The right stuff for young writers.(seven word processors for children) (Software Review)(Evaluation)

A diverse collection of programs to develop kid's written expression

The latest crop of word processors for the younger set provides playful opportunities for oral, written, and graphic expression. Exciting new features include story-starter ideas; colorful clip art; and even tools for electronic presentations, complete with sound effects and music.

As the rifles below demonstrate, outfitting a word processor with art tools doesn't diminish the importance of writing. Instead, it gives youngsters additional ways to express themselves when putting words on paper.

FOR EARLY ELEMENTARY

Multimedia creativity. Kid Works Deluxe (Davidson) combines a simple text editor with drawing tools and story-starter themes for poetry, greeting cards, journals, letters, and storybooks. Children begin by selecting one of 50 colorful book-cover designs. When they' re ready to write, they can either type their own text or choose images to represent words from a library of more than 450 "stickers." Kids can change story words to sticker pictures, and sticker pictures back to-words, simply by clicking a button.

Kids can hear their stories read aloud by one of six robotic voices (a speech editor lets grown-ups alter the way a word is pronounced) or record their own narration. A "grease pencil" tool lets teachers mark a page of text with suggestions and comments; when the tool is deactivated, the child's text and illustrations remain untouched.

Stories may be presented on-screen, printed, or saved to disk. If children save their stories to disk as a Player file, others who do not own a copy of the program can still view the work. A Send Story command allows youngsters to transmit their stories to a friend over the Internet. While the program's graphical interface has no labels for click-on icons, and its no-frills text editor lacks a spell checker, Kid Works Deluxe does a great job of motivating expressive writing.