Words Kids Review

Word Kids, developed by Mobile Madness, is a word search game for iPhone/iPod/iPad that also translates English words into French, Polish and Spanish, depending on the setting. It has Easy, Normal and Hard levels of difficulty. English words are hidden vertically, horizontally and diagonally in a traditional-looking grid. When a child locates a word, he or she then highlights it with their finger. Once the English word is highlighted, the translation into the second language is displayed, along with a graphic to go with it.

I was initially interested in this game because my daughter likes word games and the graphics looked really cute. I also liked the fact that this app encourages kids to learn a second language, remembering that she enjoyed learning some French words when she was in the second grade. My daughter, now almost ten, found the word search component to be somewhat challenging, even on the Easy level. I actually ended up helping her quite a bit to locate the words so that she could see the French translations. The app held her interest for a short while, but she soon grew tired of the repetition. She told me that she liked the aspect of learning foreign words, but that she was hoping for more variation as the play continued. She thought that a reward or other kind of incentive for locating words would have been a good idea. She also thought that some kind of quiz at the end of each level would also have made the app more interesting and helped her to remember the French words that were introduced.

I do agree with my daughter that some kind of built-in incentive where a child can unlock new surprises, such as new backgrounds or music, might capture and hold kids' interest for longer periods. Another improvement might be to make the graphics interactive, rather than static. Although my daughter has not played with the app since she first tried it, I do give Words Kids high marks for introducing children to a second language (or third or fourth). It has a simple design, nice graphics and the content is both educational and useful.