App Review: i Learn With Boing: Ocean Adventures! - Vocabulary, Sentence Formation, and Listening Comprehension

Details

i Learn With Boing: Ocean Adventures is an interactive educational and game app that focuses on teaching children about vocabulary, sentence formation, and listening comprehension. This is the latest in the series of educational apps from Tribal Nova and focuses on communication and language development.

Children can choose from three different games: “Vocabulary”, “Sentence Formation”, and “Listening Comprehension”. In “Vocabulary”, the child is tasked to find specific items which they need to look for in a scavenger hunt type game beneath the ocean. They need to look behind rocks, seaweed or inside boats to find the items and give them to the octopus. As they play, they level up and get rewards as they learn about more things that will encounter in real life.

“Sentence Formation” is a game where users are asked to form a sentence using the icons given to them and dragging them into the circles provided. These bubble icons and circles are color coded to help children form the correct sentence structure (ex. Nouns are blue and verbs are pink, etc.). Once they have formed the correct sentence, the app plays a short animation of the sentence while the narrator reads it aloud. As they level up, extra circles and bubble icons appear to make more complex sentence structures and to have more choices.

“Listening Comprehension” is a game where different ocean-themes objects are given on the screen like rocks, seaweeds, corals, etc. with small circles around them. The narrator asks the users to listen carefully and place the clown fish, for example, in a certain place. Ex. “Put the clown fish in front of the seaweed.” The child will then have to tap the specific circle around the seaweed which corresponds to what the narrator is asking. This is a unique activity which I find develops important skills in a child.

Aside from the games and theme that children will love, parents and teachers will find something in this app that they will appreciate – progress tracking. The app contains a “parent zone” where the progress, statistics, and rewards of multiple users are tracked and summarized for their use.

What iHeartThisApp Liked

Although the app has a cute theme and fun games, I like that it is still very learning-centric. The games are designed to be primarily for learning. The scavenger hunt type vocabulary game allows children to associate the spoken word to common visual representations of everyday things.

The sentence formation game teaches children about the basic sentence parts and structures (ex. Noun-verb-noun). It also allows them to be creative as it gives an extra choice for children to combine things that they like. They are also rewarded by the animation where they learn further to associate the words with their corresponding visual representation.

In listening comprehension, the app increases children’s attention and promotes taking the time to understand instructions in a time when everything is fast paced. These skills will definitely help them excel as they grow older.

Aside from these educational games, all other elements help to create a complete learning experience. The graphics and visuals are well art-directed, the menus, buttons, and layout are simple and intuitive, the narrator’s voice in giving directions and asking questions is clear and well enunciated.

Overall

i Learn With Boing: Ocean Adventures! is an very effective app in language development in children. It teaches and hones important skills in relation to vocabulary, sentence formation, and listening comprehension. With its fun and interactive games and comprehensive progress tracking, this is definitely an app that both children and parents will greatly appreciate.