Alphabet Beats Review

I was given the chance to review a handwriting program called Alphabet Beats recently for the Homeschool Crew.  I had never heard of the TV Teacher or their Alphabet Beats handwriting videos before, so I was excited to learn more about them.  I looked at their website and knew that I wanted to take the chance to review their program with my daughter who has autism.

My daughter, Hannah, is actually 14 years old, and I thought the videos were made for only younger children.  After looking at their website, though, and emailing back and forth a few times, I learned that these videos are often used with special-needs children who have problems with handwriting.  Hannah's motor skills are very poor, and writing is particularly difficult for her.  I was hoping these videos would provide her with some help and some motivation to improve her handwriting.  I was not disappointed!

The DVD can be used in the computer using the mouse or on the television using a remote control.  I used it on the television because my 7-year-old daughter wanted to watch it along with Hannah.  If you were using it with only one child, though, you might prefer to use the computer.  Either way, the DVD is very easy to use.  The image above will appear on the screen, and the child simply clicks on the letter she needs to work on at that time.  It is not recommended that the child work on more than 1 or 2 letters each time.  I found that it worked much better for Hannah to concentrate on only one letter at a time.  That helped her to really practice and improve on that letter before moving on to the next one.  I didn't want her to be confused or overwhelmed by working on too many letters at one time and not learning to do any of them very well. 

                                                   

Once the child clicks on the letter she is going to practice right then, the teacher, Miss Marnie, demonstrates how to write the letter while saying a little phrase explaining how to form the letter correctly.  The phrases (or chants) are very catchy!  My daughters both enjoyed listening to them.  Because they are so catchy, they are also easy to remember.  I really like that because, even though my younger daughter already knows how to write her letters, she doesn't always form them correctly. 

Also, each section shows various words and gives additional information (like videos) about words that begin with the letter being worked on at that time.  This adds to the interest level, makes the program more fun, and makes it more memorable too.  I'm in favor of anything that causes my children to want to practice their handwriting because this is not typically something my children enjoy working on. 

I chose to review the lowercase letters since those are the letters used most frequently.  Some Crew members reviewed the uppercase letters DVD.  You can see reviews written on both DVDs by other Crew members here. 

I really liked this program and found that it did help both my special-needs child and her "neuro-typical" sister improve their handwriting!  I was so pleased that Hannah actually enjoyed the videos and enjoyed working on her handwriting!  In fact, I think part of the reason her handwriting has always been so poor is that it was just no fun to practice it when her poor motor skills caused it to be so difficult for her.  Although the DVD can't improve her motor skills, it definitely provides the motivation she needs to be willing to practice, practice, practice. 

I don't think I ever would have thought about using a DVD to practice handwriting, but I'm glad I was introduced to this one.  In fact, I will probably buy the uppercase letters DVD later once Hannah has improved some more on her lowercase letters. 

If you want to look at the website, you can do that here.  At this link you can look at the products they have to offer as well as watch a sample video of Miss Marnie teaching how to write the letter p.  You can buy the uppercase or lowercase DVD for $35.00.  If you want to buy both, you can buy them together for $64.99.  There are also sets of their DVDs and workbooks available at discounted prices as well. 

If you have a child who could use some improvement in his or her handwriting, you just might want to look into these DVDs.  I can truly say that they improved my children's motivation for practicing their handwriting as well as improving their actual handwriting.  That, to me, is a great handwriting program!


NOTE:  I received the Alphabet Beats lowercase letters DVD free in exchange for writing this review.  The opinions expressed in the review are my own.