Miaomiao’s Chinese for Kids App Review
App Info
Price: $2.99
Overview
Miaomiao’s Chinese for Kids is a beginning language learning app designed for young children. It introduces over 100 Mandarin Chinese words and phrases using over 50 engaging animations and interactive activities. Choose from instruction in Mandarin to teach English and instruction in English to teach Mandarin.
Features include:
- More than fifty episodes
- Stream or download segments as needed
- Learn to say, understand and write the target phrases
- Includes colors, numbers, and many other basic ideas
- COPPA compliant
Quality
Miaomiao’s Chinese for Kids is a very high quality app. Developers have consulted preschool and early language development experts and it shows. The animations depict relatable situations and use encouraging language that children will enjoy. Controls are intuitive and do not rely on reading ability to use the app. There is a parents-only section that houses settings, records of progress, and information about the developers and other apps.
Education
This app is highly educational and very well-conceived. The main teaching is done using short animated clips of the main character, Miaomiao, as she navigates common situations in a young child’s life, such as telling her age, expressing frustration, and indicating what she does and does not want. The app also includes segments on other common early learning concepts, such as color words. Each animated segment can be followed up with a tracing practice of the related ideographs so children can learn to read and write the word or phrase.
For an immersive experience, players can flip the main language and the language being taught. English speaking children can use the Mandarin to English section and hear most of the conversations in Mandarin to learn even more parts of the language.
Entertainment
Young children will find this app to be highly engaging. The main character, Miaomiao, is a young child of indeterminate age that navigates typical situations that will resonate with young kids. They will be fascinated to see her tackling the same challenges that they face each day with the help of her animated animal friends who speak a mixture of both languages.
Value
Miaomiao’s Chinese for Kids costs $2.99 on the App Store, which is a great value. It’s refreshing that users get to access all of the content without any other purchases, and there is a lot of content in the app. The app is a nice addition to your collection if your child is interested in other languages, and the preschool years are one of the best windows for learning about other languages.
Child Friendliness
This app is completely COPPA compliant, which means parents can rely on the fact that children cannot access any advertisements, purchases, or social media links. There is no way for them to “get out” onto the internet. The app does have a parents’ area that contains these things, but it is protected by an effective parent gate that requires input of birth month and year.
- YES social media behind parent gate (birth date)
- NO 3rd party ads
- YES more apps but behind a parent gates (birth date)
