Mom’s Choice Awards is excited to announce another post in our interview series where we chat with the inventors, designers, publishers, and others behind some of our favorite family-friendly products.
Hello, Mom’s Choice readers! Thank you for joining us for another part of our interview series, we hope this finds you well. For this interview, we had the pleasure of interviewing Thomas Webber, creator of the Mom’s Choice Award-winning website, Super Duper Digital Library. Super Duper Digital Library is a website that provides hundreds of standards-based learning resources with thousands of activities for parents and educators to use during distance and hybrid/blended learning with children ages 3-12. Each of the resources provided by Super Duper Digital Library target a specific skill, such as basic concepts, literacy, grammar, social-emotional skills, critical thinking, sequencing, autism, listening, early skills, articulation, phonemic awareness, memory, fine and gross motor skills, sensory integration, phonics, reading, and more. Read on to find out more about Super Duper Digital Library and its creator, Thomas Webber!
MCA: Hi Thomas! I’d first like to congratulate you on your Mom’s Choice Award for Super Duper Digital Library! This digital library is an essential tool for any parent hoping to help their child build their literacy skills with at-home learning. Can we start the interview by finding out a little bit of background about yourself?
Thomas Webber at a showcase for Super Duper Digital Library.
Thomas: I am the chairman, CEO, and co-owner of Super Duper Publications. I received my bachelor’s degree in American Studies in 1975 from the University of Notre Dame, and a Doctorate of Law from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1981. I am a member of the South Carolina Bar Association and American Association of Trial Lawyers. During my solo law practice in Greenville, South Carolina (1982-1999), I also published The Compendium, a case law summary service of all South Carolina Supreme Court and Court of Appeals appellate decisions. I have authored, edited, and supervised the creation of many of Super Duper’s® special needs educational materials and assessments.
In my personal life, I like to travel all over the world; stay in the oldest parts of cities; read; volunteer; look for funny happenings around me; watch movies (mysteries, action, documentaries, comedies, historical fiction); relax at Happy Hour; watch Notre Dame football and Boston Red Sox baseball; visit with friends and family; eat mint choc-chip ice cream, and drink coffee 24 hours a day.
MCA: As I always say. there’s no such thing as too much coffee! As I said before Super Duper Digital Library is an essential tool, especially during these challenging and uncertain times surrounding at-home learning. What needs were you trying to fill when you created Super Duper Digital Library?
Thomas: Super Duper created its Digital Library when the COVID-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, to meet the pressing demand for resources to assist parents and educators in helping special needs students and those in grades PreK-5 learn multiple skills dealing with language acquisition, memory, literacy, reading, social-emotional learning, and more.
In particular, those adults working with autistic, learning disabled, and speech-language delayed students faced a huge challenge. All teachers and therapists had to find ways IMMEDIATELY to support their students’ educational needs without having the physical resources they had previously relied upon.
MCA: Super Duper Digital Library could have not have come at a more appropriate time and I know there are a lot of thankful parents for it. What was the research that went behind the Super Duper Digital Library‘s unique features?
Thomas: Since 1986, Super Duper has been making creative, fun, hands-on educational materials for young children. Its HearBuilder Foundational Learning Program is the only online researched-based resource that teaches four basic skills early skills: following directions, sequencing, phonological awareness, and auditory memory with listening comprehension. The SD Digital Library currently has hundreds of digital products with over 42,000 cards, workbook pages, and game boards.
Thomas Webber at a charity for fighting hunger.
MCA: We know Super Duper Digital Library is a great tool for parents and children, but can you elaborate more on who exactly Super Duper Digital Library was created for?
Thomas: The Digital Library was created for everyone who helps young children learn – parents, teachers, speech-language pathologists, special educators, early childhood, learning disabled, and Head Start professionals, school psychologists, and occupational therapists.
MCA: What kind of feedback for Super Duper Digital Library have you experienced?
Thomas: The Library has been extremely popular. We have thousands of subscribers and invite feedback so we can constantly improve it. Our Reviews section on the library home page has some of the comments we have received. https://www.superduperinc.com/library/reviews.aspx
MCA: What does the future look like for Super Duper Digital Library?
Thomas: Soon, children will be able to learn with our very popular (and much requested) Chipper Chat games. Then we will be adding MagneTalk games, Secret Decoder Card Decks, and fun board games like Pirate Talk and Granny’s Candies.
MCA: That sounds very exciting, please keep us posted!
You can learn more about Thomas Webber and his award-winning website, Super Duper Digital Library by visiting his MCA Shop pages.
