App: Stellar Speller
Developer: KAG
Genres: Education

Stellar Speller provides spelling practice for children from 3rd grade up through 8th grade in a colorful, refined, and uncomplicated format. A version of Stellar Speller with additional features is currently widely used in schools throughout the United States. It provides specific spelling practice for many different types of diphthong and digraph word combinations. It can also provide general spelling quizzes comprised of strategically grouped words for different age groups ranging from 8 to 12 years old. The word groups are designed both to cover specific types of letter combinations as well as word groups designed to cover the full range of spelling characteristics. 

There are no advertising distractions or cluttered graphics, and sound distractions are kept to a minimum. The app concentrates on providing spelling practice, not animated graphic entertainment. The Mac OS X  system voice Alex is the default voice used for dictation. However, numerous additional Mac system voices can be added. If the voices you select are not already installed on your Mac, you can add the additional voices by going to "System Preferences", then "Dictation & Speech",  and then clicking "customize."  Stellar Speller can pronounce any word in up to nine different voices to provide a user selected variety of accents and pronunciations. Since computer generated voices are used, Stellar Speller is able to provide thousands of words in many different word groupings to practice spelling.

Release notes:
Adds the "Multi-Voice" feature that is enabled in the classroom version. Multi-Voice allows users to choose up to 9 different voices to speak each spelling word. That produces different accents for the same words, both giving an advanced level of pronunciation as well as encouraging better listening skills on the part of children using the program. Using all 9 voices for each word is not encouraged, except occasionally for fun. The App is most effective when the 3 or 4 different voices that best suit the ear of the student are chosen. 
REMEMBER: If Stellar Speller alerts you that the voices you select are not already installed on your Mac, you can add the additional voices by going to "System Preferences", then "Dictation & Speech",  and then clicking "customize." Apple does not charge for the additional or upgraded sounds.