App Review - ABC MULTILINGO

ABC MULTILINGO
Language Learning App for Pre-schoolers

Review

Language proficiency is important today with travel starting young and global experiences becoming an integral part of growing up. Knowing multiple languages and speaking them comfortably help the dynamic process and build confidence. As children begin to recognise faces, places, things and their differences, they begin to imbibe nuances in speech and phonetics as well. Educators believe that multi-lingual children have a cognitive edge over others and tend to be better adjusted socially and emotionally.

Though language skills are a natural process of development, today, children are exposed to a much wider spectrum of languages at a very young age – it is essential that teachers and parents provide the right tools, at the right time, to hone their natural abilities so that the static of multiculturalism serves to homogenise, rather than ruffle the learning experience. Being a hands-on mum, I personally prefer outdoor and inventive play and do not subscribe to children being glued to screens for long. But we do live in a technologically charged world and living spaces come with scarce outdoors. Screen-time is the inevitable play-time.

Fortunately, there are some savvy aps in the market to make screen-time worthy and I found that ABC MultiLingo by Gurusqueaks stands out as a sensitively designed, high-quality international product, beautifully packaged for tender pre-schoolers and early learners.

12 languages

Your child learns the English alphabet, letter by letter, co-relating its use in everyday activity, through cartoons and realistic pictures of familiar objects. But as we are a multi-cultural society, it is important to know what these objects are commonly referred to as in our mother-tongues and other languages as well. With 12 languages to choose from, ABC MultiLingo is perfect for the little linguist in the making.

Native diction
Is it toh-maah-toh or toh-may-toh? An acquired language comes with such uncertainties but your child will know better because each of the 78 words featured in ABC MultiLingo is articulated by native speakers. Your child will learn the most widely accepted native pronunciation and speak it naturally.

Three-level fun-filled gaming

We all know how difficult it is to get a toddler to sit still for more than a few moments. And for parents like myself who do not believe in using the iPad or telly to keep a child ‘occupied’, ABC MultiLingo’s fun, theme-based three-tier game module takes little minds through an entertaining world of words, fun and entertainment. They are engaged with colourful pages set to peppy music so that they will not even realise when study time comes and goes. While they enjoy the singing, dancing and playing, you will notice them spouting new words and speaking like little aces, thanks to balanced cognition and robust retention. Oh! And if you want to be part of this learning process as well, just switch off the background voice and let the music accompany your teaching. The vivid pages are easy to shift back and forth and you will have your share of parent-child time as well. This feature (among many others) also makes it apt for use in pre-schools and other educational establishments. 

Easy does it

ABC MultiLingo can be easily downloaded via in-app purchases off App Store and Google Play. It comes with various options and is easy to navigate, has an engrossing interface with catchy page layouts, eye-friendly colouring and a very clever transliteration option that doubles up as a ready reckoner between English and the other 11 languages offered. How else do you think I know that apple, ‘simply said’ in Spanish, is manzana? 

And did I mention that the first three letters of all languages can be downloaded for free? Well, though this app is very economically priced, it is still always good to be able to take a test drive before buying.

COPPA compliant
Apart from design and quality, ABC MultiLingo wins on safety as well. Compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, this language-learning app will safely navigate your child’s curiosity without unwelcome plug-ins, ads, rating requests or inappropriate content. So, when I do need to leave my child alone for a few moments with this app open, I can breathe easy and get myself a cuppa tea.

Whodunit
The brains and brawn behind this learning app, Gurusqueaks, is powered by well-respected media veterans. This inspires the confidence that ABC MultiLingo will become more and more engaging with every new release. 

Aye or Nay

Aye! ABC MultiLingo gets my un-reserved ‘happy mommy vote’. 

_________________
Also published in the May edition of Emirates Parent Plus.