Ages 3–5 · 8 little discoveries
Sounds with Hece
Listen, match, make a rhythm and follow a path. Eight little discoveries with Hece.
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Sounds around us
Match an explicitly taught synthetic sound model to its own replay.
Hece has a bell sound and a knock sound. Your device plays them.
Press the bell button, then the knock button. The bell rings for a long time; the knock is very short.
Now a mystery sound is coming. Which one is it like? You can try each button as many times as you like.
You can change your choice. To build a row, choose a picture first, then an empty place.
Same or different words
Compare two spoken whole-word samples as the same or different.
Listen: cat, cat. The same word, twice. Both pictures are the same.
Now listen: cat, apple. The second word is different! The pictures are different too.
Use the ear button to hear the pair again. Same words: choose the card with matching pictures. Different words: choose the card with different pictures.
Now listen to each card. Collect the cards that say the same word twice.
Listen to the endings
Match familiar spoken words that share a rime in the selected language.
Cat and hat both end in “at”! Their beginnings are different. Words like this rhyme.
Cat and sun do not rhyme: one ends in “at”, the other in “un”.
Dog, log, frog: they all end in “og”! Press each word’s button and listen.
Choose every picture whose word ends the same way. Touch a picture again to take it out.
A beat for each syllable
Represent the number of spoken syllables in a familiar word with counters.
Say “apple” with Hece: ap-ple. Two syllables! One clap for each.
“Sun” is one syllable. “Ba-na-na” has three. A big picture does not mean more syllables.
Listen to the word first. Then say it slowly. Add one star for each syllable.
Now your turn: add the stars for “ba-na-na” and clap!
Hear the beginning
Match the initial speech sound of two explicitly named picture words.
Moon and mouse start with the same sound. Their endings differ, but their beginnings match.
Moon and sun start with different sounds. Both are in the sky, but their first sounds differ.
Sun and sock start with the same sound. Listen to the picture names as often as you like.
Choose the word that starts like the example. If you do not know a word, listen again.
Beginning-sound groups
Sort named picture words into two explicitly modelled initial-sound groups.
Hece has two groups: moon and sun. A new word goes to the group that starts with the same sound.
Mouse and milk go with moon. Sock and soap go with sun. We look at the sound, not the meaning!
Choose the picture first, then its group. If you change your mind, you can move the card.
When you finish, check every card. You can listen to the group words again.
Follow a little path
Follow an ordered open path using large touch or keyboard stops.
Hece’s path has big stops. Start at 1, follow the line and touch the next stop.
The path can go across, down or round a bend. Just follow the next number.
If you touch the wrong stop, start again. You do not lose anything!
The path ends at the last stop. You do not need to go back to the start.
A sign for a sound
Use an explicitly taught sound-to-sign mapping in a new short sequence.
Hece gives each sound a sign. The bell sound is a circle; the knock sound is a square.
The chime sound is a triangle. We chose these signs just for this game.
Listen to the sounds one by one. Choose the sign first, then the numbered place. If a sound repeats, its sign repeats too.
Check the whole row before you finish. You can change a place if you want.