Hooray My Name Objects

 

 

Bottom Line: A terrific idea that needs to be refined.

Hooray My Name Objects is similar to other click-to-hear-the-word apps with a really nice addition: The parent can set the playing child's name and the narrator (Jack) uses their name in the narration. The child's name is also used as part of the scenery in one spot on each screen.

Beyond the cool-name part, the app presents children with two scenes (park and beach) where the child can press the objects to see and hear the names of each.

The good: The name idea is a great one. Younger kids certainly love to hear their names and it seems like magic coming from an app. The price is good at 99 cents. 

The not-quite-good: My biggest issue is that the narration (after the initial hello) only occurs when the child stops pressing things for a while, which my kids didn't do too often. In my experience, kids like to press, not wait around for prompts.

Also, there aren't many different questions and most are open-ended, such as "Lily, can you find all the objects?" 

Adding some more specific questions and having Jack ask the questions when pressed (so the kids could move along at their own pace) would help a lot. The app also needs to acknowledge whether the child answers correctly or not with some simple phrases like "good job" or "try again." It needs true interactivity.

I was also unhappy to not be able to find my name (Ron) among the 1,300 names in the app.

Once the interactivity part is enhanced and more questions added, I can see recommending Hooray My Name Objects, even strongly recommending it if more scenes are added. As of now, though, it falls into the category of needing some refinement. 

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iPad/iPhone ($0.99): U.S.     U.K.     Canada     Australia