English for FunApps, videos, books or games: which works best?
Cartoons, picture books, songs, apps, games: each has its fans. No single option is best for everything. Each does a different job well, and what matters most is whether your child interacts or just watches.
What matters most: interaction
- Patricia Kuhl and colleagues (2003) found that 9-month-old infants learned the sounds of a new language from live speakers playing with them, but not from the same material on video or audio.
- Children aged 4–6 learn more from screens than infants do, but the principle holds: formats that make children listen, choose, answer and speak work better than formats where they only watch.
- For children aged 2–4, WHO recommends no more than one hour of sedentary screen time a day, and less is better. So make the screen minutes interactive.
Quick comparison
| Format | Good at | Watch for | Best used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Talking and playing with a parent | Real interaction, tied to daily life | Takes your time; accent may not be perfect | A few minutes daily, during everyday tasks |
| Picture books | Vocabulary, stories, dialogic reading | Needs someone to read along | At bedtime, pausing to ask "Where is…?" |
| Action songs | Rhythm, repeated phrases, fun | Becomes background music if nobody joins in | Sing and do the actions together |
| Videos | Clear model voices, visual context | Easy to watch passively; autoplay | Short videos, watched together, paused to ask |
| Learning apps and games | Child listens, chooses, speaks; instant feedback | Ads, compulsive rewards, playing too long | Short sessions, no ads, sit alongside |
How to choose videos and apps
- No ads and no autoplay. Your child should be able to stop at a natural point.
- Slow, clear, repeated speech with pictures that match the words.
- Your child has to do something: listen and choose, repeat, answer. The more active, the better.
- Gentle rewards. Avoid apps that reward constantly to keep children playing as long as possible.
- A page for parents showing how long their child played and what they learned.
- A comparison of popular apps (Khan Academy Kids, Duolingo ABC, Lingokids, Monkey Junior) is in English learning apps compared.
A sample week
- Daily: 5–10 minutes of an interactive game or app, with you nearby.
- Every evening: one short picture book, read with questions.
- During the day: 3–4 English sentences tied to what you are doing. See 20 first sentences.
- At the weekend: a screen-free game with the free printables, or a new song.
Where English for Fun fits
- English for Fun is a set of learning games: children listen, choose, build and speak, with no ads and short packs. The first island of every game is free. See the games.
- A game does not replace you. Use it as one part of the day, alongside books, songs and conversation.