Parents' Guide to

Endless Wordplay

By Mieke VanderBorght, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 4+

Stellar phonics and word construction fun for a hefty price.

App iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad Free to try, Paid Education
Endless Wordplay Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this app.

  • Endless Wordplay App: Screenshot #1
  • Endless Wordplay App: Screenshot #2
  • Endless Wordplay App: Screenshot #3

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What’s It About?

In ENDLESS WORDPLAY, kids work with an "Alphabot" to construct words whose letters have been shaken out of place. Tap and hold letters to hear their sounds and place them in the word in the correct order. If you're confused, tap the question mark for hints. Each level has three rhyming words (for example, "map," "lap," and "nap"); after you spell them, there's a short animation that acts out a sentence using the words in context ("The map on my lap vanished during my nap"). Words get longer and more complicated on successive levels, and you can adjust settings to let kids skip around or have them complete levels in order.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say Not yet rated
Kids say (1 ):

With a focus on rhyming and phonetic sounds, kids can get great practice decoding how letters form sounds that form words. Unfortunately, it costs more than many parents can pay. It makes a good attempt to address the peculiarities of the English language, in which letters make all sorts of different sounds depending on the words they're in: When kids tap a letter they hear the letter's default sound, but as they place the letter in a word, they hear how it changes its sound as a result of the letters around it. Also, hints nicely point out that "lap" is like "map" but starts with an "m." The sentences and animations that follow each group of three words is a great way to see the words in context, though some sentences are such a stretch they seem more awkward than helpful, and reading them more slowly would help early readers. The biggest disadvantage is the price, which might prevent parents from purchasing.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about rhyming words. Help kids add more words to the rhyming groups in the app and make up their own rhyming groups.

  • Use letter blocks, or even letters written on index cards, to move letters around and form new words.

  • Help kids avoid confusion about the many sounds the same letter can make. Talk about how letters make different sounds depending on what letters are around them in a word.

App Details

  • Devices: iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad
  • Subjects: Language & Reading : letter or word recognition, phonics, spelling, vocabulary
  • Pricing structure: Free to try, Paid (Free download offers limited content; additional levels available as in-purchases ranging from $6.99 to $14.99)
  • Release date: June 3, 2015
  • Category: Education
  • Topics: Robots
  • Publisher: Originator Inc.
  • Version: 2.0
  • Minimum software requirements: iOS 6.0 or later
  • Last updated: July 27, 2016

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