RocketReader for Parents and Children
Schools page
Students page 
I started using Rocket Reader when my kids were little and I had to read to them. They are now reading, and with Rocket Reader's help, are reading a lot more than they would have otherwise. I am looking forward to the updates of version 8.
(A Dean, MA)
Parents!
If you want to give your children a
lasting competitive advantage
that will improve their class ranking now and help them succeed
in their careers later, RocketReader is the answer. Excellent reading
skills form the foundation of school success, and are vital for virtually
any of today's occupations.
Reading skills are the easiest to acquire during your children's
young age - but does the ability to read come to a child naturally? Consider
these important facts from National Institute of Child Health & Human
Development:
- only 5%
of children learn to read effortlessly
- 20%
- 30% of children learn to read relatively easily once exposed to
formal instruction
- for the
remaining 60% of children, learning to read represents a considerable
challenge
- for at
least 20-30%, learning to read is one of the most difficult
tasks they will encounter during their school years
- 74%
of the children who have reading problems in the 3rd grade, continue
with the problems into the 9th grade!
It can also come as a surprise for many that poor reading skills is a
problem that extends across socioeconomic groups. According to National
Assessment of Educational Progress, approximately one-third of
all poor performers in fourth grade have college-educated parents!
Fortunately, 90% to 95% of poor readers can greatly increase
reading skills through prevention and early intervention programs. RocketReader
helps children not only to catch up with the rest of the class, but to
become excellent readers achieving their full reading potential.
Children are initially taught to read letter by letter, to vocalize each
syllable, to form words and then build sentences. Children must change
these habits and learn to read one or more words with a single fixation
of the eye, or they will be SLOW READERS. Schools do not teach this next
vital step. Contemporary education system is designed to teach children
to read to an acceptable standard, but is not equipped to help them achieve
their full reading potential. Because of this a huge number of adults
read the slow way. If you move your lips when you are reading, or you
vocalize each word as you read it, then your reading speed and comprehension
is about 20% of what it can be.
RocketReader
will train your children to read faster and more accurately.
Children who learn to read quickly have great advantages when moving on
to higher studies and when they join the workforce.
The Educational Value of RocketReader
Read how RocketReader conforms to many of the recommendations of the National Reading Panel and the No Child Left Behind Act
here
(258K pdf). Visit the
No Child Left Behind page for more information.
How RocketReader builds reading proficiency skills
Here is how
RocketReader trains your children to be excellent readers:
- RocketReader
significantly increases reading speed by breaking what is termed the
"sub-vocalization barrier". This barrier limits most readers
to around 200 words per minute as the reader reads each word or each
syllable with a single eye movement. The RocketReader technique
changes the way that the eye and the brain work together to read sentences.
This allows sentences to be scanned as a complete unit by the eye and
the brain is taught to read each word from the mind's eye.
RocketReader
is designed to improve reading, spelling, vocabulary and memory.
The RocketReader flash-training exercises alone develop all of these
areas. The child must read the flash text, remember it, and type it
back into RocketReader. The child must visualize the spelling of more
difficult words in order to score a correct point. This visualization
and recall of the words improves spelling and vocabulary as attention
and recall are the two foundations for effective learning.
RocketReader
has a Junior mode that has two levels: Easiest (60 practice
readings for five- to eight-year olds) and Intermediate for older
children (40,000 phrases & 3000 words & 60 levels). This represents
a vast amount of content, much more than most educational programs that
have a polished interface but limited content. This means that your
children will easily find practice reading material that is interesting,
educational and age-appropriate. This also means that your kids will
not get bored with RocketReader as there is so much to learn and do.
Sound
and graphics make it fun for children. RocketReader reinforces
progress by displaying pictures and playing sound when your child advances
to higher levels. This reward creates a desire to learn more.
RocketReader
is suited to individual use as it stores the progress of each user in
a separate file. However RocketReader can be used by a group of up
to four children at any one time. The RocketReader flash trainings
are especially suited to group situations. The flash trainings rapidly
display randomly selected text of a certain length on the screen, and
the group must then discuss what was displayed, and then type in the
answer. The flash training exercises select this information from a
huge database of hundreds of thousands of words and phrases. You never
know what will be displayed next on the screen. The text is displayed
for only a fraction of a second, and the length of the text increases
gradually as the skills of the players improve. The flash training is
very challenging for groups of children. It encourages discussion and
debate about what was actually displayed. The text is quirky and interesting
and usually results in much laughter.
In classroom
situations it has been found that child concentration levels
are extremely high for the whole period. This is because RocketReader
takes the child through a structured training program one step at a
time, flash training, exercises, speed training, practice reading, memory
testing and finally speed testing. Each part of the lesson is different
and RocketReader can maintain the child's interest for 45 minutes non-stop.
It also means that parents can either work with their children, or leave
the child on their own to complete the lesson.
"My
daughter has been using Rocket Reader for several months.
She is an eight grader and her reading went from 150 wpm to about
500. She can only practice from time to time while in school."
(Russ Montello, California USA) |
RocketReader
has a special "Educational" category in the practice readings.
This means that while your child practices his or her reading skills
they will be learning positive education material such as "the environment",
"poverty", "Hollywood movies", "homelessness", "computers in society",
"racial discrimination", "dinosaurs" and "health and fitness".
RocketReader
allows you and your child to monitor progress. RocketReader has
a keystroke counter that shows how many keys or button clicks have occurred
during the lessons. This counter is displayed on the main RocketReader
window and it allows you to check at any time to see how much real learning
your child has done. RocketReader has graphs of your child's reading
speed and their progress in the flash trainings. These graphs show you
how your child is improving over time.
RocketReader
can also be used by parents. RocketReader has two main skill
categories, Basic for children, and Advanced for adults. In the advanced
levels more sophisticated English is used throughout the program. RocketReader
is being used worldwide by parents, professionals and university students.
One copy of RocketReader can be used by many different people (on the
same computer) as RocketReader stores the progress and level information
of each person under a profile name. When you start RocketReader you
simply type in your profile name and you continue from where you left-off
in the previous session.
Tell me more!
RocketReader has a broad range of readings (over 500) each with a grade level
and comprehension testing. RocketReader also has three methods of training that
eliminate poor reading habits. Since RocketReader constantly adapts
the skill level according to your child's progress your child will always
be running RocketReader in the optimal zone of learning. This means that
the level of difficulty will adjust up or down to ensure that the child
is not making too many errors.
The challenge is set so that the child is trained with sufficiently
difficult material. RocketReader develops reading speed, comprehension, spelling, vocabulary,
memory, keyboard skills and computer skills simultaneously. And it does
so at the correct level of complexity for your child. It achieves this
with a fun interface that incorporates activities, reading training, graphics,
and sound. This proves to be a winning combination for kids, and is a
combination that will maintain your child's interest over time.
"He
[my ten year old son] truly enjoyed the stories in your program.
He read all of the children's stories at least once, many of them
over and over, and he loved watching the speed start out at 100
wmp and increase over and over without him realizing it."
L. Grubb (SC USA) |
Read
what other users say about RocketReader
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trial copy of RocketReader, or
