FAQs for Playing Sky Village
What can my child gain by playing Sky Village?
Sky Village:
It is an edutainment game – it is fun and makes learning fun.
It requires no tutor or supervision to play the game and learn, unless the child is very young.
The parent, tutor, teacher can acquire access to the game player’s analytics.
It is solution-oriented... teaches how to read abstract words, punctuation marks, and symbols that cause most of a child’s reading disability symptoms.
It is designed to work with and provide tools for the sensory learning style of the young child.
It aids in correcting disability reading symptoms; and increases fluidity and comprehension.
It builds self-confidence and the joy of reading.
It is suitable for any child in K-5 grades; and anyone who reads below 5th grade level, regardless of age.
When will my child’s reading disability symptoms disappear?
Common Reading Disability Symptoms include stumble, hesitate, insert word, omit word, replace word, misread a word, skip line(s), go blank.
Abstract Word(s) - this term includes all alphabet letters, abstract words, numbers, and punctuation marks - can cause confusion when met in a written text; and they are the source, most often, of reading disability symptoms.
All children differ in their progress to reading fluidly with comprehension.
Some start to read more fluidly after mastering the Alphabet letters and the first 8 Spell Words; others need to master the Alphabet, punctuation marks, and more Spell Words before they begin to read fluidly.
Everyone has to master ALL upper- and lower-case alphabet letters, numbers, punctuation marks, and abstract words to gain reading mastery of these words ... no exceptions.
There is no way to verify which of the all the commonly used Abstract Word(s) will always cause a reading disability symptom. So, everyone must master all Abstract Word(s).
What is The Spot and The Mind’s Eye?
The Mind’s Eye sees what you think, imagine, dream, feel, and sense about the outer world and inner world.
When the Mind’s Eye does not recognize an object, a written word, symbol, it can rapidly and automatically shift viewing position. This makes consistent perception of letters, words, and symbols impossible.
“The Spot” is the name of the location, an imaginary spot (a Bindu or point), that is a few inches above the center of the top of the head. It is the spot where the Mind’s Eye needs to be positioned consistently to have consistent perception of words and symbols when reading.
Positioning the Mind’s Eye on The Spot is taught and reinforced throughout the game.
Managing the Mind’s Eye progressively builds neural pathways as the player plays the game.
“Go to The Spot” means check to see that your Mind’s Eye is located 3 to 5 inches above the center of your head before you read a word, sentence, or story, and then continue with the game.
What is a Spell Word?
Each of the Abstract Word(s) become Spell Words, called “Spells” in the game, to master in the Sky Village Games.
Once mastered, the Spell words unlock reading success and adventures.
What is a Mantra?
The Mantra for a Spell gives the 3 parts of the Spell Word: what it Looks like, Sounds like, and Means; and in addition, example sentences using the spell word are given with an explanation of how each sentence uses the Spell Word correctly according to its definition.
When the Mantra for a Spell is mastered, the player applies the Mantra to identify sentences where the Spell Word is correctly used, and to identify sentences where the word is incorrectly used.
If a player cannot correctly identify sentences with the correct use of the Spell, they are given options to either return to mastering the Mantra, Go to The Spot, take a break to let their mind relax from the stress of learning, play distraction and entertainment games, and then return to the sentence exercise once more to show their mastery of the Spell word.
Once the 3 parts of the Mantra of a Spell are consistently viewed by the Mind’s Eye in the brain of the player, the player can read the Spell Word fluidly with comprehension every time it appears in text.
What is a 3-D Thinker?
A child who sees the big picture, instead of the parts of the picture, relies on the input of their senses to tell them about their inner and outer worlds. We also call them 3-D Learners.
Most children start out as 3-D thinkers. They learn about the world by their sensory experiences – what they see, hear, taste, smell, touch, and sense.
In the brain of those individuals who break a picture or words into their parts and then resynthesize them into a concept, and in the brain of those who rely on their senses to give them a whole picture, the initial input (thought, what is seen and heard, experience, imagination) is processed by a mixture of both kinds of brain pathways before it becomes know by the conscious mind.
Written Abstract Words(s), all written symbols are very difficult for 3-D Learners to learn to read because the words and symbols give them no meaning that can be sensed by sight, sound, taste, smell, motion, or touch.
As the brain of a child matures, usually it shifts over for 35-40% of the population to thinking logically, taking apart input, recognizing it, and putting it back together in a meaningful way, and becomes more able to master written abstract symbols of all kinds.
Not all children make the shift to predominantly thinking in words and concepts, and remain dependent on their sensory input to guide them in recognizing written words and symbols. Today, most of these children are labelled dyslexic.
The stabilization of the Mind’s Eye on The Spot is essential for stabilizing perception of written letters, words and symbols, so the child can learn to read.
Mastery of Abstract Words enables the 3-D thinker to learn to read fluidly and with comprehension. Over 50% of their text material read in all 6 years of elementary school (grades K-5) is made of abstract words and symbols.
Phonics and Phonemic Awareness training in K-5 requires the 3-D learner to use their weakest (least available) brain lead-function of learning to master all the abstract words and symbols
The whole language approach is more like the big-picture thinking style of the 3-D learner and makes it easier to start to learn to read
The Role of Stress in Learning
Excess or intense stress derails good brain integration. As the brain dis-integrates, the person cannot think clearly and the person cannot perform optimally.
Stress can come from many sources – a few are: mental function, emotional state, attitude, sources of confusion, peer pressure, parent pressure, teacher pressure, test-performance pressure, fatigue, hunger, lack of sufficient sleep, dehydration, or a Mind’s Eye that is not located on The Spot.
What stresses one person into brain dis-integration may not affect another person’s brain integration. And, at different times, the same person may experience brain-disintegration due to different amounts and kinds of stressors.
Stress (energizing stimulation) and activities that motivate better brain function are ideal.
The Adaptive Content Casting
™ technology of the game adjusts the speed of the player’s progress through the game to pass along those having easy success mastering the Spells and the Adventures, and to help encourage and reduce the stress on those who are slower in working to master the Spells and read the Adventures.
Stress-Breaks and stress-reduction activities are built into the Sky Village app to refresh the player’s brain while and after learning new material. These stress breaks promote the re-integration of the brain.
The Reading Adventures – The Wizard’s Tales
How does a player get to go on an adventure?
Mastery of Spell Words opens access to reading adventures and other fun activities.
Spell Words, concrete words, and new words can be found in the Adventures. A Glossary will be available, in the second quarter of 2022, for the player to learn the meaning of an unfamiliar word in a story.
The Adventures are divided into sections with sentences at the end of each section to challenge the level of comprehension of what has been read.
If comprehension is lacking, the player can reread the section again, take a stress-release break, or Go to The Spot, and return to rereading the section.
Reading the Adventures stimulates the imagination of the player, and lightens the heart and mind with the fun of adventure – having fun helps to reduce reading stress.
What can a Player customize in the game?
The child can customize the player Avatar. Gender, skin tones, eyes, hair styles, outfits, and more can be customized. This is a feature that is available currently.
How many Spells must be mastered before going on an Adventure?
This depends on the adventure. Typically, it’s 2 to 3 spells per adventure.
What can a parent do to help their child play Sky Village?
The child will probably be more attuned to how to play the game right away than the parents! Let your child teach you how to move through the game.
Advice to parents: Since there is reading involved during playing the game, it is possible that children may require parents’ help with certain words or sentences. This, we hope, will coax the child to run up to the parent. Parents are requested to help their child at such moments.
How much time is ideal for playing Sky Village each day?
Sky Village can be played anywhere on a mobile device and Wi-Fi are available.
Allow your child to play as long as they desire to play Sky Village.
Digital Technologies Used in the Game
As a mobile product, the game is entirely digital, naturally. Some of the technologies that are not currently present, but will come online in the near future would have Augmented Reality, sensing movements made with the phone (such as pitching, rolling, and more), algorithms to measure the child’s progress of learning the Spells, and more.
The Alphabet Mastery Game™ App and the Dot-Dash-Com-Rhythm™ (Punctuation) App will become available soon after Sky Village app is released to the public.
You will be alerted when updates are available to improve your playing of Sky Village.