Customer Reviews

VTech Alphabet Apple Electronic Fundamentals of Reading

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

There are few electronic toys we like, but the Alphabet Apple is the cream of the crop in this genre of educational toys. The "Apple" is a very well designed toy.

Our daughter received it as a gift and my first concern was will it be another Sesame Street Talking Alphabet? Hard to understand, loud and annoying. The answer was a resounding, NO!

The voice is very clear, and deliberate--not shrill. Letters that might be confused due to similarity of sound (you know the ones you have to clarify on the telephone like "S as in Steven,") are for the most part easy to understand and differentiate. B, D, C, Z, M, N, F, and S are not easily confused. I will say that "F" is borderline but "S" will NOT be confused for "F".

The voice is pleasant and at a pretty decent volume level. Unfortunately there is no volume control on the Apple which could be a problem for children with hearing impairment and need a little more volume. It also would be nice when parents decide they need the volume (which really isn't annoying) to be taken down a notch.

The each button is clearly marked with a letter of the alphabet, a picture of something corresponding to the letter, and the word for that thing. B,bug. It's light and the colors and graphics are great. There is a built in handle to make carrying from place to place easy.

My daughter liked the same thing I do about this game: multiple activities and skills. There are five things kids can do with this so they will not be bored after the first week of playing with the Apple. It should be easy for most children to slide the selector (a worm) to a different activity choice.

1. Learn The Letters. Straight forward. Press a letter, hear what it is.

2. Learn The Letter Sounds. Select a letter then hear the letter and the sounds it makes. ("O says 'oh' and 'ah'.") Kids get to learn long and short vowel sounds. Nice.

3. Find It. Kids are asked to find a specific letter or a letter that makes a certain sound. (Some sounds are made by more than one letter so they may have more than one choice.)

4. Before And After. Kids are asked which letter comes before or after another letter?

5. Music. Press a button and one of nine tunes is played. (A little tinny. I found it annoying. Your kid will LOVE it.)

When your child makes an incorrect choice, the Apple never says they are wrong. It explains the choice they made. For instance if asked, "Which letter comes after the letter E?" and they choose S, it says, "S comes after the letter R." It doesn't ask the same question again--at least not right away. I haven't decided if this is good or bad. I don't want it to say, you're wrong, but my instinct is to ask the question again and see if the child gets it.

On the other hand, when they make the correct choice the Apple doesn't exactly give them praise, it simply affirms pleasantly, "D comes before the letter E." I would like it to say "That's correct..." or "Good job..." and then affirm the answer. I guess it's a style teaching issue, but I feel a little praise helps kids feel good about the success and motivated. I know my daughter's face lights up when using the Sesame Street Talking Alphabet and Elmo says, "That's right!"

There is an on/off switch. If the child doesn't make any selections after several seconds the voice prompts in friendly way, "Press a button." After a minute of inactivity it says, "Bye, bye" and turns itself off.

I was very impressed by the small parents' guide that comes with the game. It not only explains the toy very well, but has great tips on how to enrich your child's learning/play experience with the Apple. For instance things like asking "what do we do after dinner?" to enhance the idea of before and after.

This is almost a five star toy but it does fall short on those few points I mentioned. Even so, I find this is really the best of what I've seen out there. Your little one will really enjoy it and learn at the same time.

My daughter was given this for her second birthday, and a year later she still loves it. It lives in the car so as soon as we get in, she knows she can play with her apple. She practises her letters and hums along with the tunes. There are, I think, four different settings, so each letter of the alphabet can do four different things (you change the setting by pushing the worm up or down).

I purchased this as a gift for a friend's 20 month old daughter and while she wasn't that interested I found this thing incredibly amusing (I'm sure she will too in a few months). It has five different settings on the side that allow you to play with it differently - learn the letters, learn the letter sounds, find it, before and after, and music.

It was relatively quiet (a big plus) and seemed to be pretty sturdy. Really liked that it corrected you by giving the right answer rather than saying you were wrong.

This is one of the best educational toys that my 3 year old has! She carries it everywhere! This toy has so much to do.. from learning the letters and sounds, to words and songs! It's a great toy for a long trip! I just can't say enough about it!

This is a great toy with several different "games" to play. There's music, asking the child what letter comes next, etc. My 2 year old got one for her birthday and she really likes pushing the buttons. I'm sure she'll love it even more when she can really answer the questions and hear that she got it right! By the way, it doesn't scold when you get an answer wrong it answers you back in a positive way.

The idea of this toy is great, but it's very hard to understand the audio. I bought it for my daughter but didn't give it to her because I thought it would confuse her more than it would help. I really don't recommend it!

My 3 year old niece received this for Christmas this last year. She enjoys pushing the buttons and hearing the music, she loves to sing with it. I do feel that a child learning to read would get more out of it because it sounds out the letters and you guess which letter matches the sound. It also has a "Before and After," feature that is challenging for a child learning the alphabet. It is a great educational toy and very easy for children to use.

Our daughter is just one year old and she loves this toy. Not only does it give her a great introduction to the alphebet and will help her learn when she's ready, it also has the option of being playing music instead. She has learned how to use it quickly, and it seems that it will grow with her and her ability to learn. We will be buying other V-Tech toys as well.

This is a great educational toy which has the advantage of being portable! Learning doesn't have to be limited to school or the house and this makes a great companion for car trips. Plus there's no scattered blocks or plastic letters to clean up after the journey!

I read the reviews of this product and purchased the Alphabet Apple for my toddler based on these. Although I think it is a great educational toy and virtually indistructable it definitely isn't terribly useful or helpful for a 2 year old as you claimed. The correct manufacturer age is for 3 yrs. old and up not 2 yrs. as you stated. If the info you provided was correct I probably would have waited a year to get this toy. I think others would too. Otherwise it is a great learning tool.