Vocab Buddy is a web application that identifies challenging words and creates corresponding learning interventions for young children to expand their vocabulary development. It consists of 8 sessions of assessments and interventions to best track a child's progress throughout the study. The project is developed with React, Redux Saga as frontend, as well as Firebase as backend to store research data.
The application is currently developed and maintained by Sandbox, Northeastern's student-led software consultancy.
Assessments are the quizzes/tests that a child will take before a set of interventions. They identify skill gaps and vocabulary knowledge for a child. Each assessment consists of more than 10 words, where a child needs to select the best picture that matches the given word.
Interventions are different activities that the application incorporates to help children practice challenging words. Each of the four types of activities focuses on a unique category:
- Definition
- Example
- Context
- Review
As the application is still under development, the goals for this semester are:
- Complete Assessment and Interventions
- Create a dashboard to view current progress
- Support researcher's profile: a place for the researcher to check children's basic information
This is a research project proposed by Dr. Robert Volpe, Dr. Susan Rattan, and Dr. Jenlyn Furey.