It is aimed at the 5-14 age range and is a carefully constructed computer program that matches a child's data against checklists for 15 SpLDs to help identify those which seem to be most prominent. This resource will support even the newest of teachers in producing clearly targeted word and sentence level activities for all children. Lesson ideas are included on the CD.Special Needs Assessment ProfileHodder MurrayKS1, KS2, KS3SNAP is a "wide angle" and "in-depth" diagnostic resource (not a test) for use by a Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) or special needs learning support assistant. Four levels of complexity allow the teacher to decide which aspects of the program they wish to introduce to their class as you can add or delete functions from the tool bar.Matchword Kingscourt/McGraw-HillKS1, KS2, KS3Matchword is a literacy resource-creating package. It combines resource manufacturing tools on CD with a book to help teachers make new word and sentence level activity resources tailored to children's individual needs.There are over 19,000 words and 500 pictures that can be arranged in 175 activities and the package even includes some Spanish vocabulary. It provides a systematic and comprehensive overview of a child's specific learning difficulties (SpLDs). The range of resources that can be made varies from simple matching cards for games like Bingo and Go Fish, to more complex activities like word searches and crosswords.

This feature is also useful to extend their vocabulary, through the picture prompts which accompany new words, and they can use them to illustrate written work too.A speech tool means children can hear their written words spoken aloud by the computer. This aids inclusion of special needs pupils because hearing what they have written gives them a feeling of achievement as well as helping them correct mistakes. It includes a good collection of curriculum-relevant words and pictures that can be easily accessed by pupils. Key Key Resource titleSoftware publisherRecommended age group: KS1, KS2 = Key Stage 1, 2 etc.Talking First Word RMFoundation, KS1, KS2Talking First Word is, as it suggests, a talking word-processor program.

If that change is managed in small enough steps to allow for adequate assessment and to enable schools' IT systems to keep up, it's hard not to see it as a positive development. It might even give the child with bad handwriting a helping hand - computer screens can magnify text, making it easier for the markers to disentangle. For the moment, though, if you think your child's exam is being computer-marked, try and persuade them not to use what examiners call "fancy multicoloured pens". The scanners pick up old-fashioned blue and black much more easily. So there will still be ink-blotted fingers and chewed biros this year - nothing changes that fast.education independent.co.uk.

"They can actually see the flower grow - it's a virtual world, an enticing display that's very motivational."Speed is another benefit of e-systems. "If people think it's all about multiple-choice that's not helpful. It is sometimes that way in the US, but that's because they started out with more multiple-choice on paper, and transferred it on line."He thinks e-assessment will mean a richer exam diet: not only will there be questions where essays are required, but interactive and click-and-drag techniques will offer more colourful, stimulating and complex scenarios than paper ever could."We've been looking at science experiments in which nine-year-olds try to grow the world's tallest sunflower using either Plant Food A or B," he says. Already, says Ripley, e-assessed vocational qualifications are showing how customers will vote with their feet, or at least their PCs, for the schedule they want. City and Guilds qualifications offered on line are far more popular on Saturdays, and the favourite month for people to take them has turned out to be March.The QCA envisages that, by 2009, e-assessment will become normal for thousands of school students each year. If a school chose not to take an exam in May when half its pupils suffered from hay fever, it would not have to do so. A reform of the system whereby universities accept students on predicted, rather than actual, grades, would then become hard to oppose.