Resources/Updates
Below is a host of information about our software, research and pedagogy. All documents are in easily downloadable PDF format and require an Adobe Acrobat Reader to open, read and print them. (Note: CD editions are NOT compatible with Windows 7 and Mac 10.6 or later)
Documents
Read, Write & Type Teacher/Parent Resources
Wordy Qwerty Teacher/Parent Resources
Other Talking Fingers, Inc. Documents
Talking Shapes Sequence of Lessons
Other Resources
Below is a list of educational web sites we believe may be useful to parents and teachers.
Center for Development and Learning (CDL)
The Center for Development and Learning (CDL) specializes in the development and dissemination of leading-edge research, knowledge, and best practices from multiple disciplines that impact teaching and learning. CDL�s mission is to improve the life chances of all children by increasing school success.
Big Ideas in Beginning Reading
Big Ideas in Beginning Reading focuses on the five BIG IDEAS of early literacy: phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, fluency with text, vocabulary, and comprehension. The website is designed to provide information and technology to teachers, administrators, and parents across the country, toward the goal of all children reading by the end of third grade.
All Kinds of Minds
All Kinds of Minds translates the latest research on how children learn into programs, products, and services that help students struggling in school to become more successful learners.
ImmigrantInfo.org
ImmigrantInfo.org is a project of and funded by the Immigrant Relations and Integration Services (IRIS)of Santa Clara County, CA. IRIS strives to improve the lives of immigrants by offering links to local, state and national resources, research information on the background, contributions and needs of the 16 largest immigrant groups in SCC, and an interactive data base containing hundreds of ESL classes offered in Santa Clara County. There is also a calendar of events of interest to SCC immigrants, and photo slide shows demonstrating the unique and rich ethnic diversity of Santa Clara County.
LD OnLine.org
LD OnLine.org is the world’s leading web site on learning disabilities and ADHD, serving more than 200,000 parents, teachers, and other professionals each month.
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets is a national multimedia project offering information and resources on how young kids learn to read, why so many struggle, and how caring adults can help.
Sound It Out
Along with her background as a researcher, writer, and teacher, Joanne Meier is a mom. Join Joanne every week as she shares her experiences raising her own young readers, and guides parents and teachers on the best practices in reading.
TeachingLD
TeachingLD is a service of the Division for Learning Disabilities (DLD) of the Council for Exceptional Children. DLD is the largest international professional organization focused on Learning Disabilities, providing trustworthy and up-to-date resources about teaching students with Learning Disabilities.
Colorín Colorado
Colorín Colorado is a free web-based service that provides information, activities and advice for educators and Spanish-speaking families of English language learners (ELLs).
Florida Center for Reading Research
The Florida Center for Reading Research disseminates information about research-based practices related to literacy instruction and assessment for children in pre-school through 12th grade, and conducts reading research that contributes to scientific knowledge and benefits students throughout the nation.
Software Updates
For families and schools using our legacy CD software editions on older operating systems, here are patches for those operating systems. (NOTE: CD editions are NOT compatible with Windows 7 and Mac 10.6 or later.)
CD Edition Resources
Notice to Windows XP and Mac 10.4.7 and 10.4.8 Users
If you are having trouble with Spaceship Challenge accessing your Read, Write & Type student names, you can download our patch to remedy the problem, at: Spaceship Challenge Patch
Wordy Qwerty 1.4
Wordy Qwerty version 1.4 fixes incompatibilities with Quicktime 7.5 when running under Vista, as well as some other resource problems. To install: Download and replace the following files in your Wordy Qwerty folder
- “Wordy Qwerty” application
- “WQ Assessment” application
- “General” folder (inside the “Resource” folder)
- “Interface” folder (inside the “Resource” folder)
To download: right click the links below and “Save Target As” (Mac users: “Save Link As”)
WordyQwerty1.4.zip right click here »
Win 10 in XP Compatibility mode
CD’s in XP compatibility mode will run the program.
Spaceship Challenge
The Setup / Installer on this is very finicky and doesn’t seem to work properly. However we noticed all it really does is just puts a shortcut which points to the executable on the disc.
Steps to get it running in Win 10:
- Insert Disc, navigate to Disc in Windows Explorer
- Navigate to SpaceshipChallenge Folder
- Right Click Spaceship Challenge.exe and select Properties
- Select the Compatibility Tab and click the checkmark for “Run this program in compatibility mode for:”
- Select Windows XP (Service Pack 3) from the Drop Down menu that becomes active
- Click OK on the Properties window
- Right Click Spaceship Challenge.exe and select Create Shortcut
- You should get a dialog prompting you to create the shortcut on your desktop… select Yes.
- Run the Shortcut and the app will begin.
WordyQwerty
The Setup / Installer for Wordy Qwerty will appear to hang during installation. If you leave it, we find that it does eventually complete and everything goes well, it just looks broken for awhile. Also some things such as the License Agreement won’t show up.
Pre-Req:
- Quicktime must be installed as well. If QT is not previously installed, then you will need to run the correct installer from the Quicktime Installer folder on the Disc
Installer:
NOTE: Depending on user properties, might need to run all these as an Administrator as well.
- Insert Disc, navigate to Disc in Windows Explorer
- In Root Directory of the Disc, rightclick WQInstaller.exe and select Properties
- Select the Compatibility Tab and click the “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” option
- Select Windows XP (Service Pack 3) from the Drop Down menu that becomes active
- Click OK on the Properties Window
- Run WQInstaller.exe (as noted there will be a hang for around 5-10 minutes during installation but it SHOULD complete)
Running the Product
- After Installation, navigate to the Installation folder (default is C:\Program Files (x86)\Wordy Qwerty)
- Right Click Wordy Qwerty.exe and select Properties
- Click the Compatibility Tab and check the “Run this program in compatibility mode for:”
- Select Windows XP (Service Pack 3) from the Drop Down menu that becomes active
- Click OK on the Properties Window
- Repeat this for the WQ Assessment.exe file too
Read, Write, & Type
Installer:
NOTE: Depending on user properties, might need to run all these as an Administrator as well.
- Insert Disc, navigate to Disc in Windows Explorer
- Navigate to the Setup Folder
- Right Click Setup.exe and select Properties
- Select the Compatibility Tab and click the “Run this program in compatibility mode for:” option
- Select Windows XP (Service Pack 3) from the Drop Down menu that becomes active
- Click OK on the Properties Window
- Run Setup.exe
Running the Product
- After Installation, navigate to the Installation folder (default is C:\Program Files (x86)\Talking Fingers\Read, Write & Type!)
- Right Click Read, Write & Type!.exe and select Properties
- Click the Compatibility Tab and check the “Run this program in compatibility mode for:”
- Select Windows XP (Service Pack 3) from the Drop Down menu that becomes active
- Click OK on the Properties Window
- Now you can run the program.
ESL HELP Files
We are continually adding additional languages to the audio ESL HELP feature of Read, Write & Type, to make the program a more useful tool for learning to read and write in English as a second language. Our CD Version 3.4 contains audio help files in Arabic, Malay and Spanish. We’ve now added audio help in Farsi, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Tagalog and Korean and will soon add help in Hindi and Vietnamese.
To update your CD-based version of Read, Write & Type with the most current languages available, download the compressed folder on this page, titled ESL_Resources.zip , to your hard drive. Uncompress the folder, review the “READ ME” document inside the folder, and follow the directions.
READ ME DIRECTIONS
This folder contains .PRD and .PRS help files for six languages: Arabic, Farsi, Japanese, Malay (Bahasa Melayu), Mandarin and Spanish. To add these help files to your Read, Write & Type program:
- Highlight ALL the files in the folder
- Copy and paste ALL the files into the “Resource” folder within the “Read, Write & Type” folder on your hard drive.
- If asked if you want to replace any files with the same name(s) already in the “Resource” folder, choose “yes.”
The next time you start Read, Write & Type, students will be able to choose and use ESL HELP in any of the languages available.