Little Linguist
© 1999 Neurosmith
This stand-alone smart toy consists of a colorful base unit and 15 plastic characters. Kids play with the toy by choosing a character and inserting it into the base. As this happens, the toy recites the character's name in Spanish, for instance "el perro" for dog. At upper levels, the toy teaches colors and more complex sentence structure. The program comes with English and Spanish cartridges and Japanese and French cartridges can be purchased for $20 each. Although the toy seemed to function well, we wished for more options in volume control-- sometimes it was difficult to hear. Our older preschool testers enjoyed playing with the toy and did pick up some Spanish. They didn't play as long with this peripheral, however, as they did with Neurosmith's Music Blocks. Little Linguist would be best in preschool and Kindergarten classrooms, where multiple children could have a chance to play with foreign languages.
$69.95, Smart Toy
Teaches: Spanish, French, Japanese, English