Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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81 of 83 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another Superb DVD!, January 28, 2006
My son was diagnosed with Pervasive Development Disorder - Not Otherwise Specified when he was 3. PDD-NOS is on the Autism spectrum, and children with this diagnosis often have developmental delays.
My son had a speech delay and other developmental delays. His speech is great now...no one can detect that he has this diagnosis. However, the delays have, understandably, affected his learning in some areas.
While his spatial skills have been way above average--as has his grasp of science (such as planets and their attributes)--he has resisted reading. He gets tired and frustrated.
Well, trying many approaches for helping him, I thought I'd take a chance and get the Talking Words Factory from Amazon.com, especially since the reviews were so good.
I am very, very pleased with this DVD! My son watches it quite often, and he's now reading books on his own. I can see a marked difference in a matter of WEEKS. Before, he had to think about how some of the letters sounded. Now, he rattles them off like a pro--as well as 3-letter words!
This DVD also teaches about vowels and consonants, so he's learning how the vowels are sticky like glue, holding words together (thanks to Professor Quigley's Sticky-Ick-O-Rama machine!). The Word Whammer machine shows children how to put the consonants and vowels together, and how they sound. I like the fact that they'll switch around the vowels with the same beginning and ending consonants, to highlight how a vowel sounds within a word.
Talking Words Factory also teaches rhyming, which is a bonus.
Highly recommended!
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
NO More Arguing Over Which Movie To Watch!, April 1, 2005
I have never felt strong enough to actually take the time to write a review. I am a certified k-6 teacher who has told everyone I know about Leap Frog's 4 amazing movie and now I am telling you...
LF Letter Factory: This was the first (out of 4) Leap Frog Movie that my children watched. My 3 1/2 year old and 2 years 2 month old boys are allowed to watch 1 movie a day. Each Day they agreed, in excitement, to watched this movie. Under a week my 3 1/2 year old knew his letter sounds. He could sing the letter sound song almost as fast as he could sing the alphabet. After a week, he amazed us when he sat down on the ground and wrote out the entire alphabet like a 4th grader. Had NO idea he could write like this! Shortly thereafter, the 2 year old knew all his letter sounds and letter recognition.
Talking Words Factory: I was so impressed that I bought them the Talking Words Factory that 2nd week. I wasn't surprised that my 3 1/2 year old began to spell, writing, and sounding out 3 letter words. He told me all about how the vowels were all sticky and their job was to stick letters together to make words. He went around singing the vowel song.
My kids loved the videos so much that for 10 months...My son's (who used to play with Thomas the Trains and puppies) were obsessed with letters and words. They made their own letter and word factory machines out of their toys and tubs, drew each letter cartoon character, and sang the letter and vowel songs, and the older one wrote, yes wrote, many of his own homemade books.
Talking Word Factory 2: It doesn't stop there...They got the Talking Word Factory 2 and Math Circus when they came out this Christmas. In a couple of days, the now 4 year old, was telling me all about sh, ch, th, and other blends. He told me how the silent e at the end of the word made the other vowel say its name (long vowel sound). He went on to tell me also how "when 2 vowels go walking the first one does the talking." And he wrote and read new complex words such as, boat, home, dime, wait, etc. This really increased his ability to read many, many new words - 8 letter words too!
Math Circus: They loved it too! Though it is fast moving for beginners, it is entertaining and has an easy concept. Adding and subtracting now comes pretty easy for my 4 year old. I gave him a math work sheet for addition and subtraction just for kicks. Wouldn't you know it, he did all of them with no problem. He was so interested in adding that he started asking about problems such as 3 + 3 + 3. Which helped him learn the concept of multiplication 3 x 3, 3 x 4, etc. But, we told him that he had plenty of time to learn that later!
The only negative comments that I have to say about these Leap Frog videos: Nothing, Oh, except that I wish my children weren't so obsessed with letters! They eat, breath, and sleep letters. Sometimes I just wish they would play with the trains, cars, and other toys. They will have their entire school life to learn about letters and reading! I just hope that when the time comes for school that they won't have grown board of it!
Other Leap Frog learning tools that reinforce what they learned on the videos:
LF Fridge Phonics Magnets - Love it. It sings each letters song when you put the letter in the hole.
LF Word Whammer Fridge Phonics Set - LF just came out with this. I know that they will love. I bought it for the next birthday! It is like the Fridge Phonics, but you can spell 3 letter words.
LF Letter Factory Board Game - Love it too! It is interactive and the board game talks and sings!
LF Sing Along Letters Flash Cards & CD - Songs from the DVDs. Not that you don't hear the songs sang enough from your children!
Wish they would make computer CD's too!
LF Leap Pad - Fun but they got board with the same books over & over. $14 a book!
There are many others, but I had to draw the line somewhere!
If you check all the other reviews, I am not alone. Only two out of 121 people gave this movie less than 5 stars! It is about time someone made a movie that parents and children both agree on! Thank you Leap Frog!
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56 of 67 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A hit with my 3 &4 yr olds., December 13, 2003
My kids love this tape! I'm pleased with it's educational value. However, I think kids (at this age) are going to need to watch it repeatedly before much of the content sinks in. The whole word factory theme reminded me of Willy Wonkas' chocolate factory minus the fun realism. This cartoon is typical of Saturday morning cheesy animation. My kids certainly don't seem to care in the least. The story line focuses on Tad wanting to fill out a form to nominate his Dad as the best and he needs to learn how to spell the words he wishes to put on his form. The words that are covered are almost all basic and ryhming three letter ones. Words ending in "at", "in", "ig", "an", and "ad". Also, "st" is illustrated in "stop" and then in "best". Vowels are named and described as "sticky" letters which are the "glue" to hold other letters together to make words. I'm disappointed in the shallow and "un"-catchy jingles throughout the story line. A few well written lyrics with catchy jingles could have made this tape so much more enjoyable and memorable. My kids strong interest in this tape did make me go buy The Letter Factory. I like that these tapes are only 35 minutes long, it helps with (time) limit setting for TV viewing.
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