This is a suite of five programs developed by M.E.P. for use in developing skills in reading, sentence construction, description and spatial awareness. My first comment has nothing to do with the program, but on the copyright note on the first page of the handbook: "The program may only be copied by the original purchaser for use within the purchaser's school, training centre or home." While appreciating that it is almost essential to copy the master programs onto other discs in order to create new scenes, this wording is a significant step in the right direction as far as copyright is concerned. Hopefully other publishers will follow suit.

BOOK 1. The initial menu provides options for selecting the relationship for which the exercises are to be provided, e.g. near, next, far, away, etc and a record is kept of the child's responses. The program presents pictures containing two or more parts with a table of words underneath. The child is required to select words from this table to compose a sentence describing the picture. Operation is simple using SPACEBAR and RETURN key.

If the first attempt is incorrect, a second try is allowed; if this is wrong, the correct sentence will be displayed for the child to copy. The graphics are very good and would be motivating, and the vocabulary used would fit in with the early stages of most reading schemes.

BOOKS 2 and 4 are designed for use in creating scenes and word tables for use in BOOKS 3 and 5 respectively. While these would be for teacher use in most infant classes, older children and/or young computer buffs will enjoy creating their own scenes, and for them the program offers useful experiences in spatial awareness.

In BOOK 2 the picture is created before the sentence, in BOOK 4 the reverse happens. The programs allow the construction of up to 15 scenes composed of up to five characters chosen from a table of 12. In the case of four of the pictures - boy, girl, and two cars - there is a very clever large or small scale option.

The creation is very easily achieved as a result of the thirteen screen positions and, depending on the size of the character, some overlap to give the impression of one object being behind another. Unfortunately, sentences are limited to nine words/38 characters, but you can type in a different arrangement of the same words if this is appropriate.

BOOKS 3 and 5 work in a similar way to BOOK 1, except that in BOOK 5 the text appears before the picture. A report and text printout facility are available, the latter allowing close type, half or full-page spacing. The last two allow the child to add pictures in the spaces above the sentences.

Reception class teachers will regret the fact that the program doesn't offer double-height text which is more appropriate for youngsters just starting to read and I would consider it essential if it is used as suggested for group work. Likewise, I would have liked a printout option for the drawings, as this would give the children the chance to create their own sentences on the scenes away from the computer.

While the twelve pictures give a large number of combinations, hopefully, it might be possible to extend the options by producing alternative sets.

This is a program which should find its way into all infants' schools.

P.S. Do make a back-up copy as suggested - the illustrative examples for Books 3 and 5 won't load with the write protect label in situ!