Khan Academy Kids is a free educational application (app) for children aged two to eight (Khan Academy Kids, 2021). The app develops its own curriculum and content with the aim to encourage children to become lifelong learners. Rather than focus on a single skill, Khan Academy Kids “contains a breadth of learning material” (Khan Academy Kids, 2021, para. 3) across various disciplines. As a teacher of English language learners (ELL), I am constantly asked by parents for apps that support their child’s language development. As such, this review will focus on the library section of the app and will specifically look at ‘Books about feelings’.

Interactivity: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When opening the app for the first time, a parent is required to sign in and verify their email address. The child can then create an avatar. With an avatar created, the app introduces you to the characters: Kody the bear, Sandy the fox, Ollo the elephant, Peck the bird, and Reya the red panda.

The home screen layout is simple and clutter-free. The user’s name and avatar appear in the top right-hand corner; in the bottom right-hand corner is the music button, by clicking on this the looped background music is muted. The characters appear across the bottom of the screen and are hot spots (interactive on-screen elements); by clicking them, you are taken to a new screen to play (interact with objects) in their room. The centre of the screen contains a house with a large play button. The library is housed in the top left-hand corner.

Within the library, there are various formats: books, videos and create; and disciplines: letters, reading, math and logic+.

Readability: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

For this review, I will focus on the book titled When I’m sad by Cynthia Platt. After selecting a book, its cover appears on the screen, alongside the title and author which is read to the user. There are only two buttons on the screen, ‘Read to me’ and ‘Read by myself’.

When selecting ‘Read to me’, each page is read to the user from start to finish. The words change colour, to purple and back as they are read, supporting print awareness (Yokota & Teale, 2014, p. 583). Whilst the page is being read, you are unable to turn to the next page. The user is provided a short time to turn each page by swiping or clicking on the next arrow, however, if the page is not turned by the user, it is turned automatically.

When selecting ‘Read by myself’, the user can read the book at their own pace. A play button in the centre bottom of the screen provides the opportunity to enable the ‘Read to me’ selection. Once each page is read, the user is required to swipe or click to the next page; if the user wishes to continue to have the book be read to them, they must select the play button at the bottom of each page or swipe or click back to the cover and select the ‘Read to me’ option.

At all points throughout the book, clicking on the text causes it to be read. At any point, the user can swipe or click back to reread a previous page.

Hot spots and interactive games: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Throughout the book, there are several hot spots and one interactive game. The first hot spot appears whilst the characters are reading. Reya and Ollo are holding a moveable book that contains a hot spot; clicking on it causes a recording to play, “Once upon a time”. This hot spot whilst relevant does not add to the story.

The next page reveals an interactive game of tic-tac-toe which appears on a page in which the characters are playing a game themselves. This game is relevant to the story and allows the user to gain an understanding of the game tic-tac-toe. An astute child would also notice either move from Reya or Ollo would win the game respectively.

On the next page, Reya asks Ollo if he would like to dance, on-screen the characters dance, the user can move the dancing characters, doing so elicits a giggle from them.

The final hot spot occurs on the last page where the characters discuss that they are ready to paint. Both Ollo and Reya are movable hot spots; clicking on their easel makes their painting appear.

There are few hot spots and only one interactive game within the book When I’m Sad. Overall, they do not add much to the story, however, nor are they distracting, attention-demanding elements that pulse or flash drawing the user’s attention away from the text (Combes, 2016); as such, the story and its interactive features maintain integrity to the narrative (Yokota & Teale, 2014, p. 581). Therefore, I believe children will enjoy the interactivity, without dominating the experience, that these hot spots bring to the text.

Functionality and Longevity: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Khan Academy Kids app is intuitive and very simple. It is easy for children to use to learn to read and its hot spots do not contain distracting or inappropriate elements, advertisements or content. Common Sense Media rated the app five stars with a note of its high educational value and ease of play (VanderBorght, 2021).

Limitations: 😟

Unfortunately, Khan Academy Kids does not incorporate a dictionary that would support vocabulary development (Yokota & Teale, 2014, p. 583); however, the addition of a dictionary would draw away from the simplicity of the app.

Khan Academy Kids is more than just a ‘new way of doing stuff’; it provides children with a well-rounded curriculum neatly packaged in a user-friendly interface. As such, I know what app I will be recommending to parents.

References:

Combes, B. (2016). Digital literacy: A new flavour of literacy or something different? Synergy (Carlton, Vic.), 14(1).

Khan Academy Kids. (2020). Welcome to Khan Academy Kids. https://khankids.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004559231-Welcome-to-Khan-Academy-Kids

VanderBorght, M. (2021). Khan Academy Kids. Common Sense Media. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/app-reviews/khan-academy-kids

Yokota, J., & Teale, W. H. (2014). Picture books and the digital age: Educators making informed choices. The Reading teacher, 67(8), 577-585. https://doi.org/10.1002/trtr.1262