1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an educational device for developing and improving vocabulary and spelling skills. More particularly, the present invention relates to an educational device in the form of one or more boards bearing different sets of pictures of individual animals or objects, the spelled names of the animals or objects adjacent to the respective pictures, and associated spaces for receiving appropriate letter tiles, along with a set of letter tiles that are adapted to be positioned by a user within appropriate ones of the spaces to properly spell the name of the animal or object, and thereby develop and improve the user's vocabulary skills and spelling facility.
2. Description of the Related Art
Learning tools for stimulating the educational development of children and for supplementing and reinforcing learning developed through organized educational activities, such as nursery or pre-schools, and the like, have been in great demand over the years by parents. In response to that demand a number of different devices have been developed in the past in an attempt to provide an interesting and challenging way to develop a child's vocabulary, as well as his or her ability to spell correctly. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 1,428,456, which issued on Sep. 5, 1922, to Walter Stranders, there is disclosed an educational apparatus in the form of a panel bearing an illustration of an object, such as an animal, the panel including a series of adjacent, aligned strips of different colors that extend along the bottom edge of the panel. Accompanying the panel is a series of smaller, letter plates, each letter plate bearing a single letter forming part of the name of the object. Each letter plate includes a colored strip above the letter and along the uppermost edge of the plate. The colored strips associated with particular letters correspond in color with the colored strips along the bottom edge of the panel, to thereby permit the user to associate a given letter plate with a particular position along the bottom edge of the panel, so that the user can see the name of the object that is depicted in the illustration and its proper spelling.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,183,471, which issued May 28, 1974, to Clarence T. Dean, III, there is shown a spelling toy in the form of a spelling board having horizontally-extending colored strips divided into a series of adjacent colored squares of the same color, onto which correspondingly colored numerical digits and alphabetical characters are adapted to be positioned. A series of vertical columns are defined by horizontally spaced vertical lines, and each column is headed with a number. The numeral digits and alphabetical characters each also carry on their surface a number that corresponds with the number of the column in which the digit or character is to be positioned. The coloration of the numerical digits and alphabetical characters, together with their columnar indication, assists and facilitates a child's placing the character or digit in the proper position on the board to spell a word. No illustrations are provided to identify the object that the word identifies.
Another form of spelling teaching aid is disclosed in United Kingdom Patent No. 1,021,094, which was published on Feb. 23, 1966, and which discloses a base member in the form of a rectangular element having a number of smaller, rectangular-shaped, aligned recesses. A preprinted panel is placed over the surface of the base member and is positioned by means of several positioning holes at corners of the panel, each positioning hole adapted to mate with a similar number of upstanding positioning pegs carried by the base member. Each preprinted panel includes several illustrations, each illustration showing a separate object, and next to each illustration are a number of groups of circular apertures or perforations, each group of perforations arranged in a different, predetermined pattern. Small, square blocks or tiles are also provided, each tile having a letter on one major surface and a number of outwardly extending pegs arranged in a predetermined pattern on the opposite major surface. Each tile is adapted to be positioned on a panel so that the pegs of the tile engage corresponding perforations in the panel, to thereby ensure that the letter tiles are properly positioned to spell the word that corresponds with the object illustrated. The device relies principally upon a child's spatial perception of the grouping of pegs and perforations, and his or her manipulative skill in properly positioning tiles on the preprinted panels.
Although the prior art devices each have some degree of educational merit, they each have their limitations. Moreover, the prior art devices described briefly above do not clearly demonstrate the fact that a single group of letters can form different words, to thereby challenge and stimulate a child to explore the world of words.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved educational device for developing vocabulary and spelling skills, one that is of simple construction, that is adaptable for use over a wide age range, and that permits the user to arrange a group of letters to form one word, and then to rearrange those letters to form a new and different word.