The objective of this program is to improve the spelling, reading, and vocabulary skills of English speaking children in the age 6-10. However, all ages may find it enjoyable.

The program challenges players to use reasoning skills to match a word from their existing vocabulary that best represents a pictorial scenario. This pictorial scenario or visual puzzle not only is connected in some way to a designated word but also has the spelling of that specific word hidden or buried within the very picture. Consequently, students can get clues as to what letters may be present in the designated word. This also contains a visual spatial aspect as the letters are rotated 90 degrees with respect to their orientation inside the puzzle. If the student can not figure out the spelling of the word from this initial pictorial scenario, then additional verbal and visual clues are sequentially provided at different degrees. Subsequently, every puzzles solution will eventually be revealed and the student prompted to practice typing the spelling of that particular solution.

Visual Spell organizes 500 words in 8 categories and 4 levels of complexity as an interactive, virtual comic book. The featured categories are Art, Home, Life, Math, School, Science, Social Studies and Other, presented following gaming principles such as meaning and interactivity, with the right amount of challenge and reward. Among the rewards, there are over 160 joke cartoons applying the very same words in the puzzles, aimed to make the student laugh. The structure and the content design of Visual Spell is 100% of an educational nature.

Have fun solving the visual puzzles and practicing spelling English!

The free, demo version of Visual Spell is available for download. The demo version is complete in functionality but limited in content: it includes two word categories and three levels of compexity. A full vesrion with more than 80 MB of multimedia content, delivered on CD is available.

Keywords: spell, spelling, puzzle, English spelling, English, language,

Recent Changes: First Release

Install Support: Install and Uninstall

Supported Languages: English

Additional Requirements: Java Runtime Environment (JRE) 6 Update 7 or higher

PAD file URL: http://www.athenasoft.net/visualspell/pad/visualspelldemo.xml