A-N-I-M-A-L-S Why This Game?

1. How children learn
2. How this game helps
3. Frequently Asked Questions

1. How children learn

The following is an overview based on the author's understanding. For more detail, you may refer to these excellent books, which provided the original information:

By the time they're three years old, most children talk. They've picked it up mainly by themselves, their babble gradually turning into intelligible speech through hours of listening to others and striving in turn to be understood. We forget how much effort it took us, probably because although this was difficult, it was also immensely gratifying: Picture a child beaming with joy, having just achieved speaking one of his/her first words to Mom and Dad!

Decades of research in developmental psychology and education have established that young children are much more in charge of their own learning than previously thought. Provided the support of loving caretakers, children explore their environment, make discoveries, build mental models of their world, and continually refine these models to make them fit the reality they're experiencing.

And step by step, through this process of intelligent trial and adjustment, children successfully conquer grabbing, sitting, standing, walking, speaking & understanding sentences, running, jumping, entering into relationships, etc., all within their first 3 or 4 years. Each child builds a subtly different set of abilities, with emphasis on some preferred areas, going forward at his/her own pace, but in general they all take these challenges in stride.

Children may also learn to read and write in this way, if only given the opportunity: when they see adults or older children use written language, they'll want to do the same and as long as they are helped to do so in the same way they were helped to learn to talk, they will succeed. Pr. Söderbergh's research shows that babies can (as long as the task is presented in a way that they find enjoyable) recognize names written in large letters and learn to match them to the people or animals or things they represent, before being old enough to talk.

Just as they gradually master spoken language by speaking and being spoken to, children learn written language very naturally once they start to use it in their day-to-day activities (such as watching the words while a story is being read to them, or learning to recognize and draw their own name on paper).

Learning takes time because it is a process that involves changes in large numbers of cells. Even in young children, who learn so well that they are sometimes thought to possess special learning abilities, many months of daily practice are needed before complex skills are acquired. Learning to stand on two feet usually requires close to 12 months of muscle and balance building. Learning to speak takes much longer, about 4 years. Adults often forget just how long it takes to learn anything! It seems that effective learning has 3 components:

Adults should also know the critical influence of the growth mind-set (knowing one grows, improves and learns through practice and effort) versus the "fixed mind-set" of people who shun learning because they believe they were born with a fixed quantity of smarts and can never change.


2. How this game helps

This game lets children play with words and letters and their sounds in a uniquely interactive way. It provides the sort of feedback that helps children to understand how words are built from letters, and how word sounds are built from letter sounds. By playing the game, children easily learn most of the fundamental principles underlying written language.

Why a game to help children learn to read? Don't they learn this in school already?

Reading can start making a difference in a child's life only if s/he reads well and enjoys reading. To get there, a positive feedback loop is needed, where reading becomes increasingly easier and more enjoyable, and the sooner such a reinforcing loop is acquired the better. Children who start too late (6 is the official age in many countries) risk never getting into this loop because unlike younger ones their curiosity is not attracted by unmoving type anymore. They'll prefer the moving images on TV, and who can blame them?

Please note that I'm not saying school should start at an earlier age than it does now. Despite the best efforts of teachers, you can only do so much to help children learn anything positive when there are just too many of them packed in a class. My point is that since learning to read takes years, then for a given child the right time to start learning to read--when it will be easiest and most enjoyable--may not be much later than when that child starts noticing those squiggly marks on labels, signs and other written messages. And for most children in our litterate societies today this will likely happen long before they're 6.

So the risk is that many children will not learn to read soon enough to develop the love and ease of reading that will let them apply this skill successfully. A large part of the knowledge and wisdom of humanity will remain beyond their reach, and because the practice of reading and writing helps to structure the mind, they might also miss the opportunity to develop an ability to tackle complex problems. How many teenagers today cannot read fluently, do not like to read? A large proportion, unfortunately, and that is likely to make their lives quite difficult.

And playing a game can help?

Not just any game, and not when it's too late (well, I hope it's never too late but it does get more difficult the more you wait). Children need to enjoy it, and the game needs to embody the principles of written language so children train themselves to read while they play. The requirements for such games have been defined by researchers, but to my knowledge there have been no implementations available to the general public.

Why not? Why weren't games such as this one widely available before?

Mainly because hard disks of personal computers weren't large enough to conveniently hold all the data required. This game (with both Picture Packs) comes with over 800 digital photographs, and each language pack holds about as many digitized spoken words. Only more expensive computers, such as those in research labs, used to have that capacity and that's why only children who participated in experimental programs ever got to play with this sort of game. But not anymore!

Why so many pictures?

Any fewer and there wouldn't be enough words starting with each letter of the alphabet for children to play with. It's important to convey the idea that there's lots to explore, otherwise they might not be interested long enough to get past the stage where they play to see pictures.

Past this stage to what, then?

Once children start to understand how words are built from letters, and they realize they can build the words they choose and have the computer say them, they get a lot of pleasure from exercising this new ability. The joy of discovery is not as important anymore, it's the excitement of newly found power that takes over and fuels further progress. At this point, if adults are supportive, children soon become able to read simple books.

Why not use drawings instead? Don't they take up less disk space?

True, and the download size would be smaller, but simpler drawings don't have the richness of detail of a photograph. Using photographs allows us to offer children more to explore, again to encourage them to dig deeper in the game and reach its core content, the primary letter-shape/letter-sound pairs and the rules for combining them to mean something.

Wouldn't having movie clips or animations instead of still pictures offer even more to explore?

It would, but then the connection to letters, reading, etc., might be stretched a bit too far. This game is about providing children with an environment that makes it easier to playfully experiment with the building blocks of written language, not about distracting them into passivity!

Why are adults not supposed to help?

Ideally, from the point of view of the children playing, this game is not supposed to be a game where you can win or lose. Rather, it is pure exploration without any stated goal, and therefore there is no need for any help. There is nothing to achieve except having some fun. Everything is fine as long as no one suggests that there is a goal to reach.

Here's an example of how a well-meaning adult with a win-or-lose perspective can ruin the fun: Children in a kindergarten were given turns at the computer either alone or in groups of two to four after being told only that there was a new game for them to play. Typically they would be eager to try it, and they immediately started to probe the keyboard and look at the screen, quickly figuring out how to play. Even though they were hunting for keys, they all seemed to have fun. While two of the younger kids were playing, an adult stopped by and, noticing they were trying the wrong key to complete a word, pointed at the screen and asked "Look here, which key should you type now?" The children froze. He was only trying to help, but his words had effectively changed the flavor of the situation for them: it wasn't just free play anymore; it had become some kind of test and that had taken all the fun away because children don't like to be tested.

That's why it's usually better for adults to wait until children are done, and only then congratulate them for something positive they did. Anything will do, such as having tried some keys or having listened to the sounds of some letters, as long as it is something the children did do and the adult earnestly believes it was positive. This lets children know you care about them, and it's the best kind of help because it gives them the motivation they need to take their own risks at making mistakes and learning by themselves.

You can also help by keeping play sessions short, leading children away before their attention starts to wander elsewhere. Anything can become boring if you do it for too long, and stopping the game just before they've had enough, while it's still fun, helps make children want to play again later.

So how long and how often should children play in order to progress?

I would say a few minutes a day is enough. Also it doesn't have to be every day. It's really specific to each child, and each one may go through a number of stages. Some children might not be interested in playing this game for days or weeks at a time. Then suddenly they'll remember it and want to play again, and you'll be amazed at how much progress they've made! Probably something they saw or heard while playing has stayed with them, and after taking some time to integrate it with their other experiences they are now ready to use their new knowledge to move on. Learning a complex skill such as reading requires that many component sub-skills fall into place, and an apparent lack of progress may not be a valid description of what is really happening in their mind.

It also depends on when children start to play (what they have already learned) and what they're learning through other activities related to reading. One can notice very different ways of playing with the game: some children stroke the keys, tracing over letter shapes with their fingers. Others are more interested in the sounds they hear and keep hitting the same keys to play "music". Many will stare at the screen and press the keys at random, with occasional glances at the keyboard. Each of these children is exploring one aspect of the total situation, probably because at that moment in time s/he is building an understanding of that part of his/her interactions with the world. This is another reason to avoid interfering with what children do, because we can only guess at what they're trying to explore or understand, and offering them irrelevant advice will only hinder their progress.

Is there anything you want to add?

Yes. As a general principle regarding learning, I think a very important idea is that adults should organize things so that from the start children get a taste of what it is that they will be doing once they've learned more. Accordingly, the game lets children practice "real" reading and writing from the start, even if this "reading" is only a much simpler version of what they'll be able to do later. There is no "preparatory phase" where the implied message is that one cannot do the real thing. From the very first keystrokes children are actually using written language to communicate, even if only with a computer (if you are by their side, then it's with you that they are communicating, indirectly). This is very important for them, it is the nature of how they learn, by "doing the same" as adults, even if at first they're only reproducing the look of the activity. The important thing is that they can be proud of themselves, since they succeed in doing something that they want to do. This gives them the confidence to try more things, more difficult versions of the things they already know how to do. They are building a history of past successes that they will be able to rely on for taking on new challenges.

In the end, our best chance of helping children to progress is probably to offer them as many different opportunities for learning as possible. As good as this game may be, it will become boring if it's the only reading game children play. So you'll want to get them other games too (one that's very complementary with A-N-I-M-A-L-S is Brøderbund's excellent Dr Seuss's ABC [new edition]), read books together, have them sign their drawings, etc. Each of these activities will reinforce the benefits from the others, and each will let children learn something valuable about letters, words, and what reading and writing are good for.


3. Frequently Asked Questions

How do I add/change words?
Adding pictures of a child's favorite people (or animals, objects, etc.) is a good idea because it will boost interest in the game:

(1) Save pictures in the PICT format and drop them in the Pictures folder.

(2) Record and save the spoken names as AIFF files and drop them in the Word Sounds folder (add subfolders if needed).

As long as the filenames match, the game automatically associates pictures and sounds.
 
Some people say learning to read too young is bad--let kids enjoy themselves instead! Isn't there some truth to that?
I wholeheartedly agree that children (and adults as well) should enjoy themselves. It is very difficult to learn anything if you are not having a good time! So I don't think there has to be a contradiction here. Look at it this way: as long as children are having fun, it is not taking anything away from them. This is just another game they can play, and if it can also help them start to read, what's wrong with that?
 
Is this the letter method of learning, or the syllable method, or the global (word) method?
It's neither, but it combines advantages from each one.
 
Is there a conflict with what children learn at school?
I don't think so. Each child can play and experiment freely with the game, and whatever a child learns will be learned in the way(s) that are available to that particular child at that particular moment of his/her development. It's almost the same as when your child looks through a picture book and you say the name of the thing he/she is pointing at.
 
Where can I find more information about children and learning, etc.?
Web sites with detailed information on the component skills needed for reading include the Reading Acquisition site (researchers at the Univ. of Manitoba, Canada), as well as these other sites (but unfortunately, most of their authors are focused on ways of teaching instead of ways of learning, and they seem to forget that learning can and mostly does happen outside of school. This in turn makes it difficult to recognize that learning to read is often best done before children are old enough to attend school): Overview: How Children Learn to Read Words [The Reading Genie], How Most Children Learn to Read [Reading Rockets], Helping Your Child Learn to Read [National Institute for Literacy], Principles for Learning to Read [Educational Resources Information Center].
 
Here is one online text with insight into the kind of learning I believe we're missing most, it's an interview of Alan Kay. I also strongly recommend watching Dr. Kay's The Computer Revolution Hasn't Happened Yet presentation (this is really worth installing the RealPlayer plugin, it is much better in my opinion than the earlier version of the same talk available on Google Video). "...the old unrealized dream of a flexibly competent computer tutor for subject matter that is best taught by helping the learner construct their own knowledge."