Hear Builder Phonological Awareness Review

I know I promised this review in March and I'm finally getting around to it.  So sorry that its taken me so long to do it. I know, I suck( all nod in agreement), but I hope this review is thorough enough to make you forget that its June and not March.  ( A girl can dream, right?!).  To make sure everyone is up to speed, here's a snippet of my past review of  Earobics that I did earlier this year:

" I was looking for a program to help my APD daughter. I searched and struggled with a decision between Earobics and Hear builder Phonological Awareness. After much deliberation, I finally decided on Earobics because it was the only program that I had heard about prior. When we received Earobics( which we purchased from Superduperinc) we were initially super excited. Unfortunately, our excitement turned to frustrations. Tons of issues downloading on Microsoft Vista and to our surprise, the graphics are completely outdated and boring. My 6 year old APD daughter quickly tired(after day 2 ) of the rudimentary graphics and the muddled sounds effects. I, personally, was not impressed with Earobics at all and often found myself fighting with my daughter to engage with the program for just 15 minutes. Out of sheer desperation, I finally decided to give Hear builder phonological awareness a shot and I'm thrilled I did. Hear Builder is what Earobics claims to be. Seriously. My daughter now thinks she is playing a fun game and will often ASK to play it. The graphic are amazing and completely engaging. And unlike Earobics, the sound quality and child participation are engaging, not annoying. I feel bad that I wasted my money with Earobics, but we feel blessed that we found Hear builder. Honestly, the best and most affordable program out."

(This is an actual testimony/review I left on Super Duper for Hear Builder. Yes, I'm that impressed with this program.)

That's the short version. Now here's the long, drawn out version.

• 
  
  Hear builder Phonological Awareness you can have up to 4 children on this program at a time. Earobics you can only have 2 children/students.
• 
  
  Hear Builder is $69.95. Earobics is $69.00
• 
  
  Hear Builder plays directly from CD-Rom. I'm able to do this program at home computer and on our laptop. 
• 
  
  Earobics must be downloaded onto ones computer. Earobics also states that you can download their program on more than one computer. This may be true, but it wasn't for us. Even the tech for Earobics told us we couldn't download on more than one computer. I do believe that if you purchase the Clinician version($329) you can download it on more than one computer.
• 
  
  Hear Builder you can delete records to add new children.
• 
  
  Earobics you cannot delete records. Ever!!!
• 
  
  Hear Builder levels and data collection are in base-10 format, with 80% correct to move to next level (8/10=80%). You can actually print out a progress report with dates, activity, level(s) they are on, and get their scores.
• 
  
  Hear Builder is for children Pre-K to 5th grade. Earobics level 1 is for 4-7 year old.
• Earobics you just a black dot on assignments completed and a pat on the arse. No, actually, the levels and data on Earobics are almost non-existent. They don't actually give you you a score. It's basically a pass or fail with no real viable(useful) information like incorrect answers, scores or  percentage.                                                

Enough of the comparison because, really, it's not a fair fight!! Okay, let's talk about the guts of Hear Builder Phonological Awareness,or if you prefer, the boring stuff. Hear Builder has 9 levels of Phonological goodness:

1. Sentence Segmentation: Has 14 levels, 7 levels are for beginners and the next 7 are advanced. This activity targets a child's ability to identify words as separate units within a phrase. It presents levels 1-7 with exaggerated pauses to help children distinguish each word. The Activity then presents levels 8-14 with natural, more rapid speech.
2. 
   
   Syllable Blending: Has 18 levels. This activity targets a child's ability to listen to spoken syllables and blend them together to make a word. Children will listen to separate spoken syllables, then blend them together and choose the word they make. Children will also listen to a word and choose which set of syllables makes the word when blended together.
3. 
   
   Syllable Segmentation: Has 14 levels. This activity targets a child's ability to identify syllables as separate parts of a word. It presents levels 1-7 with exaggerated pauses to help children distinguish each syllable. The activity then presents levels 8-14 with natural speech. Children will choose the picture, representing a song title, that has a specific number of syllables. Children will also learn to count syllables by listening to a word and clicking on the bass( yes, the instrument)for the number of syllables in the word, and then clicking on the cowbell to complete the answer.
4. 
   
   Rhyming: Has 22 levels. This activity targets a child's ability to identify and categorize rhyme. First, children will identify whether words rhyme given voice and picture cues, followed by only voice cues. They will identify whether a pair or group of words rhymes by clicking on the stage light that states either, "These words rhyme" or "These words do not rhyme."
5. 
   
   Sound Blending: Has 18 levels. This activity targets a child's ability to listen to separate sounds and blend them together to make a real word. Children will hear 2-5 sounds, and then blend them together and identify the word. The number of answer choices increases as the difficulty level increases.
6. 
   
   Sound Segmentation and Identification: Has 45 levels.This activity charts a child's ability to identify sounds as separate units within a word. Children will click on the turntable for each sound in the word. They will identify the separate sounds by clicking the correct number of sounds to build the word.
7. 
   
   Sound Deletion: Has 9 levels. This activity targets a child's ability to delete a sound from a word to make a new word. Children will click on the icon that represents the correct new word.
8. 
   
   Sound Addition: Has 9 levels. This activity targets a child's ability to add a sound to a word to make a new word. Children will click on the icon that represents the correct new word.
9. 
   
   Sound Manipulation: Has 12 levels. this activity targets a child's ability to substitute one sound to make a new word. Children will click on the icon that represents the correct new word.

Whew...if you read through all of that, please take a quick moment to pat yourself on the back and stretch. Way to go!! Now that we have all the boring information out of the way, let's talk about the utter coolness of this program; The Performance Stage !!!

The performance stage, shows a mixing board at the bottom of the page, divided into nine sections, each representing an activity within the program. The dials on the mixing board display the number of levels completed by student out of the total number of levels set for the child(ex.,15/22). When the child completes the highest level of an activity, a member of the band appears on the stage( ...and the magic begins.......). The band member's 'play' button will be green and active on the mixing board under a picture of the band instruments. Once all activities are completed the stage will light up and The Phonemix( the name of the band...too cute,huh?)will play their newest hit song. Your child can mix the song to her/his liking. How cool is that, huh? All I know is that my DD loves it. She will request to 'play' it. Daily. Did you hear me folks? Every-dang-day!! I'm getting a little worried because since we purchased this in January, she's almost completed everything. Not because it's easy, but because it so much fun. If you can't tell by now, I'm in love with this program. And, yes, I will marry it.

Seriously, I couldn't be happier with this program and I would highly recommend it to anyone thinking about purchasing it.

Product: Webber Hear Builder Phonological Awareness

price: $69.95
Where: Super Duper Publication
( I have not been paid by Webber Hear Builder or Superduper for this glowing review.)

(I love the characters, too. Reminds me of me and hubs( sans the fro...and the cow bell)