LOGOTRON is pleased to announce the release of Express Literacy, a new tool for teachers that promises to accelerate young children's learning by using pictures and symbols to help them learn to read and write. This complete tool for teachers is the result of a collaboration between merged companies Logotron and Widgit and draws on both their expertise in the field of educational software. As boys typically perform less well in academic subjects, one theory is that the use of ICT, a medium they traditionally excel in, could be one way of bridging the performance gap between boys and girls.

Girls are known for being keener readers than boys but with Express Literacy's alternative approach it means that boys and girls learn to read without even being aware of it.

"Express Literacy is the first product to combine the respective software know-how of both Widgit and Logotron. Designed for early years literacy learning this innovative software utilizes symbols and synthesised speech in a variety of interesting ways."

The benefits are not just reserved for the learners; Express Literacy is a great resource for teachers as it takes the hassle out of managing pupils and their work. The teacher tools mean that individual pupil names can be added or deleted, specific activities allocated, and records can be printed automatically for inclusion in records of achievement, allowing the sorting process to be much easier and quicker.

One of the most prominent elements of Express Literacy is its content of pictorial symbols. With a visual wordlist of the most important 1000 high and medium frequency words and their associated pictorial symbols, Express Literacy works by automatically displaying symbols associated with words as the words are typed in. This is perfect for beginners who are learning to read and write - it gives them extra visual support as they learn the skills of recognising and decoding important core vocabulary. Seeing a word accompanied by a symbol can reassure the reader on the meaning of the word and thus increase reading confidence and independence, something that is very important to a young learner.

Express Literacy has an English speech feedback facility, allowing pupils to listen to their own writing, helping them to check the sense of what they have written. Each word in a document can be highlighted as it is spoken, so early readers keep track of exactly what they are reading.

The software also provides Literacy Resources designed to save teachers' time. Activities include: traditional tales, poetry & verse, cloze procedures, comprehension, plays, writing frames, sentence builders and phonic activities. Activities feature free responses or fixed answers, where the responses can be marked and stored for checking later by the teacher.

The resources included in Express Literacy allow teachers to adapt any of the included activities or create new activities of their own using the versatile templates and built-in authoring tools.

Express Literacy includes many features that make early years literacy more accessible:

• writing frames
• onscreen vocabulary grids
• free and closed activity responses
• computer synthesised speech
• visual symbol feedback for the 1000 high and medium frequency core vocabulary words
• a pictorial spell checker
• a large bank of high quality screen based literacy activities
• powerful authoring tools which allow teachers to re-purpose existing, or create their own, literacy activities
• pupil management tools.

Express Literacy takes the hassles and agony out of those early stages of literacy learning and makes it child's play!