Primary purpose: to encourage auditory skills vital to reading. When children are exposed to S.M.A.R.T. auditory activities, they hear many repetitions of same/different/similar sounds and blends in a game-like fashion. The auditory system stores that information in the language area of the brain for later use, i.e. when they learn to read.
Classroom relevance: The ability to recognize, discriminate and blend sounds and then words is crucial to reading. The child must have the ability to recognize sounds in order to later match sounds to letters. He/she must also have the ability to discriminate between similar sounds and blend sounds together in order to begin to learn to read. Children who have problems with these auditory skills cannot follow directions or fail to complete their work, impulsively blurt out answers to questions and avoid or dislike academics entirely.
