Common Sense Media Review
By Amanda Bindel
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Unique hybrid app and toy takes phonics under the sea.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 4+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
Tiggly Submarine: Explore the Depths of Short Vowels & Phonics
What's It About?
After choosing to play TIGGLY SUBMARINE: EXPLORE THE DEPTHS OF SHORT VOWELS & PHONICS with the Tiggly Words toys or fingers, kids navigate a little yellow submarine through the ocean, stopping at different reefs for a vowel-related activity. They can play knock-knock with the vowel toys, tapping a letter on the door to see and hear a word that uses that vowel or feed an octopus foods that include the chosen vowel. The submarine becomes a vacuum to suck out the given object if kids tap the correct letter to the screen. There's some free-play fun thrown in too. Kids can run the sub through a car wash or create vowel-shaped fish by randomly tapping the letters on the screen.
Is It Any Good?
With or without the toys, kids can explore phonics in a fun way, but the toys let kids touch the vowels and use the screen in a more interactive way. Also, the phonics covered go deeper than beginning letter sounds to also cover vowel sounds in the middles of words, though sometimes the "a" and "o" short sounds are very similar. Kids are in control of where they navigate and which activities they complete. The words do get repetitive after a bit of play, but many included words are unexpected ("escolar," "inconnu," and "ospry") so some repetition is helpful.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about vowel sounds, emphasizing the vowels in three-letter words to help kids notice and recognize vowels.
Play word games with kids -- no toys required. Rhyming will familiarize them with word families. Naming things with the same starting sound will help them recognize letter and phonetic sounds.
App Details
- Devices : iPad , Android , Kindle Fire
- Subjects : Language & Reading : phonics , spelling
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : memorization , thinking critically
- Pricing structure : Paid (App is free with purchase of Tiggly Words toys, which cost $29.99)
- Release date : May 21, 2015
- Genre : Education
- Topics : Numbers and Letters , Animals ( Ocean Creatures )
- Publisher : Tiggly
- Version : 1.0
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 6.0 or later
- Last updated : October 1, 2025
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