Welcome

“People of all ages and intellectual levels enjoy videos. With WordToob they can now play an active role in learning while doing what they love.”

John Halloran M.S. CCC-SLP

WordToob is designed to make learning words and new skills fun and engaging through pre-stored and customized videos. Customizing the app with personalized videos is easy but the learning experience is powerful!

WordToob includes:

• Pre-stored board with the 25 words most 2-year-olds know
• Pre-stored board with common emotions
• Pre-stored examples of an alphabet board and adaptive skill board
• Infinite ability to create your own boards
• Voice recognition so that the learner can practice saying words

Read more about learning language and video modeling.

Learning Language

Learning language requires combined information from the senses, whether just beginning to learn one’s native language or learning a second language. WordToob makes this fun and easy by pairing words with illustrative videos. The learner not only benefits from playing WordToob but also through engaging in creating personalized videos. Personalized videos can be easily created with the iPad camera and attached to words within the app to maintain novelty and increase motivation.

Language skills that can be learned using WordToob include:

• Learning new words
• Recognizing words you hear
• Improving articulation

Video Modeling

Video modeling is a highly researched and effective method of teaching. New behaviors and skills are learned by watching a video of someone else or themselves performing the target behavior then imitating that behavior. Video modeling has been used to teach social skills, communication skills, play skills, perception of emotion and adaptive skills. The entertainment aspect of videos motivates and reinforces the engagement of the learner.

Video modeling has been found to be exceptionally effective in teaching individuals with autism. Some of the reasons may be that the learner only has to attend to a restricted field of focus, the repetitive presentation of models and situations, less demand for face-to-face interaction, and their ability to process visual information more readily than verbal information. Studies show that skills taught through video modeling are generalized and learned faster.

WordToob makes video modeling easy. The app includes a board that illustrates emotions. New boards are easy to create and personalized videos are simple to include giving the teacher, parent, or therapist the freedom to target many different skills limited only by their imagination.

Some video modeling uses include:

• Learning social skills
• Recognizing emotions
• Visual schedules
• Show and tell, storytelling
• Learning adaptive skills

Learning What Words Mean

First words or English as a second language

In the Free Play game, all the words on the board can be explored and learned through the multiple, randomized illustrative videos. In English, as in all languages, words can be used in multiple ways and meaning can change based on context. Initially, those multiple meanings can be confusing; however, having a separate word to convey every meaning would make language difficult to learn. WordToob teaches those multiple meanings. In WordToob, when you hear the word “go,” one time you might see someone “go” in a car and the next time you might see someone walk away. Learning never gets old because you can add new videos, change the videos, or create new boards with new words so that learning is always motivating.

The pre-loaded vocabulary board titled “First 25 Words” comes from the recent publicized findings of the researchers from the Child Study Institute at Bryn Mawr College. They found that these 25 words were important for every child to know by the age of two. We highly recommend you add new words and create additional boards as this list is just a starting point.

Recognize Words You Hear

(Receptive Language)

Receptive language is the comprehension of language - listening and understanding what is communicated by others. It involves being attentive to what is said, the ability to comprehend the message, and the speed of processing the message. Receptive language includes understanding figurative language, as well as literal language.

The Find the Word game encourages the learner to listen to a word then find it on the board. If the wrong word is touched, it disappears. When the right word is touched, the learner is rewarded by one of the randomized videos.

Say Words Correctly

(Articulation)

Articulation is the act of vocal expression, how we enunciate or the manner in which we produce a speech sound. Although articulation may seem simple, in actuality it is a complex process where we use the structures and muscles in our mouths to make specialized movements that produce specific sounds or a combination of sounds.

WordToob has built in voice recognition to allow the learner to practice saying words. Touch the microphone icon on the top toolbar to turn the voice recognition feature on. When it is on, you will see a volume bar and when the volume bar starts moving, you’ll know it’s ready to listen. The iPad’s internal microphone does not filter background noise so you’ll need to be in a quiet room to practice speaking. Reception may be improved by using a noise reduction microphone like the one sold with the iPhone.

You can practice articulation in the Free Play game. Once in a quiet room the fun can begin. For the beginner, you can make it simple by just having one or two words showing. (See “Can I hide/show words?” in the App Support section for more information.) Also, choose two words that don’t sound similar such as “stop” and “go” instead of “no” and “nose.” As you add more words, there is an increased chance for incorrect words to be activated. This can be used to your advantage to encourage the learner to try again and speak more clearly.

Learn Social Skills

(Pragmatics)

An individual may say words clearly and use long, complex sentences with correct grammar, but still have a communication problem - if he or she has not mastered the rules for social language known as pragmatics. Social stories and video modeling are effective methods to help individuals learn manners/social skills. We learn best from observing and interacting with our peers. With WordToob you can make your own social story videos and then have the student watch the video to learn. One of the benefits of WordToob is the opportunity to learn from creating videos in addition to watching them.

You will need to create your own board representing the social situations or manners you want to teach. After each word or situation, record a couple of videos so that the learner can generalize the skill. Also, having the learner participate in creating the videos provides a powerful learning opportunity. For example, you might create a situation board depicting events such as “saying ‘hello,’” “saying ‘excuse me,’” and “losing a game” along with several videos illustrating an appropriate way to handle each event.

Learn to Recognize Emotions

Some individuals need help learning how to recognize their own emotions as well as the emotions of others. WordToob offers a sample emotions board including the six primary emotions: fear, joy, love, sadness, surprise, and anger. We recommend you add other emotions and provide a list of suggestions below. Having the learner create their own boards and videos can be powerful. The act of making emotion videos with various people in different environments will help the learner to generalize. You can also use a variety of pictures, animations, emoticons, or real people.

Suggestions:

Fear Anxiety Apprehension Distress Dread Uneasiness Worry Horror Alarm Fright hysteria mortification panic shock terror Sadness depression unhappiness misery melancholy gloom despair disappointed shame guilt regret insecurity homesickness embarrassment humiliation sympathy pity	Joy cheerful happy amusement ecstasy euphoria bliss elation delight jubilation enthusiasm excitement exhilaration thrill contentment relief optimism pride enthrallment Love fondness attraction adoration sentimentality caring desire passion infatuation	Surprise astonishment amazement Anger rage fury wrath bitterness loathing resentment hate frustration exasperation irritation agitation aggravation grouchiness disgust revulsion contempt jealousy boredom compassion confusion doubt envy gratitude grief hatred hope hunger interest loneliness

Visual Schedules

WordToob allows you to easily make and adapt visual schedules. Visual schedules are a proven tool to help a child know what is going to happen next or how to complete a task. They are particularly beneficial for those who have difficulties understanding verbal instructions or remembering sequences to allow them to better predict and organize within their environment. With WordToob you can easily take pictures and add videos to depict upcoming events. If the schedule changes, this can be reflected quickly and easily in the app.

To illustrate how to do a task, break the process down step-by-step. Create pictures and videos to model each step and the order of those steps to help the child learn to complete the entire task.

Show and Tell

With WordToob, Show and Tell comes alive with personalized pictures and videos. It’s easy to take a picture and add videos during daily events that a child can watch and share later with parents, teachers, or friends. Encouraging them to talk about what is happening in the video is a powerful way to build social skills, confidence and vocabulary. We suggest making a daily board for events to share at home and school.

Literacy

Literacy is the foundation for education. The ability to pair a picture with a video in WordToob can be used to promote literacy in a fun way. The app comes with an example letter board to show how various skills can be taught including letter identification, learning the sounds letters make, and learning how to write.

WordToob can also be used to create your own video story books. The adult or child can record one page per button and watch the story come alive!

Have a question not answered here?

Contact Us

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I change a word? YES! How?

Can I change a picture? YES! How?

Can I add or change a video? YES! How?

Can I delete a video ? YES! How?

Can I edit a video in WordToob? No. More Info

Can I hide/show words? YES! How?

Can I hide/show one word at a time? YES! How?

Can I change the name of the board? YES! How?

Can I have ONLY text on the buttons? YES! How?

Does WordToob have voice recognition? YES! How do I use it?

Can I have boards saved for different people? YES! How?

Can I create a new board? YES! How?

Can I delete a board? YES! How?

WordToob Game Modes

FREE PLAY: All the words on the board can be explored and learned through the multiple, randomized illustrative videos.

FIND THE WORD: Receptive language is the comprehension of language — listening and understanding what is communicated by others. The FIND THE WORD game encourages the learner to listen to a word and then find it on the board. If the wrong word is touched, it disappears. When the right word is touched, the learner is rewarded by one of the randomized videos.

To select the game mode:

• Select GAMES.
• Select either FREE PLAY or FIND THE WORD.

Options in FIND THE WORD (select SETTINGS, then FIND THE WORD):

• Video first (see video, then find word).
• Video and word first (see video and word and then find word).
• Video last (hear the word, find the word, and then see video).
• No video (hear the word and then find it).
  
  Touch any part of the screen to exit.

Report a Bug

The Report a Bug feature in the Help section of the app creates an email message that you may send to WordToob support. There are two types of reports:

• Basic Report: only contains the version number of WordToob and the iOS version.
• Full Report: in addition, contains your WordToob documents and settings—including the layouts & words used on all your boards—and any custom button images you may have added from your photo library or the built-in camera. Videos are never included.

To disable Report a Bug for young users, turn off access to Mail using the Screen Time parental controls built into iOS.

Privacy Policy

WordToob collects no personal information about users. WordToob also does not use cookies or other unique user identifiers, and does not track how you use the app.

You do have the option to send some information to WordToob support when using the Report a Bug feature in the Help section of the app. (Learn more here.)

If you contact us by email or using Report a Bug, we use your email address only to respond to you. We never sell or share your email address.

 

Advertising

The WordToob app does not display ads.

 

Links to 3rd party sites

WordToob links to its listing in the App Store.

In WordToob's Help section, the Credits tab has links required by some third-party software and resources that are used in the app:

• Carnegie Mellon's Open Source Speech Recognition Toolkit
• PolitePix OpenEars® iPhone Voice Recognition and Text-To-Speech
• Toptal Subtle Patterns (background artwork)