Melissa & Doug See & Spell

Melissa & Doug See & Spell

This See & Spell set includes brightly colored letters and pictures of easily recognizable objects.
 Letter colors are blue, red, yellow, green, purple and orange. There are more than enough letters to spell out all of the words at the same time.

Each board has two pictures, one on the front and one on the back. The wooden letters sit in the cutout letter spaces on the board. The sixteen words are frog, cake, bird, bus, car, hen, sun, boat, duck, sock, fish, bear, cow, cat, pig and dog. The spelling boards are 1/4 inch thick, about 10 inches long, and about 4 inches tall. All pieces are made of wood. My pet peeve with Melissa & Doug products - 68 pieces and no lid.

Try this:

• Trace the letter grooves with a finger before placing the letter(s). The cutout holes are just wide enough to do this and it is a good sensory activity to help reinforce recognizing and writing letters. Reinforce it by saying the letter out loud.
• Ask the individual to close his eyes and hold out his hand. Place 1 letter in his hand. Ask him to feel the letter, with eyes closed, and tell you what it is. Start slow by showing him 2 letters before he closes his eyes and ask him to pick between those two letters as he feels the letter. Add more letters to the group until he can feel and recognize the letter without looking at it first. 
• Put all the letters in a pile, covering up parts of some and putting others in different orientations. Give the individual a spelling board. Ask him to find the letters in the pile to complete the word on the board. Start easier by only grouping several letters to pick from and increase difficulty by adding more and more letters to the pile to look over.
• Place a spelling board in front of the child and put the letters needed to complete the word upside-down and backward on the table. Can he recognize the letters and turn them in-hand to the correct orientation to finish the puzzle?
• Ask the individual to complete a word on the spelling board. Then take the letters off the board and ask him to complete the word on the table, next to the board. Then remove the spelling board, mix the letters, and ask the individual to reproduce the word again.
• Choose a board but don't tell the individual which picture it is. Verbally tell him one letter at a time and have him pick the letters from the pile of letters. Can he recognize the word without the picture? Then turn the board over to spell the letter. Start slow by only have the specific letters on the table and ask the individual to put them in order as you say them. Move to adding more and more letters to the pile to search through. 
• Put the letters away by laying them all on the table top. Put them away in ABC order. Start with A and pick up all As before dropping them into the box. Ask the player to hold all of one letter at a time, squirreling each into the palm as they pick it up.
• Reinforce letter color or shape by naming each one verbally as you pick it up or put it down.
• Put the letters face up on the table top and give the player one board. Spell the word by telling them "I see an orange r" and letting them find it letter in order.
• Start by making sure the letters are oriented correctly when just learning to identify them. Start changing the orientation after they are learned.
• Work on letter recognition, manual dexterity, fine motor precision, in-hand manipulation, finger isolation, figure ground, visual closure, visual form constancy, visual memory, spatial relations/position in space, eye-hand coordination, spelling, executive functioning skills, play exploration and participation

In the box: 8 double sided wooden spelling boards, 60 wooden letters

If you are interested in purchasing this item or just want more information, click on the image below.