Reading Application For Children

I selected an article on a multi-modal tangible interface for children by six researchers from the Netherlands:

Read-It: A Multi-modal Tangible Interface for Children Who Learn to Read
By: Ivo Weevers, Wouter Sluis, Claudia van Schijndel, Siska Fitrianie, Lyuba Kolos-Mazuryk & Jean-Bernard Martens

The article reports on problems children face with both physical games (card and board games) as well as computer games/exercises that assist with reading.

The problems with the computer games/exercises (which are problems children experience with interfaces) include:
(1) Very young children have problems moving and controlling the mouse (the cursor). Although some argue that the mouse is not a real issue nowadays, the authors wanted to drive home the point that teachers think it is an issue.
(2) Young children prefer multi-user interaction (collaboration) rather than the single-use/single-person workstation.

The authors developed the Read-it application for children that was inspired by the traditional card game memory. It allows for multiple simultaneous users. It consists of written letters and words, spoken letters and words, in combination with pictures (multi-modal - 3 modes).