NEW! INJINI LETTERS
“Ffff, Ffff, Ffff, F is for Fox!” Injini Letters is a fun way to acquaint your child with the alphabet and phonemes without the pressure of mastering them. Each letter is split into pieces that make the letter’s sound when moved into place. Once the puzzle is completed a beautiful illustration is revealed, depicting a word starting with the letter formed. To a child playing the game, colorful pieces make funny sounds and when she moves them into place, a beautiful drawing such as a fox in his burrow is revealed. But to teachers and parents, Injini Letters is a playful way to develop letter and phonemic awareness, the building blocks for reading and comprehension.
DEVELOPMENTAL BENEFITS: Injini Letters practices phonemic and letter awareness which, according to a report from the National Reading Panel (2000), have been shown, when taught together, to significantly impact reading skill level for all learners including at-risk and differently abled learners as well as readers of different ages and socioeconomic status.
The Injini Letters game also practices fine motor skills and helps to develop the understanding of spatial concepts. Children begin to understand spatial location terms – e.g., “in” – around age two, according to nineteen studies performed by Johnston (1988). As the understanding of spatial concepts increases with age, this also influences their development of handwriting. Furth and Wachs (1974) recommend puzzles as a medium to practice sorting combined with the use of verbal analogies.
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. (2000). Report of the National Reading Panel. Teaching children to read: an evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction: Reports of the subgroups (NIH Publication No. 00-4754). Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office.
National Reading Panel – http://www.nationalreadingpanel.org

SCREENSHOTS





INJINI MATCHING GAME
Fun colors, playful pictures and animations make this variation of the traditional card matching game a delight for kids to play. They are asked to find the card that matches the one displayed at the top of the screen and are treated to a big smile and pleasant chimes when they find the right card. After several successes, the matching becomes gradually more difficult, with more cards to choose from and more subtle differences between the choices.
DEVELOPMENTAL BENEFITS: Identifying features of a given picture and finding an exact match facilitates logical reasoning and problem solving. Matching is a prerequisite for the development of mathematical concepts, such as numbers, counting, equivalence, and conservation of numbers (Montague-Smith, 1997). Matching games require visual discrimination, which is a skill that is to be developed upon entering kindergarten.
SCREENSHOTS









INJINI PUZZLE GAME
Your toddler or preschooler will squeal with delight as she moves pieces to complete whimsical pictures such as a playful sea turtle, a family of candy-colored snails, or a cowboy driving a covered wagon. Simply drag the pieces to fill the missing parts of an object or scene. When the last piece is moved into place your child is rewarded with a beautiful storybook-quality picture that comes to life through fun animation and sounds. Text and voice-over identify the scene or object to add to the learning experience. With 90 puzzles of varying degrees of difficulty, your child will enjoy many hours of fun while developing cognitive and fine motor skills.
DEVELOPMENTAL BENEFITS: The Injini puzzles practice fine motor skills and help to develop the understanding of spatial concepts. Children begin to understand spatial location terms – e.g., “in” – around age two, according to nineteen studies performed by Johnston (1988). As the understanding of spatial concepts increases with age, this also influences their development of handwriting. Furth and Wachs (1974) recommend puzzles as a medium to practice sorting combined with the use of verbal analogies. Injini puzzles implement verbal analogies by introducing vocabulary upon completion of the picture.
SCREENSHOTS
   

INJINI SQUARES GAME
Ready…set…Watch and listen! You’ll see squares light up and hear a tone for each one, then you tap the squares to repeat the sequence. In the beginning, you just have to remember a short sequence on a few squares, but as you get better be ready for longer sequences on more squares. Watch for the special squares – you’re in for a treat when you get these right! Focus! You can do it!
DEVELOPMENTAL BENEFITS: Injini Squares promotes nonlinguistic memory by processing information through mental pictures and physical sensations.6 The auditory feedback provided in the game reinforces memory as well as the understanding of cause-and-effect.7
SCREENSHOTS
 


NJINI TRACING GAME





Who knew tracing could be this much fun? In Injini’s tracing game, a spinning orange and yellow ball followed by a simple white vertical line appears on a clear black screen. Using a finger, drag the magical ball down the clear path and unexpectedly a picture of an elegant giraffe appears. Try a cool stylus so your child can practice a pencil grip while tracing straight lines, wavy lines and shapes. Over 50 hand-painted illustrations are the canvases on which your child learns to trace a variety of lines and curves.
DEVELOPMENTAL BENEFITS: The Tracing game encourages finger isolation, drawing, and prewriting skills. Hand-eye coordination and basic stroke formation are among the prerequisites for handwriting (Lamme, 1979). Furthermore, the ability to copy and kinesthetic readiness are important precursors to handwriting instruction (Beery and Buktenica, 1989) . The visual feedback provided in the tracing game is vital for reinforcing a young child’s writing efforts.
SCREENSHOTS
 


Rating:







Program Link: