Abstract: A teaching apparatus for students, having a lab unit with a top face, a plurality of manipulable indicator tiles, each tile having a character printing area containing an indication mark and having an identifier chip; tile-reader pockets on the top face; a touch screen and stylus; and a liquid crystal display screen, so that the lab unit can scan and recognize an identifier chip in an indicator tile placed in a tile-reader pocket and the lab unit can teach and assess through means of the speakers and graphic panel/touch screen.

Abstract: A method of spelling assessment includes identifying misspelled words; describing error patterns; analyzing, for a given spelling error, whether the target word is a base word or is derived or inflected; and assessing the student's phonological awareness, visual orthographic memory, orthographic knowledge, and morphological awareness skills based thereon. An embodiment of the method comprises aligning the student's misspelling with the corresponding letters in the correctly spelled target word. An apparatus implements the method.

Abstract: An interactive phonological and auditory skills improvement system is provided. The system includes a microprocessor, a display connected to the microprocessor, and a speaker connected to the microprocessor. Phonological game logic is run on the microprocessor, the phonological game logic provides at least one audible sound through the speaker and a phonological test regarding said at least one sound. A user responds to the phonological test which is graphically displayed on the display screen using an input device. Auditory game logic is also run on the microprocessor. The auditory game logic provides at least one audible sound through the speaker and an auditory test regarding said at least one sound. The user must respond to the auditory test using the input device. The auditory test is also graphically displayed on the display screen.