Splingo’s Language Universe by The Speech And Language Store LLP – Review and Giveaway

Reviewed by Grace

Splingo’s Language Universe by The Speech And Language Store LLP is a customisable and fun language game app for children to learn nouns, verbs, prepositions and adjectives by following instructions containing these words. From the children’s perspective, the purpose of this game is to help Splingo, an alien to get home. They have to correctly follow Splingo’s directions in order to help him build a rocket, get fuel supply, pick up alien friends, get food and entertainment for the way home.

Customising the app to meet different children’s abilities is easy. You can choose the word type (nouns, verbs, prepositions and adjectives) to focus on and the difficulty level (1,2,3 or 4 main words in an instruction) from the customisation matrix. With a total of 16 combinations available, it may be difficult to know where a new player should begin. The easiest way is to start out with only nouns at Level 1 and then adding the other word types, one at a time. In the higher levels, a few language concepts are incorporated in the instructions simultaneously and may include word types that you didn’t choose. So, I recommend that you add the next level to the game only when all the word types from previous levels have been learnt. An example of an instruction from Level 1 Nouns is ‘Find the sheep’ and one that contains 4 main words is ‘Put the slide next to the little blue chair.’ You can also choose between US or UK voice, with or without the alien voice effect. The option to display the instructions in words can also be found here. This visual cue is especially helpful for children who have weak auditory memory and processing skills.

The gameplay is easy, the child either taps on the correct image or drags the correct item to the correct image depending on the instructions. Tap on Splingo if you want to hear the instructions repeated. Splingo will show a sad face if the child doesn’t get the answer right. He has to try again to get it right before the game will proceed to the next instruction. On the other hand, Splingo becomes ecstatic when the instructions are correctly followed. The alien is a lot of fun to watch and he even yawns when there is no interaction with the player. Each game takes the player through 75 instructions and a certain number of points are awarded for each correct answers depending on the difficulty level and the number of attempts made before getting it right. The app also maintains a list of 5 High Scores which may motivate the players to play more games to improve on their scores.

This app helps to develop the child’s receptive language abilities in a fun and positive way. He learns the meaning of each word with its repeated use in different sentences/instructions in a stress-free environment.  There is no time limit to complete the game and you can even save the incomplete game so that you can return to where the child stopped the next time.  It also helps that a single game is broken up into 5 segments corresponding to Splingo’s stopover at 4 planets before reaching home. The short animations in between these segments tells a child how far he is from his destination and knowing where he is headed to keeps him going. This game is no longer just about language practices but it’s a purposeful game and that alone engages a child.

Wishlist
1) No repeated instructions in a single game.
2) Ability to choose which specific nouns/verbs/prepositions/adjectives to work on in a game.
3) A list of instructions which were wrongly answered at the first attempt, that can be emailed out at the end of a game. I find this information much more valuable than having the scoring system.

Overall, Splingo’s Language Universe is very affordable app given the amount of content it delivers. It is an engaging app for practicing listening comprehension, auditory memory and processing skills while learning important language concepts and vocabulary. Watch this video to see some examples of Splingo’s instructions.

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Splingo's Language Universe by The Speech And Language Store LLP Category: Education, Games, Kids, Educational Requirements: Compatible with all Size: 99.74 MB

$2.99USD

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Giveaway

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Grace

Grace is a mother of 4 children aged from 6 to 18 years. She checks the daily free apps listing and is most excited to share good app finds. Living in fast-paced education-obsessed Singapore, Grace recharges her energy by watching K drama on the iPad (there are apps for that too!)

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You can email me direct at grace(at)theimums.com