. These

changes require the student to hold the sounds in auditory

memory for increasingly longer periods of time.

Auditory Interference

Duck Luck continues to challenge the student by using

auditory interference between the presentation of onsets

and rimes. Initially the activity presents sounds without

interruption (e.g., hot); as the activity progresses, verbal

instructions are used as auditory interference (e.g., “Which

duck says a word that begins with /h/ and ends with /ot/?”).

The interference requires the student to hold the initial

sound in auditory memory while processing the directions.

Segmenting and Deleting Phonemes, Onsets and Rimes

After the student is able to blend onsets and rimes, Duck

Luck requires the student to segment and delete all or part

of the onset or rime.

How to Play

Visit the Duck Luck Arcade for some old-fashioned carnival

fun as you work on rhyming and other sound-pattern recog-

nition skills. Click on the prize arrow to bypass the opening

instructions. If looping is enabled for a student or a group

of students, Duck Luck will start automatically after five

seconds once students log in. If looping is disabled, click

on the

Duck

icon on the Progress Chart to begin.

Tasks 1-7:

Lyle Crocodile presents a sound pattern corre-

sponding to the letters displayed on the screen. Three little

ducks each speak a different word. Click on the duck whose

word ends with the sound pattern Lyle Crocodile presented.

After three consecutive correct responses, Duck Luck auto-

matically advances the level of difficulty by presenting more

challenging word-final sound patterns, introducing word-

initial sound patterns, and varying the complexity of the

word-initial sound patterns.

After two consecutive incorrect responses, the level of play

decreases automatically.

Task 8:

Lyle Crocodile presents two parts of a syllable (onset and

rime) that make a one-syllable word. Click on the duck that says

the word corresponding to the word spoken by Lyle Crocodile.

DUCK LUCK

Duck Luck strengthens decoding and spelling skills as the student learns to recognize, blend, and manipulate onsets

(word beginnings), rimes (word endings), and phonemes.

Primary Skills

Rhyming, Phoneme Identification and Discrimination,

Phonological Blending, Segmentation and Manipulation,

Word Closure, Auditory Sequential and Short-term

Memory, Sound-Symbol Correspondence

Related Skills

Auditory Attention, Sound-Symbol Correspondence,

Auditory Short-term Memory, Phonological Sequencing,

Following Oral Directions, Comprehension of Linguistic

Concepts, Sight Recognition

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Connections Student Activities

After three consecutive correct responses, Duck Luck auto-

matically advances in difficulty by increasing the interval

between parts of the word, increasing the complexity of the

sound patterns within the word, and introducing interfer-

ence between the two parts of the word.

After two consecutive incorrect responses, the level of play

decreases automatically.

Task 9:

(6 Levels of Play) Lyle Crocodile presents a word

with a sound removed. Click on the duck that says the word

that corresponds with the word spoken by Lyle Crocodile.

After three consecutive correct responses, Duck Luck auto-

matically advances the level of play by varying the complexi-

ty of the sound patterns within a word and by varying the

type of sound manipulation.

After two consecutive incorrect responses, the level of play

decreases automatically.

Scoring:

correct response, incorrect response

“Which duck says a word that ends with

‘ack’

?”

Task 9: Segmenting and deleting

phonemes, onsets, and rimes

Task 8: Blending onsets with rimes

Tasks 1–4: Recognizing word endings

Tasks 5–7: Recognizing word beginnings

Time Intervals

Duck Luck builds auditory

memory by pausing

between onsets and

rimes for .5 second and

works systematically up

to 2.0 seconds.

Increasing Challenge

As the activity progress-

es the tasks and com-

plexity of the syllable

structure become more

challenging.

strike

smoke

fight

Connections Student Activities

5588

Calling All Engines

Task 1: Using auditory memory for digits (10 levels)

Objective: The student will recall in order one, two, three,

four or five digits presented one second apart. Display of

nine response choices will be simultaneous or delayed.

Task 2: Following directions: digits and linguistic

concepts (20 levels)

Objective: The student will follow directions containing a

linguistic concept and requiring identification of digits.

Display of nine response choices will be simultaneous or

delayed. The set of linguistic concepts consists of and, or,

not, first, last, middle, ...before, ...after, before..., after... .

Task 3: Following directions: digits, linguistic

concepts, and competing noise (6 levels)

Objective: The student will follow directions containing

randomly selected linguistic concepts and requiring identifi-

cation of digits. Display of nine response choices will be

simultaneous or delayed and no, low or high background

noise will be present. The set of linguistic concepts consists

of and, or, not, first, last, middle, ...before, ...after, before...,

after... .

Task 4: Using auditory memory for words (8 levels)

Objective: The student will recall in order of presentation

one, two, three or four words auditorily presented. Display

of response choices will be simultaneous or delayed.

Task 5: Following directions: words and linguistic

concepts (20 levels)

Objective: The student will follow directions containing a

linguistic concept and requiring identification of words

represented by pictures. Display of response choices will

be simultaneous or delayed. The set of linguistic concepts

consists of and, or, not, first, last, middle, ...before, ...after,

before..., after... .

Task 6: Following directions: words, linguistic concepts,

and competing noise (6 levels)

Objective: The student will follow directions containing a

randomly selected linguistic concept and requiring identifi-

cation of words represented by pictures. Display of nine

response choices will be simultaneous or delayed and no,

low or high background noise will be present. The set of

linguistic concepts consists of and, or, not, first, last, middle,

...before, ...after, before..., after... .

Task 7: Using auditory memory for long vowel

phonemes (8 levels)

Objective: The student will recall in order of presentation

one, two, three or four long vowel sounds presented audito-

rily. Display of response choices will be simultaneous or

delayed.

Task 8: Following directions: long vowel phonemes

and linguistic concepts (20 levels)

Objective: The student will follow directions containing a

linguistic concept and requiring identification of long vowel

sounds represented by corresponding graphemes. Display of

response choices will be simultaneous or delayed. The set of

linguistic concepts consists of and, or, not, first, last, middle,

...before, ...after, before..., after... .

Task 9: Following directions: long vowel phonemes,

linguistic concepts and competing noise

(6 levels)

Objective: The student will follow directions containing

a randomly selected linguistic concept and requiring

identification of long vowel phonemes represented by

corresponding graphemes. Display of response choices will

be simultaneous or delayed and no, low or high background

noise will be present. The set of linguistic concepts consists

of and, or, not, first, last, middle, ...before, ...after, before...

after... .

EAROBICS STEP 2 LEARNING OBJECTIVES

The following learning objectives appear on the Reporting screen. They are written in standard Individualized Education

Plan (IEP) format to help educators keep records and create reports. When writing IEP goals, use these learning objectives as

a framework and customize them for each student. Objectives for each activity are listed in the order presented during play.

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Connections Student Activities

Task 10: Using auditory memory for short vowel

phonemes (8 levels)

Objective: The student will recall in order of presentation

one, two, three or four short vowel sounds presented audito-

rily. Display of response choices will be simultaneous or

delayed.

Task 11: Following directions: short vowel phonemes

and linguistic concepts (20 levels)

Objective: The student will follow directions containing a

linguistic concept and requiring identification of short vowel

sounds represented by corresponding graphemes. Display of

response choices will be simultaneous or delayed. The set of

linguistic concepts consists of and, or, not, first, last, middle,

...before, ...after, before..., after... .

Task 12: Following directions: short vowel phonemes,

linguistic concepts, and competing noise

(6 levels)

Objective: The student will follow directions containing

a randomly selected linguistic concept and requiring

identification of short vowel phonemes represented by

corresponding graphemes. Display of response choices will

be simultaneous or delayed and no, low or high background

noise will be present. The set of linguistic modifiers consists

of and, or, not, first, last, middle, ...before, ...after, before...,

after... .

Task 13: Auditory memory for consonant phonemes

(8 levels)

Objective: The student will recall in order of presentation

one, two, three or four consonant sounds presented audito-

rily. Display of response choices will be simultaneous or

delayed.

Task 14: Following directions: consonant phonemes

and linguistic concepts (22 levels)

Objective: The student will follow directions containing a

linguistic concept and requiring identification of consonant

sounds represented by corresponding graphemes. Display of

response choices will be simultaneous or delayed. The set of

linguistic concepts consists of and, or, not, first, last, middle,

...before, ...after, before..., after... .

Paint by Penguin

Task 1: Counting number of phonemes (12 levels)

Objective: The student will identify the number of

phonemes (one, two, three, four, or five) presented auditorily.

The phonemes will be separated by 1.0, 0.5 or 0.25 sec-

onds. Simultaneous auditory feedback will or will not be

provided during response.

Task 2: Segmenting phonemes in a word with simple

syllable structure (6 levels)

Objective: The student will identify the number of

phonemes (two, three, four, or five) in a word with simple

syllable structure presented auditorily. Simultaneous auditory

feedback will or will not be provided during response.

Task 3: Segmenting phonemes in a word with

complex syllable structure (4 levels)

Objective: The student will identify the number of

phonemes (three, four, or five) in a word with complex syllable

structure presented auditorily. Simultaneous auditory

feedback will or will not be provided during response.

Task 4: Counting and sequencing phonemes

(12 levels)

Objective: The student will identify the number and

sequence of phonemes (one, two, three, four, or five)

presented auditorily. The phonemes will be separated by

1.0, 0.5 or 0.25 seconds. Simultaneous auditory feedback

will or will not be provided during response.

Connections Student Activities

6600

Paint by Penguin (cont.)

Pesky Parrots

Task 1: Blending two syllables into a word (9 levels)

Objective: The student will blend two syllables 0.25, 1.0 or

2.0 seconds apart and will select from a set of three response

choices. The choices will contain zero, one or two foils

(words that are perceptually similar to the target word).

Task 2: Blending three syllables into a word (3 levels)

Objective: The student will blend three syllables 0.25, 1.0 or

2.0 seconds apart and will select from a set of three response

choices.

Task 3: Blending four syllables into a word (3 levels)

Objective: The student will blend four syllables 0.25, 1.0 or

2.0 seconds apart and will select from a set of three response

choices.

Task 4: Blending two phonemes into a word (3 levels)

Objective: The student will blend two phonemes 0.25, 1.0

or 2.0 seconds apart and will select from a set of three

response choices.

Task 5: Blending three phonemes into a word with

simple syllable structure (9 levels)

Objective: The student will blend three phonemes 0.25,

1.0 or 2.0 seconds apart into a word with simple syllable

structure and will select from a set of three response choices.

The choices will contain zero, one or two foils (words that

are perceptually similar to the target word).

Task 6: Blending three phonemes into a word with

complex syllable structure (3 levels)

Objective: The student will blend three phonemes 0.25,

1.0 or 2.0 seconds apart into a word with complex syllable

structure and will select from a set of three response choices.

Task 7: Blending four phonemes into a word with

simple syllable structure (3 levels)

Objective: The student will blend four phonemes 0.25,

1.0 or 2.0 seconds apart into a word with simple syllable

structure and will select from a set of three response choices.

Task 8: Blending four phonemes into a word with

complex syllable structure (9 levels)

Objective: The student will blend four phonemes 0.25, 1.0

or 2.0 seconds apart into a word with complex syllable struc-

ture and will select from a set of three response choices. The

choices will contain zero, one or two foils (words that are

perceptually similar to the target word).

Task 5: Segmenting and sequencing phonemes in a

word with simple syllable structure (6 levels)

Objective: The student will identify the number (two,

three, four, or five) and sequence of phonemes in an

auditorily presented word with simple syllable structure.

Simultaneous auditory feedback will or will not be provided

during response.

Task 6: Segmenting and sequencing phonemes in a

word with complex syllable structure (4 levels)

Objective: The student will identify the number (three,

four, or five) and sequence of phonemes in an auditorily

presented word with complex syllable structure. Simul-

taneous auditory feedback will or will not be provided

during response.

Task 7: Manipulating phonemes (24 levels)

Objective: Given a series of two, three, or four phonemes

that form a word, the student will manipulate the phonemes

to create a new word or nonsense word. Simultaneous

auditory feedback will or will not be provided during

response.

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Connections Student Activities

Task 9: Word closure: multisyllabic words with final

syllable omitted (3 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a sequence of

two, three or four syllables that form a word from which the

final syllable has been omitted, the student will identify the

word by selecting from a set of three choices.

Task 10: Word closure: multisyllabic words with initial

syllable omitted (3 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a sequence of

two, three or four syllables that form a word from which the

initial syllable has been omitted, the student will identify the

word by selecting from a set of three choices.

Task 11: Word closure: multisyllabic words with medial

syllable omitted (2 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a sequence of

three or four syllables that form a word from which the

medial syllable has been omitted, the student will identify

the word by selecting from a set of three choices.

Task 12: Word closure: simple syllable structure words

with final phonemes omitted (3 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a sequence of

two, three or four phonemes that form a word with simple

syllable structure, from which the final phoneme has been

omitted, the student will identify the word by selecting from

a set of three choices.

Task 13: Word closure: Identifying simple syllable

structure words with initial phoneme omitted

(3 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a sequence of

two, three or four phonemes that form a word with simple

syllable structure, from which the initial phoneme has been

omitted, the student will identify the word by selecting from

a set of three choices.

Task 14: Word closure: Identifying simple syllable

structure words with medial phoneme

omitted (2 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a sequence of

three or four phonemes that form a word with simple sylla-

ble structure, from which the medial phoneme has been

omitted, the student will identify the word by selecting

from a set of three choices.

Task 15: Word closure: Identifying complex syllable

structure words with one phoneme of

consonant blend omitted (2 levels)

Objective: When presented with a sequence of three or four

phonemes that form a word with complex syllable structure,

from which one segment of the CC cluster has been omit-

ted, the student will identify the word by selecting from a

set of three choices.

Connections Student Activities

6622

Hippo Hoops

Note: Tasks 6-8 are disabled by default but can be enabled using

Activity Preferences.

Task 1: Discriminating vowels (30 levels)

Objective: The student will discriminate a change in the

vowel sound of minimal pair closed (CVC) syllables

presented one second apart.

Task 2: Discriminating vowels in minimal pair words

with postvocalic /l/ (30 levels)

Objective: The student will discriminate a change in the

vowel sound of minimal pair CVC syllables with post-

vocalic /L/ presented one second apart.

Task 3: Discriminating r-controlled vowels (21 levels)

Objective: The student will discriminate a change in

the vowel sound of minimal pair CVC syllables with

r-controlled vowels 1.0 second apart.

Task 4: Discriminating bah-pah (7 levels)

Objective: In an auditory vigilance task, the student will

discriminate a change in the consonant phoneme of mini-

mal pair CV syllables when the CV syllables are presented

1.0 seconds apart. The interphonemic acoustic difference

in voice onset time and the perceptual saliency of the

difference between the consonant phonemes is gradually

reduced from eight steps to two steps.

Task 5: Discriminating shah-sah (7 levels)

Objective: In an auditory vigilance task, the student will

discriminate a change in the consonant phoneme of mini-

mal pair CV syllables when the CV syllables are 1.0 seconds

apart. The interphonemic acoustic difference in spectrum of

frication and the perceptual saliency of the difference

between the consonant phonemes is gradually reduced from

eight steps to two steps.

Task 6: Discriminating rah-lah (7 levels)

Objective: In an auditory vigilance task, the student will

discriminate a change in the consonant phoneme of mini-

mal pair CV syllables when the CV syllables are 1.0 seconds

apart. The interphonemic acoustic difference in onset for-

mant frequency and the perceptual saliency of the difference

between the consonant phonemes is gradually reduced from

eight steps to two steps.

Task 7: Discriminating mah-nah (7 levels)

Objective: In an auditory vigilance task, the student will

discriminate a change in the consonant phoneme of mini-

mal pair CV syllables when the CV syllables are 1.0 seconds

apart. The interphonemic acoustic difference in onset for-

mant frequency and the perceptual saliency of the difference

between the consonant phonemes is gradually reduced from

eight steps to two steps.

Task 8: Discriminating dah-gah (7 levels)

Objective: In an auditory vigilance task, the student will

discriminate a change in the consonant phoneme of mini-

mal pair CV syllables when the CV syllables are 1.0 seconds

apart. The interphonemic acoustic difference in onset

formant frequency and the perceptual saliency of the

difference between the consonant phonemes is gradually

reduced from eight steps to two steps.

Task 9: Recognizing diphthongs in a word (4 levels)

Objective: The student will recognize a diphthong in words

auditorily presented 2.0 seconds apart.

Task 10: Recognizing tense vowels in a word (4 levels)

Objective: The student will recognize a tense vowel sound in

words auditorily presented 2.0 seconds apart.

Task 11: Recognizing lax vowels in a word (7 levels)

Objective: The student will recognize a lax vowel sound in

words auditorily presented 2.0 seconds apart.

Task 12: Identifying position of a consonant (24 levels)

Objective: The student will recognize the position of a con-

sonant sound in an auditorily presented word.

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Connections Student Activities

Duck Luck

Task 1: Recognizing word endings: open-syllable rimes

(8 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with an open-syllable

rime, the student will select a word containing the same

rime from three choices.

Task 2: Recognizing word endings: closed-syllable

rimes (55 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a closed-syllable

rime, the student will select a word containing the same

rime from three choices.

Task 3: Recognizing word endings: rimes containing

postvocalic /l/ (8 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a rime contain-

ing post-vocalic /l/, the student will select a word containing

the same rime from three choices.

Task 4: Recognizing word endings: rimes containing

r-controlled vowels (4 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a rime contain-

ing an r-controlled vowel, the student will select a word con-

taining the same rime from three choices.

Task 5: Recognizing word beginnings: single

consonants and consonant digraphs (22 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a single conso-

nant or consonant digraph onset, the student will select a

word containing the same onset from three choices.

Task 6: Recognizing word beginnings: CC blends

(22 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a CC blend

onset, the student will select a word containing the same

onset from three choices.

Task 7: Recognizing word beginnings: CCC blends

(5 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a CCC blend

onset, the student will select a word containing the same

onset from three choices.

Task 8: Blending onsets with rimes (12 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with an onset (word

beginning) followed by a rime (word ending) separated by

0.5, 1.0 or 2.0 seconds, the student will blend the onset and

rime into a word by selecting from three choices. Auditory

interference will or will not be presented.

Task 9: Segmenting and deleting phonemes, onsets,

and rimes (6 levels)

Objective: When auditorily presented with a word and

instructions to delete either all or part of the onset or rime,

the student will choose the correct word from a set of three

choices.