Testimonials

FINALIST OF THE B.E.S.A. EDUCATION RESOURCE AWARDS 2011

The Word Whizzer! is an essential tool for teachers and parents who want to enrich and build solid vocabulary concepts to help children learn.  The Word Whizzer! is an easy to use tool that fills the gap between phonlogical awareness programs and vocabulary programs. I have used the Word Whizzer! with children with word finding difficulties and those having difficulty learning to read and spell.
Kendra Bell, Specialist Speech Pathologist, Western Australia

Having a child with a specific semantic/vocab difficulty, I know how debilitating such a disorder can be; he struggles to communicate, and his vocabulary difficulties impact on ALL areas of learning, not just literacy, and most importantly, affect his overall confidence and willingness to learn. The Word Whizzer! has had a tremendous affect on all of these areas. So much so, that at the end of last semester, he was awarded the “Most Improved Student” at his school! The Word Whizzer! has helped us (therapists, teachers, parents) identify which areas he needs help with and where his strengths lie. Using his sound awareness skills, stronger connections have been made to the meanings of words, where he experiences most of his difficulties. This has had a very positive effect on other areas of literacy, such as spelling, reading and writing. His written work is more descriptive and so is his chat!
Fiona Stephenson, Speech Pathologist, SEN teacher and parent of child with wfd, Western Australia.

The students find it a fun and motivating way to learn new vocabulary and the skills to support them to retrieve a word, and I have seen good progress in their vocabulary learning and retrieval skills through using the resource.  I have also used the resource within a whole class setting, which worked really well and the teacher has since been using this as a way of pre-teaching vocabulary to her whole class.
Sarah Mullan, Speech and Language Therapist, London, UK.

Teachers who have observed me using this resource have also purchased it, to include both in work with small groups of children with specialised needs, but also at a whole-class level. 100% of the feedback I've received from teachers is that it has been a very useful addition to their class resources! The Word Whizzer! allowed me to focus on building the complexity of a child's vocabulary stores in a fun and exciting way, that made them want to keep practising with every consecutive therapy session. I would recommend this as a must-have resource for teachers, speech pathologists, education assistants, and any parents who would like to improve their child's vocabulary.
Ashton Craig, Speech Pathologist, Western Australia.

I have used Level 2 with a 9 yr old girl, who was very keen on the Word Wheel, eager to see where the spinner would stop. I thought the questions on the Word Whizzer! were engaging & challenged my client's thinking in language terms.
Anne Robinson, Speech Pathologist, Queensland.

The Word Whizzer! has been a great tool to use with my school-aged clients. They find it fun to use and it makes therapy seem less like "work". It has been helpful in building a broader range of vocabulary and developing word retrieval skills.
Tiffany Yeo, Speech Pathologist, New South Wales.

The Word Whizzer! is a great resource. It's quick and easy to set-up and explain and can be used in a variety of ways. The students love the spinner and I have used it in small group therapy sessions as well as in the classroom for our schools oral language program. Although it is aimed at using a variety of strategies to learn and remember new vocabulary, I have also used it to observe and practice student's phonological awareness skills and overall language abilities.
Bobbie Hall, Speech Pathologist, Victoria.

The Word Whizzer! has been enthusiastically received by teachers and teaching assistants, who like the fact that it can be used both in a class, group or one to one context. I have used it around identified vocabulary and children like the concept of the spinner, rolling a dice and the fact it is colourful and has pictures.  The 'Word Wheel' can be used for recording children’s answers, so a good extension to oral work. It works well with word banks available using symbol software, helping children to embed their learning and make the essential semantic and phonological links. This is new to many class teachers, in particular the concept of a phonological link, so the Word Whizzer! helps to support good teaching practice in terms of vocabulary learning.
Sarah Purdie, Language Support Teacher, London, UK.

I've found the Word Whizzer! is great for providing a framework / structure when targeting semantic goals, and also helps clients to understand important aspects to include in their descriptions. I've been able to use it for simple objects up to more complex concepts such as 'occupations'. The kids seem to really enjoy using it too. It's also been really useful to have the 2 different Word Whizzer! levels. Well done on creating such a fantastic, user-friendly resource.
Jessica Vis, Speech Pathologist, Western Australia

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