TwisterZ "Alphabet Matcher" wins PAL Award, developes Pre-Reading Skills

Alphabet Matcher challenges children to choose a letter and find the five corresponding images that begin with that letter. For example, select the letter “F” and find Fish, Foot, Frog, Flower and Flag. An answer guide is included. Alphabet Matcher engages skills ranging from logic to spelling. It contains three extra sets of rings, covering 24 letters and 120 images!

Sherry Y. Artemenko, Speech-Language Pathologist, has worked with children for over 30 years, in the schools and private practice, building language skills through play. Working and playing with children daily, Sherry has become an expert in evaluating children’s toys, games, and books for their language-building value. She instituted the PAL Award (Play Advances Language), to recognize exceptional examples of these products.

Kids are intrigued by this twistable tube of rings, searching to match up pictures that begin with the same letter. The tube holds six rings—the first rotates to select a letter, while the remaining five rings display six pictures each to match to their beginning letter. Start with “K” and spin the rings to find the picture of a kiwi, kangaroo, key, kettle and kite. When you master matching the six letters on the tube with their corresponding pictures, you simply unscrew the end and slide one of the three additional color-coded sets to start the game over again. My testers kept “trying out” their letter sound as they searched for the corresponding picture. This added practice linked the sound with the picture too. Twisterz’ suggestions for creative language learning variations are most helpful. Mix the rings from different sets and line up pictures by new categories like animals, shapes or food or use your tube of pictures as a story starter. All that fun and learning without batteries—just your brain to keep it going.

Recommended Age: 3 and up