Cambugs 3: First Words app for iPhone and iPad

Cambugs 3: First Words teaches children the first words they will need to become successful readers! This is the final step on their journey to become fluent, confident readers — following our previous apps, Cambugs: Letter Sounds and Cambugs 2: Phonics. Cambugs 3: First Words introduces 25 new bugs, and a more exciting bug collection on iPad.

Cambugs has been developed by educational psychologists and parents. We know the importance of parents taking an active role in their children’s learning, so we developed an apps where parents/teachers and children work together.

Cambugs 3: First Words is targeted at pre-readers, as well as struggling older readers. It uses evidence-based techniques that research has shown helps children develop their reading skills. You will notice in this app that children engage in lots of repetition — this is because this is a very effective strategy for ensuring that children remember and retain the words that they learn. There is also a test for ensuring that your child is able to remember their words quickly and fluently — this is because fluency is a key skill needed for becoming a confident reader.

◆ Developed by educational psychologists using teaching techniques that we know work.

◆ Teaches your child their words to a level where they can demonstrate confidence and fluency — key skills needed for later decoding and comprehension of text.

◆ Uniquely designed as a joint activity so that you are guiding your child through their learning. Think of it as being a bit like sitting down and reading a story with your child.

◆ When children learn a new words they are rewarded with a ‘Cambug’. These bugs have been designed by children for children.

◆ Statistics screen allows you to keep track of how many words your child knows and which they need to learn. This is very useful if being used in a school setting.

Cambugs 3: First Words includes four activities:

‣ Sorting: Sort words into two piles (words your child knows and words that have yet to be learned ). This initial activity ensures the app is personalised to meet the specific learning needs of your child.

‣ Learning: Children learn a new word alongside words that they know already. This is called ‘interleaved learning’ and ensures your child remembers their words.

‣ Fluency Test: Children are timed to see how quickly they can say each word. The app automatically puts words that your child has not yet learned fluently back in the unknown pile to be re-learned at a later date. If your child likes the competitive element of the test, switch on the “Time Challenge”.

‣ Bug Collection: Your child can add new bugs in their collection whenever they learn new words and they can visit this and interact/play with them at any time!

Cambugs apps are developed and operate in line with the recommendations of world-famous educationalist and researcher John Hattie PhD. Hattie has detailed that “positive effects (of computer-assisted education) are achieved through the same applications of the same principles of learning that apply to all areas of human learning… and here is one hidden aspect: it is critical to realise that the computer is not ‘the teacher’. But what it can do is allow a human teacher or teachers to design and deliver instruction to other humans through a different medium, in a different manner”. — Hattie, J., & Gregory, Y. (2014). Visible Learning and the Science of How We Learn. 198-199.