First Words: Learn to Talk

A picture, and the word for it - said out loud. Eleven languages: English, Italian, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Mandarin, Dutch, Swedish, Russian and Ukrainian. First Words shows a photograph - an animal, a vehicle, something to eat, something to wear - and says its name in the language your child is learning. Beside it sits the same word in the other ten. Touch the picture to hear it again; the amber button plays the animal itself, or the engine, where the word has one. Then there is the game. A word is spoken, three pictures are offered, and the child looks for the one it belongs to. Ten questions to a round, a star for each one found. 180 words in sixteen groups - six of animals, from pets to what lives in the sea, six of vehicles, from two wheels to the biggest machines there are, three of food, from fruit to what is on the table, and one of clothes. Photographs rather than drawings, because a child who has seen a tractor should recognise this one. One voice to each language, warm and unhurried - not the flat reading a phone gives. Two words in every group are free, in whichever of the eleven languages you choose, so you can see what the app does before deciding. Everything else opens with a single payment: no subscription, no adverts, no account, nothing to sign up for and nothing that asks a child for anything.