Customer Reviews

LeapFrog: Talking Words Factory

5 star:		(205)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(13)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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!

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!

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.

This is a great, great video. It's really nice how leapfrog introduces preschoolers to phonics and basic word structure. It's hard to understand if they don't already know the alphabet though, obviously, but it teaches so many fabulous things that I couldn't believe how fast my little one learned to put words together. I bought this in the gift set with the Letter Factory DVD and we have just worn them out. Your child won't even realize how much they're learning with these DVDs and they're worth so much more than what you're paying for them here. Grab them for every preschooler you know - I buying the math one now and I can't wait to see the look on my little one's face when he gets to watch another one of his "frog" movies! Thanks Leapfrog!

My two year old had already mastered her letters and phonics thanks to the Letter Factory DVD and this just helped her put it all together. By age 2 1/2 she was reading, and now at almost 3 she reads books at the library around a 2nd to 3rd grade level! People are amazed! (actually, most don't even believe me until they see her do it!) I think this DVD is great and, although a bit oversimplified in some areas, is a great start to your childs education.

I bought the Talking Words Factory on a whim and it ended up being the best video I have ever purchased. My daughter started watching it at 3 and after only viewing it about five times, she knew ALL of her letter sounds. She already knew her letters, but I was amazed at how fast she picked up the sounds. She is now 4 1/2 and her PK teacher told us she is at the top of the class for phonics knowledge. When I told her why, she wrote all the information down to pass onto other parents whose children are struggling.

Now, my 2-year old watches them and she only knows a few letters, but she knows almost ALL of her sounds when you ask her. That is impressive! After seeing the success with my kids, I bought them for my nieces, one of which was struggling with severe ADHD and classroom difficulty. She mastered sound and blending concepts that she could not master in the classroom and she now has a great phonetic background. I know she would not be where she is today if she didn't have these videos. I am a Speech-Language Pathologist and I highly recommend them to ALL my parents at school. I have also donated the Letter Factory to all of my kindergarten and PK classrooms. I know they will enjoy them as much as my kids did (and still do!).

We own four DVDs in this series: Math Circus, Code Word Caper, The Letter Factory, and the Talking Words Factory. We bought them when our boys were ages five and three. We've had them for about a year now, and the boys still enjoy them. We get a lot more use out of them than the Leap Pads, which our kids never really got into. Our younger boy is in speech therapy, and seeing these DVDs has improved his articulation of letters. I love that he requests to watch these. I will hear him sounding out each letter along with the Frog, and know he's developing skills. Our older son has picked up on how to build words and spell with this series. It explains how phonics work, and in a simple-to-understand way. We found all of the DVDs in this series exceptionally educational, and see tangible results from the children watching them. I can't say that about any other toy we own.

I just had to state how amazing this video is. I just spent 2 weeks with my daughter, son-in-law, grand daughter and brand new grand son. My grand daughter is 23 months old and she knows all her letters. She can pick them out at random anywhere a letter appears. She knows the names of the letters and their sounds. She has been doing this since they brought the letter factory into their home when she was only 21 months old. Well, it is time for her 2nd birthday and the best present I can send her is the Word Factory. Now Leap Frog needs to come up with number and color videos!

My 3 1/2 year old is learning to spell. He is a graduate of the Talking letters video which is a definite must before this video. He "gets" how to put the letters together to make words and has learned to sound out words. His only problem is just like the machine in the video...he trys to make words that are not real...like ZAT. It gets going a little too fast towards the end of the video. They should have made it a longer video instead of rushing through concepts.

After learning their letters and phonics in less than 2 days from watching the Letter Factory video, I decided to go out and buy the Word Factory video for my boys (just turned 3 & 4). You cannot beat the price, Walmart and Target had the DVD for just $9.99! Both of the boys love this video too, especially my 4 year old. He has learned all about the vowels A,E,I,O,U and how they stick the words together like glue. It's got very catchy tunes and lots of colors to keep thier attention. They have no idea they are learning how to read, just that they are watching TV! I am so impressed with both of the videos (Letter and Word Factory) I just hope Leap Frog continues to make more with the same great quality. At the beginning of the Word Factory, Tad is playing with his Dad with Leap Frog Letter Flash Cards, I REALLY hope to see them in stores soon, my son asks me for them EVERY time we watch the video. Everyone must go buy both of the videos, the price is great and the investment is priceless!