Each KidSpeak language includes 12 printable activities and projects to reinforce the language learning.
KidSpeak was designed and developed by leading educators to take advantage of the intuitive language learning abilities of grade school children. KidSpeak's innovative award-winning approach has no drills, tests or anything unpleasant. Children simply look forward to "playing" with their animated friends every day, while you know they are "learning".
Awards
* New York Festival's Interactive Multimedia Competition for the Best Educational/Instructional Programs produced for use in Schools
* K-12 Educational CD-ROM award at the 4th Annual International Digital Media Awards
"The designers have achieved their aim of making the program fun, challenging, absorbing and entertaining" - The Age, November 1997
It really works! Your child will build a solid foreign language foundation using the successful immersion approach preferred by educators. Each language is hosted by a fun cartoon "friend" and his or her playful pet who use only the language being taught. Your child simply points and clicks.
With KidSpeak, your child will automatically learn correct pronunciation, alphabet and word recognition, simple sentence structure, plural and singular forms, numbers, simple addition and subtraction, how to tell time, and much more.
The Sooner A Child Starts Learning A New Language The Better. Here's Why:
As a parent, if you want your child to take advantage of the language-learning "window of opportunity", you must take an active role. There is no better tool than your computer and KidSpeak to start your child on a second language. With KidSpeak, your child can interact with authentic foreign language sounds, words and phrases, games, puzzles, and songs. If you can place a disc in your computer's CD-ROM drive, that's all you need to know to get your child off and running in another language.
KidSpeak Spanish French German Italian Japanese Hebrew is a double CD-ROM featuring six comprehensive language programs. It is fun and easy to use and will help multilingual children practice a choice of different languages through a range of games, songs, and puzzles.
Each of the different language programs is an immersion program, so all the instructions are in the chosen language. For this reason, younger children who are not so confident with the basics of the language may need adult support. More confident children will quickly pick up what they are expected to do and will be able to work independently through the games. There is also a very useful help option which explains the choices of games in English.
Having chosen the language that they wish to work on, children can then play a range of games and listen to songs to consolidate the vocabulary that has been introduced. Most of the games can be played at three levels of difficulty. The games include activities such as identifying fruit, colouring fruit appropriately, pairs games with pictures and words, identifying animals, ordering pictures, setting given times on clocks, and putting objects into a backpack. A wide range of vocabulary is consolidated, such as numbers, the alphabet, animals, objects, times, colours, fruits and vegetables, the weather, transport and leisure activities. A set of online activities, which can be printed out, will also help to review what children have learned.
KidSpeak Spanish French German Italian Japanese Hebrew would be a very useful buy for children ages 5 to 12 who are multilingual or who are learning a range of languages at school. It is also ideal for a parent who wants to introduce their child to a new language. --Amanda York
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0
The French Section is Really Good:
My review makes reference to the French language section ( I have not used the other ones) I have a 7 year old, who enjoys this software a lot. I love that the sound quality is very good, and the pronuncioation is perfect. There is plenty of vocabulary to practice. I think this is a really good complement to any language program. I believe that both,beginners and more advanced students 6-10 would enjoy and benefit from it. Featured vocabulary: numbers, colors, animals, days, months, weather,... more info
Wasn't Helpful:
We were moving to Japan and I was looking for computer software to get my kids (age 11 and 8) started with basic words. This got high marks and included other languages so I bought it. We were very disappointed and the kids gave up on it. The problem is that it is difficult to understand the pronounciation of the words. The audio is just not clear. I later ordered Power Japanese, an adult software program, and we were much happier.
So-so for the money:
The idea and format aren't bad. I would have liked it if there had been a few more words to learn. Also, instead of learning animal names, which aren't very useful if you don't live on a farm, they should have included some simple sentences. A little more material or a little lower price would have increased my rating to 4 stars.
There must be a better bang for your buck.:
I bought this software on the recommendation of some software review site, and I must say my 9 year old daughter and I were disappointed. The graphics are sometimes hard to make out on the screen. (The animation altogether isn't very appealing at all, but that's not why I bought it . . . )And my daughter kept repeating, "But I want to learn sentences!" It's just an okay introduction if you want to learn the names of fruits and vegetables.
