Akin to Sherlock Holmes’s deductive reasoning, critical thinking entails using one, or a combination, or all of the following steps:

1. Observation of a given situation
2. Feeling
3. Wondering or formulating a question 
4. Imagining (“what could be the possible answers?”)
5. Drawing inferences from the gathered information, assuming one of the possible answers was accurate. If there is sufficient relevant evidence, one may come to a definitive conclusion.
6. Using stored Knowledge related to the subject matter to generate possible solutions or drawing inferences 
7. Experimenting, aka systematic observation/trial-and-error, to predict whether the inferences (as deduced from the above) will occur.
8. Consulting or researching the situation to extract credible information from one or many sources, judging the acceptability of this information 
9. Identifying and analyzing arguments
10. Judging based on all evidence
11. Deciding on what to do

Critical thinking games push participants to go “out-of-the-box”, shatter “group-think” tendencies, and take non-conventional routes to reach a decision. Adults can handle more complex problems, and the settings in which such games are played may require them to socialize, making use of multi-dimensional skillsets and sources of Knowledge. Employees may be involved in brain training activities, but games can prove to be better for upskilling them.

List of activities that involve adults thinking critically!

1. Shrinking Vessel

This is a team-building activity that is best played with more than 30 participants. The population is split up into small teams of 2-4, and everyone is enclosed in a shrinking space that can be achieved by flexible boundaries—rope, cones, etc.

As the area reduces, each team has to work in tandem to stand together. If the playing group is large, teams may need to eliminate opponent group members or reorganize themselves to fit the area until there is no room to accommodate.

Skills developed: Strategizing, space utilization, organization skills, awareness of the surroundings

2. Solving Mystery

When it comes to critical thinking, nothing can be better than playing detective. Split up the members into teams of 4-5 and give each team member a sheet of clues/information. Now, the list of information is incomplete or jumbled up. For example:

Member 1 gets a sheet with clues 1, 4, 5

Member 2 gets a sheet with clues 7, 3, 6

Member 3 gets a sheet with clues 2, 8

Member 4 gets the problem statement (the actual question that they need to solve).

Teams must follow the clues to crack the mystery (objectives may be hypothetical or uncovering the root cause of a real problem). With effective communication, participants learn to work on the problem by gathering all sources of information.

Skills developed: Collecting relevant information, eliminating redundant or irrelevant facts, problem-solving, effective communication

3. Film or Book Review

This individual activity aims to develop the participant’s keen eye and go beyond superficial aspects of a given movie/book. Participants can be asked to review their favourite literary/artistic piece over the weekend and present their critical appreciation. It will set them thinking on the purpose of their consuming rather than passively reading or watching. 

When done in a group, there may be people who have watched it previously. The activity invites stimulating debate and discussion and brings to light many facets of a standard item. Some people may go above and beyond, seeking information about its music, author, director, etc., and draw inferences on the mood and contemporary times when the piece was written/set in. 

Skills developed: Collecting relevant information, effective communication, multi-way thinking, creative thinking

4. Fact vs Opinion

In modern society, the difference between fact and opinion is a highly blurred line. While a fact can be proven true or false, opinions express one’s feeling or point-of-view, and therefore cannot be differentiated as true or false. The Socratic method of inquiry, which pushes participants to ask “why”, is the motivation behind this activity. 

Here, participants are shown several statements on a screen/board that are either fact or opinion. Participants will mark each of these statements as “F” (if it is a fact) or “O” if it is an opinion. The next part is to have the participants explain why the statement can or cannot be proven to be a fact. Some questions that can be used to guide the discussion are available here.  

Skills developed: Reasoning, logical conclusions, discussion

5. Connect 4

This beloved and popular strategy game can be played physically or online by people of all age groups. The objective is to connect four-player A’s colored coins in a straight line by dropping them into the coin holder before the opposition party does.

It requires the players to apply anticipatory thinking, thinking about all possible outcomes. It can be considered to be a simpler version of chess.

Skills developed: Problem-solving, anticipation.

Wrapping Up

While critical thinking demands a highly systematic approach, it does not mean you can’t tweak the rules. A cognitive bias is encountered when one generalizes a problem to be the same in all contexts; for example, water scarcity in village A may not arise from the same environmental factors as in village B. Therefore, the same solution cannot be applied to both scenarios. 

Games are not just fun: they break the monotony and get participants to involve multisensory order thinking skills. These activities will help the workers and the organizations, boosting output and productivity. 

Some games help us acquire critical thinking skills, making us productive and increasing our output in the workplace. It fosters trust and problem-solving skills.

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post 5 Interesting Activities & Games for Boosting Critical Thinking Skills in Adults appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

Why use phonics apps?

A diverse range of apps is available on both Android and iOS platforms to assist adult learners in improving their reading. Phonics apps are great tools for adult learners to start reading because of these solid reasons!

• Learn at your own pace. The lessons or activities are pre-recorded, so the learner does not fear missing out on some lessons. One can pause and play and repeat a segment as many times as s/he wants.
• Interactive lessons. The segments are so made that the learner can touch the word or sentence and listen to its pronunciation. 
• Good engagement = more significant learning. Many apps have been made in a game format so that the learner is always engaged and constantly aims to reach higher, complex phonics levels.
• Scope for practice. Apps have multiple levels of complexity, which helps learners to improve themselves independently. Since one can repeat any module any number of times, the learner can practice repeatedly.
• Compatible. Learners can find these apps on any platform of their convenience suited to their device. Most of these are free to use, but a few offer more features at a premium price.

List of five easy-to-use & user-friendly phonics apps for adults.

1. Phonics Genius

The app has a vast repository of over 6000 words, grouped into 225 categories by their phonics sounds. While it is designed for children, its interface is clean and suitable for adults with learning disabilities like ESL and ABE students. A multi-sensory learning tool, the app merges audio, speech, and written media for a real-life engagement of the learner with language.

Features:

• Words are grouped by the position of the phonic sound (beginning/medial/end).
• User can record their voice, playback, and compare with the pre-loaded sound. The articulation practice enables students to recapitulate learned concepts.
• Quiz modes are built for solid understanding.

AppLink: Appstore

2. What’s Changed? Skill Builder

The app uses a gaming interface to develop the user’s phonemic awareness, i.e. the ability to discern between sounds or sequence of sounds within a word. It works on the learner’s phonemic awareness of vowel sounds and consonant joins through rigorous exercises. The practice sets require the learner to listen to two non-words and identify which sound changed between them. The exercises may involve:

• identifying a changed sound (‘zat’ to ‘zad’) 
• assigning or omitting the appropriate letter to the changed sound (‘field to ‘field)
• switching two letters for sounds that were switched (‘blist’ to ‘blits’)

The app merely focuses on improving phonics awareness but does not help in spelling.

The app is excellent for English language learners who seek to enhance their auditory discrimination and pronunciation of English.

Features:

• The app has three categories of games, each with four successive levels of difficulty, where words build from VC (e.g. ‘ob’) to CCVCC (e.g. ‘brisp’). 
• In the Standard English category, user can develop the letter-sound association.
• The Readable English category reinforces the learnings from the first category, including the non-standard sounds of letters. Readers can identify non-standard sounds of letters marked with a glyph.
• In the Colour category, sounds are represented by colors. It requires the reader to focus on auditory discrimination rather than sound-symbol association strictly.
  

AppLink: Appstore

3. Ultimate Phonics Reading App

The app is a very clean, no-frills platform that suits adult readers with ESL, learning disabilities, or beginner readers. With various interactive exercises, learners will effectively sound out complex words and progress into speed-reading.

Features:

• The app has a good mix of words in its vast word list and features decodable sentences, all broken down into phonemes for clarity and in-depth understanding. 
• The Find feature helps readers look up lessons matching any phonogram.
• The program is comprehensive in its teaching of the intricacies of English speech, a word bank of 4,400 words, and 2,100 sentences organized into 262 lessons. The lessons are grouped into 12 levels of increasing complexity to help students self-learn the entire English phonics system.
• While the first level (lessons 1 to 50) is free to access, successive levels are unlocked at a one-time payment or level-wise installment-basis payments.  
  

AppLink: Playstore | Appstore

4. Lexico: A Dyslexia Reading Aid

Adult learners who want to venture into independent reading need to practice above and beyond the limited practice words. Mexico is a clean, distraction-free e-book reader that enables learning-impaired adult readers to control their reading ability. It uses a glare-free, high-contrast display with a dyslexia-friendly typeface and interface that benefits new readers or learning-impaired readers. 

Features:

• Users can tap the “read” button to view a single word at a time, breaking them into syllables. 
• The Audiobook Mode enables the reader to select a comfortable reading speed, mark the text to be read, and have the app read aloud. You can also tap words to hear how they are pronounced.
• The app bundles word-tracking and crossing exercises that help users speed up their reading, helping them develop skills to read across a line and down to the following line.
• Custom lists help users build their library of complex words to listen to for their phonics and spelling improvement.
  

AppLink: Appstore

5. English Pronunciation and Phonetics AudioClass

This app is a professional, clean, and feature-loaded tool that helps any adult learner grasp the intricacies of the English language. The exercises are written by certified native English-speaking professors and include multimedia lessons on pronouncing words correctly.

Features:

• The app has unlimited downloadable & free Phonetics Exercises, Audio Packs, Vocabulary builder, Listening Practice, and more.
• The English Phonetics chart in the app uses Symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), suitable for British English.
• Interactive Alphabet and vocabulary learning with Audio, pictures, and Transcriptions help fully grasp difficult words.
• The app is an all-in-one solution for learning Phonemes Pronunciation, with correct terminologies, such as Vowels, Diphthongs, and consonants.
• The app also has spelling rules based on phonics and reading practice through correct intonation and stress patterns.

AppLink: Playstore

To sum up, These phonics apps are a good addition to practice sessions for adults who want to become confident in English. You can choose either of these apps based on their set of merits and demerits. Moreover, these apps can come in handy for those willing to pursue courses in English-speaking countries.

Alternatively, there are several books to help you ease yourself with phonics. Having difficulties in pronunciation is not uncommon. However, this should not limit your opportunities. That is why there are several programs hosted around the world to help adults identify and rectify their issues with phonics. What’s best about these phonics apps and programs is that you can try them from the comfort of your home!

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post 5 Must-Try Phonics Apps for Adults appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

At times, it does feel like hitting a hard wall when you’re in the middle of a sentence, really trying to make a point, and you are just stuck over a word – because you just can’t remember it. There are times when you know what you want to say; you’re just not getting the right word for it. You can learn new words every day, avoid these mistakes, and enhance your vocabulary, even if you’re a grown-up! 

We all crave to create a lasting impact on people’s minds with just our words, but it takes some effort to do the same. But now, you can enhance your vocabulary and learn great words every day with the help of that smartphone of yours!

Most adults don’t have the time to enroll in classes or mug up the dictionary. However, your smartphone can now be a powerful tool for you to learn new words every day. Just download some exceptional apps that you can access at any time of the day.

Useful vocabulary apps for adults

1.   Vocabulary.com – This is one of the most popular apps when it comes to vocabulary building. It serves as a pocket dictionary and creates a list of ‘words I’m learning’ for the users.

2.   Magoosh Vocabulary Builder – This App is used by plenty of adults who are appearing for the SAT, GRE, or TOEFL, as this not only provides you with exam-level words but also tracks your performance through each word.

3.   PowerVocab – This app provides a quiz type of interface, where users match words against multiple-choice definitions. This competitive application is quite popular among grown-ups.

4.   Word of the Day: Widget – Imagine being sent a new word every day to the notification bar of your phone. This certainly makes learning easy as you are forced to check the word without even opening the app.

5.   Words with Friends – This great app is more like Scrabble, which you can play with your friends. It allows you a fun learning experience, where you can indulge in a fun game with a friend and learn simultaneously.

6.   Anki – A more old-school-style vocabulary booster, which has flashcards, and decks, and uses sounds and images to offer a multimedia experience, making learning a fun process.

7.   7 Little Words – This clever vocabulary game gives users seven definitions and letters arranged into words. Users learn new words while engaging in this fun game.

8. Reverse Dictionary – This app is excellent for all thesaurus lovers out there! This application lets you search the words from thousands of words in the engine. Through this app, you can always look up the word you’re searching for and learn thousands of new words. 

9. Duolingo – Technically, this application would be great for people interested in learning essential words of other languages, too, as it has a whole bunch of words that you can discover if you wish to flaunt some French, Spanish, or maybe German words.

10. WordUp – Expanding your knowledge of the English language is what this app is all about! This app uses a visual aid to explain new words and offers a unique experience to all users.

11. Quizlet – This app uses flashcards, games, and puzzles to acquaint users with new words and their meanings, making them sound more thoughtful, smarter, and better.

12. Memrise– With millions of people using this app, it is quite popular among adults. It leans heavily on the principles of mnemonics, a popular technique that helps remember specific facts and information.

13. Kindle Vocabulary Builder – While this app is only for people who own a Kindle, avid book readers find it extremely useful, as whichever word they select while reading shows the meaning and, in turn, educates the reader about the word. 

14. Penny Dell Crosswords – Crosswords are proven to make the learning experience unique and fantastic for all users. Doing a crossword puzzle while learning new words and enhancing the vocabulary can be extremely exciting for all adults.

15. Word to Word – This application uses a different method of learning. Users are given a list of words, where they need to establish a connection between them which helps them gain knowledge about a few new words each day.

Benefits of using these vocabulary apps for adults

These vocabulary-building apps have plenty of benefits. Apart from easy access, these applications offer some impeccable advantages.

• Users can access these apps and strengthen their command of the English language without devoting hours and hours to the library. 

• These amazing apps are fun, and all you need is a minute or two every day to learn some great words.

• Vocabulary-building applications guarantee you a lasting impression the next time you wish to make a point. So now, you can easily convey your message without being stuck for a word.

• These applications help you minimize the greys in your conversation by assisting you with more intelligent and more concise words.

• Vocabulary apps help you to expand the mastery of your language by teaching new words. This lets you be more confident among your peers.

• Building a great vocabulary can also guarantee you occupational and professional success.

Other ways of improving vocabulary

Applications that make you sound smarter and well-versed with the language can be excellent. Still, one can try these conventional methods too if they don’t want to indulge in the application experience:

• Read, Read, and Read. Research has proved that reading for at least 15 minutes a day improves your vocabulary dramatically. Reading only doesn’t mean going through a novel. One can also indulge in magazines, blogs, newspapers, etc.

• Go over the dictionary or the thesaurus a couple of times. This will help you expand your knowledge about new words, and you can also learn new synonyms for the words you already know.

• Vocabulary workbooks have proven to improve the word knowledge of plenty of people. It might be a traditional and conventional way of learning, but it sure helps. 

Wrapping Up,

Learning something new can be an overwhelming experience. But with applications like these, gaining knowledge about new words is now fun and exhilarating. So now, it’s time to leave behind those apps that help you crush candies and grow farms from the smartphone, and indulge in something more enriching, which will expand your knowledge and help you reach greater heights professionally and personally.

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post Top 15 Vocabulary Building Apps for Adults appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

In this post, we have curated for you reading comprehension apps that adults may use for their individual objectives. But, what can be those objectives? Let’s discuss those a little first.

Objectives of using Reading comprehension apps for adults

A lack of reading comprehension skills in adults is a well-known fact. 43-45% of American adults have a problem reading densely written, well-punctuated text (Kutner, Greenberg & Baer, 2005). The efforts are on to diagnose the probability of occurrence of reading comprehension problems in adult stages. When diagnosed, the path ahead is dedicated to how to overcome the reading comprehension difficulty. It is where the apps, books, discussion forums, etc. step in and provide a plausible solution.

The reading comprehension apps for adults can serve three important purposes:

• Overcome reading difficulties: Adults can revisit reading sessions using apps and make up for the shortcomings left unattended due to abandoning of schools, dyslexia-caused troubles, or other factors.
• Learning English as a Second Language (ESL): Some people learn English for personal skills development. They want to master English, add more weight to their resumes, and strive to become globally acceptable too.
• Clear competitive exams like GRE, TOEFL, etc.: To get admission in foreign universities where proficiency in English is considered mandatory to qualify. In these exams, reading comprehension is an important section and needs to be cleared mandatorily.

Want to know which reading comprehension apps for adults are serving the learning needs most correctly? Take a look at these happening apps that can help you improve your reading fundamentals, and vocabulary, and provide ample practice for solving questions based on reading comprehension.

User-friendly Reading Comprehension Apps Must-have for Adults

1. Reading Comprehension – GRE® Test Prep & Practice

Beautifully designed and well-crafter reading comprehension app that you can use for GRE preparation and personal fulfillment as yet. The main activity involved in a reading comprehension exercise is reading passages and answering questions based on the facts given in those. This app offers ample opportunity to do so. You may find about 200 passages to read and decode.

This app is a sophisticated way of putting learning into action. You can take quick short tests, save scores, and stay put on the path to improvement. Even when not preparing for competitive exams, you can create a personal repertoire of passages to read often.

App Link: Play Store

2. Reading Comprehension Fun Game

Designed for both kids and adults, this app is a perfect tool for getting practice on reading comprehension. Divided into different levels, this app offers a gamified way of driving English learners into reading activities. When needed as a boost for developing strong communication skills, this app offers the perfect learning tool.

Read out loud, listen to the pronunciation, and test comprehension skills through different types of practice sets and reading activities. The app works on the principle that it is never too late to start learning. So, whichever age group you belong to, you can employ this app to learn and develop the requisite reading development skills. It walks you through how to read, how to solve questions and answers, and also offers support to check right and wrong answers.

App Link: App Store | Play Store

3. Reading Comprehension Skills

The Reading Comprehension Skills app offers complete know-how on how to develop this aspect of reading fluency. First, it starts with giving you a crystal clear view of what reading comprehension skills actually comprise. So, with a quick go-through of essentialities like decoding, fluency, and vocabulary, you actually are able to set the proficiency levels you ought to achieve to become well-seasoned in reading comprehension.

The app offers you various levels of learning so that you start and proceed steadily and progressively. It trains you in the art of scanning the content and skimming the meaning from it. The app works great for management students, team leaders, etc. who need to learn how to approach reading and process information from it.

App Link: Play Store

4. Reading – TOEFL® Preparation Tests

This app has found a place in our list because adults need to learn and refine their reading comprehension skills to prepare for competitive exams like TOEFL. The designers have deeply researched what the learning requirements for TOEFL level exams are, and they have laid ample stress on all of those.

The users are sure to benefit from features like vocabulary build support, and test support, and has an enriched collection of questions and answers. Just because the name is TOEFL, it does not mean that the app is useful for competitive exams only. The app proves its worth to the self-learners of ESL too and is a versatile tool that can help adults have more mature content to read and practice as a part of their reading comprehension skills building.

App Link: Play Store

5. Improve Reading Comprehension

When you are completely unaware of even basic English and want to build your reading comprehension skills way up starting from scratch, this app offers you the best resource to do so. It is one of the apps that you can use with your kids and have teamwork at home, trying to help each other.

Don’t get beguiled by the colorful pictures that may set you thinking that the app is for kids; the content is designed to keep the adults’ learning needs too. The app is full of contextual passages that can help English beginners pick the message, and work around the reading skill. If you are a parent, you can bond over this app with your children and have your share of learning too.

App Link: App Store

6. Reading Comprehension Test – English

Reading comprehension is not restricted only to making the meaning from the text or answering questions based on the passage. It is a much more elaborate process and requires a strategic approach to decode the message and internalize it. Also, the reader should be able to read between the lines and predict the upcoming message. How to do it exactly? Well, the answer lies in this app.

The app provides you with full-fledged support for learning the processes of predicting, questioning, inferencing from the text, and visualizing what is presented textually. Thus, make your mobile phone the best English reading comprehension learning tool. It serves your needs just right and can help learn reading even while on the move.

App Link: Play Store

7. English Reading Stories

Do you know stories offer the most engaging material that can help build reading comprehension skills too? If you vouch for this fact too, then this app is the best answer. It is where your search for a collection of stories to read to check on your reading comprehension skills is sure to end on a happy note.

You can find in this app stories sorted according to your level of proficiency in reading comprehension. After every reading or end of the level, you can check proficiency through a quick test, and then decide whether to proceed further or repeat the level. Thus, this app is a perfect fit for adults who need self-paced support for mastering reading comprehension.

App Link: Play Store

8. Reading Comprehension (LITE)

A straightforward and effective app for reading comprehension beginners. On the one hand, it meets the needs of the growing kids who want to gain proficiency in reading and comprehending meaning from it. On the other, it is suitable for adults, too, who want to appear for ESL tests, or just have made up their minds to learn English for their personal development.

The app has a Pro version too, where unlimited stories come unlocked. Learners can sync their story selection with the level of proficiency achieved and have their need to practice reading comprehension fulfilled, So, keep your stock of reading material ready in your mobile phones by having this app. It saves you the hassle of stuffing your houses with books, offering you a resource-efficient way of becoming a reading comprehension pro.

App Link: Play Store

Summing up,

Reading comprehension is one of the components of English learning that has no end to it. You can start at any point in time, work the way around the reading need, and revisit the learned portions too. The apps listed above allow you to practice and have fun with reading, which is very important for a far-reaching impact.

You are sure to brim with confidence and have a gut feeling that ‘Yes, I own reading comprehension completely now!’ once you are through with the apps explained above. So, download and share with us, how these helped!

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post 8 Best Reading Comprehension Apps for Adults appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

But, it is not so conspicuous in all people. Aging brains, failing memories, and a few learning disorders like dyscalculia can interfere with pattern recognition ability. That is why the brain needs constant workouts to ensure that its ability to read, identify, remember, and make more patterns remain intact till late in life. One of the easy ways to ensure this is to play pattern games for adults. These games can work up various parts of the brain in adults and keep them entertained and focused too.

Why should adults play pattern games?

Pattern recognition is a basic human mind skill. It is required to make sound conclusions and correct decisions. If you observe closely, we are living amidst a web of patterns. Houses arranged in a row, vehicles parked properly, or books to clothes we keep tidily on a shelf are nothing but the outcome of the pattern-making abilities of the mind. Thus, top reasons to boost this ability by playing pattern games can help adults in various ways, including:

• Helps them stay organized, neat, and in an orderly manner.
• Orderliness gives way to better productivity, to the art of getting things done.
• Better productivity arising from orderliness helps them stay competent in various jobs

Thus, all reasons boil down to one thing, that is, to be able to manage the self and affairs of daily life independently. Some call pattern identification a way to become a person with able leadership qualities, too.

So, which pattern games can help adults? It is quite a pragmatic question to ask, as choices are pretty wide, and confusing too. That is why we have eased you here the process of choosing pattern games that fit the adult minds.

In this post, we bring you the 7 most mind-provoking pattern recognition games that adults can play and practice to boost their mental powers.

Best pattern games for adults available online

1. Pattern Memory Game

Often people come across blink-and-miss situations. But, the best chance takers are those that can make the most of those ephemeral elements too. This pattern memory game offers the ideal solution for improving the memory abilities of the brain. A pattern is blinked for a second or two and then the learner needs to copy the pattern the very next moment.

It is an amazing activity to improve mental prowess and to apply it in hand-eye coordination too. The game is available online and comes with morale boosters like points, and the pretext to share your performance in social communities too. So, next time you want a memory booster to test and show off, simply log on to this game and show the world what you have got!

Game Link: Web App

2. Pattern Matrix

This is the game of testing visual perception abilities! The adult learners trying to increase their minds’ plasticity find the best food for mental ability build-up in this game. It offers the challenge of identifying two identical tiles from a set of two. Tricky, right? Well, you have just started!

Next, you may find tiles with patterns shuffled, allowing you to immerse deeply into relationship identification, visual memory development, and increasing mental concentration. A dash of colorful elements is further added to give the next level of difficulty; the growing mind will definitely find itself on its toes and quite prepared to tackle the newer pattern challenges but with added ease. Overall, this game is ideal for pattern recognition leading to the development of analytical capabilities.

Game Link: Web App

3. Halloween Cards Memory Matching

Revisit the Halloween memories and apply your visual perception and matching skills to make pairs of cards having the same pictures. The trick is to identify which cards were carrying the same picture. The fewer the steps, the sharper your memory is! This pattern recognition and memorization booster game is divided into multiple levels. As a starter, kick off with the easiest one. By doing ample practice, master it and move on to the next.

The increasing size of grids helps in teasing the mind with something more challenging at each level. That unrest or a pang of anxiety to keep account of flipped images and their position is the challenge you will overcome with regular practice and more rounds of play.

Game Link: Web App

4. Spot the Difference

You can appreciate a pattern only when you can identify a difference in it! It seems to be the premise for this pattern recognition game for adults. The matrix of pictures having the same pattern flashes on the screen. The challenge is to point the odd one out. What do you actually do in this activity? You simply build a selective attention ability.

Often people need to sift through information to pick the relevant pattern and make inferences. They can build this capacity by playing this pattern recognition game often and at varying speeds. It is the easiest way to boost the visual discrimination potential of the brain and helps train it to see the odds. Perfect mental agility booster worth including in your games collection!

Game Link: Web App

5. Hidden Object

What is a pattern? It is nothing but the opposite of the chaos, right? Thus, when you identify a pattern, you tend to set things in order and boost your critical thinking. It is exactly what you learn to grasp from this online pattern game for adults, known as ‘Hidden Object.’ The game trains the mind to concentrate on things of choice or correct utility. It works it up to receive the correct information from the horde.

The quickness of identifying the object, making it stand out from the horde, and blanking out everything unimportant is a crucial brain activity that adults can employ to become successful organizers. This game offers ample mental workouts to achieve this level of critically driven thinking.

Game Link: Web App

6. Mahjongg Dimensions

Boost up your critical evaluation skills and apply them to make a pair of matching tiles. You have to employ visual closure activities to understand the difference between an open-ended and a confined tile. Only those tiles will fetch you a point when they carry the same image and do not have any other tile style on their left or right.

There is an option provided to reshuffle the image to take out the hidden possibilities. Hence, you can luxuriate in the multiple advantages of pattern matching, hand-eye coordination coupled with the mental agility to think fast to make new patterns and pairs.

Game Link: Web App

7. Sequences

The pattern is not only of figures and designs. Number sequencing is a kind of pattern making too. The sequences game is designed to boost the mathematical agility of the mind. Adults get ample fodder to work on mathematical operations like plus and minus, to identify and tell the next in the series.

This number sequencing game can be played at various levels of difficulty and in a time-pressed way too. Practice as much and as often as possible and boost the neuroplasticity of the brain, allowing it to be comfortable with all levels of numeric problems. When choosing to be a computation nerd, you can play this game till you become one.

Game Link: Web App

Wrapping up,

Patterns are everywhere, and these are the clues that take you to a deeper understanding of nature around you. By boosting this ability, leaders can identify better performers in their team, or chalk out the activity plan to extract the best results.

On a personal level, they can organize themselves as per the accepted norms and set examples for others too. So, don’t miss upon these chances of improving patterns intelligence; play patterns games. You might discover something interesting about yourself in the process!

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post 7 Online Brain-Teasing Pattern Games for Adults appeared first on Number Dyslexia.

‘Reading the instructions on the exam paper gave me shivers down the spine; I almost forgot everything I knew.’ Have you ever gone through this kind of trauma? If yes, you are facing reading struggles for sure; root cause may be lying in poor knowledge of phonics.

Adult reading literacy is a big concern throughout the world, including USA (lowest levels were 19% in 2019). It is engulfing the job opportunities for deserving candidates even though they are experts in their field. The reason is abandoning formal education; sometimes due to domestic responsibilities, and at others, owing to learning disabilities.

Good news is that you can start anytime and tighten the ends left loose. In this post, we have covered a reliable resource – phonics books for adults, to help you if the idea of learning to read has come across your mind.

How phonics books for adults can boost your learning skills?

The importance of phonics for adults has risen everywhere and lots of reading programs are organized to assist literacy seekers. Books bring in an element of organization and offer sequential progression (alphabetic knowledge to sentence construction) in your learning graph. By reading and practicing with the help of phonics books, adult learners can have an outright solution that matches their learning requirements. Best roles served by the phonics books are:

• Phonics books complement your learning requirements: There is a book for every type of learner. Whether you are struggling with decoding spellings or have difficulty understanding how syllables change their sound with position, you can pick a book relevant to your phonics proficiency level.
• Have loads of practice for added fluency: The idea of phonics is to learn to read. And, you can do so by reading only. So, have as much practice as you want till you bring native-level fluency to your reading skills. Books on phonics offer uncountable things to read like poems, stories, instruction manuals, etc. You can pick whatever suits your palate and get the desired practice.
• Offer perfect self-paced learning support: As an adult, you may have multiple pre-occupations to handle. Learning does take a backseat in such situations. But, it should not go out of sight completely. When not able to go to phonics classes, let the class come to you through books. Read those while following a disciplined study plan, and fill all gaps in learning.

Which books to read to develop phonics skills? Well, the options are numerous, but we have annotated a few that stand out in appeal, instruction style and reading ease. Let’s take a look at the curated list of phonics books that adult learners can employ to enrich their alphabetic principle and knowledge, decoding spelling ability, and other important reading principles.

Resourceful phonics learning books for adults

1. We all can read

We All Can Read is an impressive learning resource that simplifies phonics learning for adults. The best feature of this book is its sequential and cumulative approach to teaching phonics principles to grown-ups. Aspirants struggling through phonics intricacies can find respite in this book. Clear instructions provided at the start and engaging ‘How Tos’ scattered throughout help you have an objective approach for building phonics skills.

Apart from providing support to self-learners, the book is designed to train phonics teachers too. If you need to brush up on your phonics skills and disseminate knowledge about the same to young learners, you can employ this book as teaching guide. Comprising about 720 lessons, this phonics learning resource can be your best bet to become a reading and spelling wizard.

2. ABR: You Can Read

ABR: You Can Read! is the literacy learning and teaching program supplement. The book is designed to give a thorough introduction to basics like Letters Sights and Sounds, Words, and Keywords. The learners can deep dive into phonics learning as the book offers about 900 words and keywords to learn to speak and read.

It is estimated that about 17% of American Adults are reading beginners and need to work sincerely on their speaking, reading, and spelling skills. This book is impressively versatile and has made it to the programs focused on family literacy, workplace literacy, and ESL. Perfect for school and home study, the book traverses you to all basics and advanced principles of phonics, helping you acquire skills needed for that much-coveted job or promotion!

3. Phonics Reading Programme for Adults

This book is a part of systematic phonics teaching curriculum directed at non-English speakers, and pre-literate adult learners. It is a part of Letters and Sounds Program developed for teaching English systematically to primary students in 2007.

The book teaches how to go beyond letter names to letter sounds. Acquaint yourself with consonant digraphs, short vowel sound, and other letter-sound basics. Further, it empowers you with vocabulary-building, which can be seen as a gradual progression from letter-sound learning to building words based on the sounds. It is a must-have for the learners who enjoy phonics learning through worksheets, flashcards, and practice papers, resources that tone down the complexities for seamless absorption of concepts.

4. Phonics Pathways: Clear Steps to Easy Reading and Perfect Spelling

Want to become a spelling buff despite all learning difficulties? Phonics Pathways can be your teaching doyen. This book introduces sounds one at a time, teaches their employment pattern in words, and walks you step-by-step through syllables, phrases, and then complete sentences. Reading skills become more refined and bolstered with an added awareness of sound and word-building knowledge.

The book supports the phonics learning needs of:

• Learners struggling through short attention spans
• Adults with poor vocabulary and spelling skill deficiencies
• Adults with learning difficulties pertaining to word formation
• English as Second Language learners

5. PSS For Phonics

When you need a learning methods-enriched quick solution for phonics learning, this book fits the bill perfectly. It befriends you with the dynamics of syllables and their positions and impending effects of words’ sight and sound. Equipped with cogent explanations, memory tactics, and lots of illustrations, the book can help you learn strategies to use phonics for achieving commendable adult literacy in English reading.

Equally intriguing to adults and children, basic and advanced phonics learners, this book offers a reliable solution to augment reading fluency. It is an admirable teaching resource for budding phonics coaches too.

To sum up,

Learning may have got no age; it definitely needs correct resources and tools to pick up the pace from any point in the skill-building path. The books mentioned above dispense the best solutions to the avid learners who may have cut a sorry face due to poor reading and pronunciation and want to change their situation for the better.

Manpreet Singh

An engineer, Maths expert, Online Tutor and animal rights activist. In more than 5+ years of my online teaching experience, I closely worked with many students struggling with dyscalculia and dyslexia. With the years passing, I learned that not much effort being put into the awareness of this learning disorder. Students with dyscalculia often misunderstood for having  just a simple math fear. This is still an underresearched and understudied subject. I am also the founder of Smartynote -‘The notepad app for dyslexia’, 

The post 5 Must-Read Phonics Books for Adults appeared first on Number Dyslexia.