I’m enjoying this with my little one at the moment. So far very impressed, but there seems to be no way to turn the music off? Thankfully for once it’s one of the few app like this so far that seems to have actually hired someone professional for their audio. The music is thankfully unobtrusive. But still, would be nice to be able to turn it off for when I want to turn music on in the same room.

I specialize in apraxia, autism and early intervention. I like how the app made an effort to support kids speech production in using videos of real children and included slow modeling. However, I would NOT recommend this app for kids. The speech recognition is very inaccurate even with the highest accuracy setting. It often does not recognize a word produced correctly at a slower rate. Even if it is said just like the child’s slow model. But will accept an incorrect production if said faster (example I said “dada” for doctor). The child’s slow model was sometimes too monotone. I would have also made adjustments to make the child’s model more clear, had the child model more often and had an option to support the child with supportive cues. I was concerned one of the prompts was “what should you do when you hear the ice cream truck? RUN!” I work with many families who struggle with their children running into the road or run out of the house unsupervised when they hear the ice cream truck. This isn’t supporting child’s safety. I noticed the app had some glitches. It froze sometimes. And if you are using Bluetooth headset the audio would alternate between headset and speaker on the phone. Overall screen time isn’t recommended for young children and should be limited. When looking at screen time choices for younger children, it’s better for the app to move slowly with less frequent screen changes. All of the fast movement and changes can affect attention span.

I’ll start by saying that we love sago mini! We subscribe to world and school already, as well as the sago mini box. That being said, paying another $60 annual subscription is a bit much, and I wish there was a cheaper add on so I’m not paying hundreds of dollars for apps. They are bright and musical and engaging, but that’s just not realistic for a lot of families. We did like the first words that we tried without the subscription, but got a lot of “oops something went wrong” error messages. The app just launched so I’m sure there are kinks to work out. Definitely not an app we would use without a subscription, and that’s simply not in the budget at the moment, but maybe down the road it’s something we can revisit.

I would highly recommend Sago Mini First Words to the parents of toddlers. It's a wonderful learning aid for kids who struggle with speech, and is easy to use for parents who have no previous experience. The interface is simple and intuitive, which was helpful when trying to focus on coaching my son through his pronunciation of new words. I think the price point is fair as well