Dr. Jeannine Herron did not set out to be a software developer. However, it became clear as she and her colleagues investigated the uses of technology in education, that existing software did not fulfill the company's vision of how computers could help children learn to read and write. Writing is probably the most difficult task elementary students face. Dr. Jeannine Herron and her team became intrigued by the notion that if children could learn to keyboard and use a word-processor in first grade, they could use the computer as a tool for writing all the way through their elementary years and beyond.
All children have to do is learn a finger stroke for every speech sound.
Another guiding principal was to make the program engaging and fun for children. A third was to integrate phonics and keyboarding with whole language activities. Safety nets were built in for those children who have difficulty with language tasks or who are learning English as a second language. Every time they sound out a word, they associate each sound with a finger, press the key, see the letter appear, and hear the computer say the sound. They make those associations thousands of times as they progress through the adventure.