Laureate First Words

The Laureate First Words™ app uses a clinical expert system to teach young learners with special needs 50 early nouns. This proven, research-based approach has helped thousands of children build communication skills. This app is ideal for children with autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities, language-learning disorders, and hearing impairments.

Children will love the engaging animations! When they correctly choose the nouns they are asked to find, Blob, the lovable, bright green master of ceremonies, performs amusing routines. And Zot, the incredibly agile stick man, performs 50 language-enriched skits that take noun learning to a higher level.

The nouns taught in the Laureate First Words app are among the earliest learned and produced by neurotypically developing children. Here they are in developmental order:

Dog, Ball, Book, Cup, Car, Juice, Nose, Shoes, Banana, Keys, Cookie, Bathtub, Milk, Telephone, Bed, Cat, Mouth, TV, Bird, Eyes, Spoon, Teddy Bear, Foot, Socks, Door, Toothbrush, Hair, Brush, Balloon, Apple, Chair, Ear, Rabbit, Hat, Toes, Flower, Doll, Hand, Shirt, Stairs, Window, Horse, Bread, Tree, Airplane, Cow, Truck, Fingers, Fish, Swing

Children need to understand the names of nouns before they can start using them expressively. And to ensure that a student isn’t just learning a name of a picture, we include two drawings and two photographs of each noun to assist in generalizing the concept. That way, for example, your student learns that “dog” is a label for all dogs.

What makes the Laureate First Words app special? We use an expert system, called Optimized Intervention®, which customizes the lesson delivery based on student responses. This system teaches 5 words at a time, continually adjusting each noun among 5 levels of instructional support, resulting in individualized lessons for every learner.

Optimized Intervention begins by testing the nouns in developmental order to identify 5 words the learner doesn’t already know. Learners are presented with two pictures and asked to identify one of them (e.g. “Find the cow.”). Once training begins, the app monitors each response and, if required, automatically adjusts the training level up or down for that word so when it is presented again, it will have just the right amount of instructional support. Each time a word is mastered, a new word enters into training. At the lower levels of training, the Blob reinforces correct answers with his amusing antics. At the higher levels, Zot performs reinforcement skits which present each noun in full sentences. This enriched language enhances vocabulary learning. Extensive data is collected and built-in reports let you quickly review a learner’s progress. This app has everything you need to make learning early vocabulary a fun and rewarding experience!

The Laureate First Words app…

-Can be used at home or at school

-Trains 50 early nouns in developmental order

-Uses an encouraging voice… no reading required!

-Offers highly-structured, individualized training

-Focuses on teaching five words at a time

-Can be customized with a variety of activity settings

-Offers a choice of 100 photos or 100 illustrations

-Uses an outdoor scene or solid light gray background

-Includes optional text for beginning readers

-Features animated reinforcements for correct answers

-Includes enriched language to facilitate learning

-Continues each new lesson where the last one ended

-Can be used with an unlimited number of students

-Maintains records and generates reports

We hope you will give this app a try and let us know what you think. We welcome feedback and if you contact us by email we would be happy to reply!