Bottom Line: Monki Shake It is a great app for young language learners — both those learning or playing with a second language as well as those needing a little support in learning their first language. The games are creative and the app is well designed, and giggling animals are sure to delight little learners. FREE with in-app purchase.
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External locks in protected area with parent gate. In-app purchases on main screen, requires specified swipe to access.
What's free: First level and tree house.
What's not free: four additional activities are available through one in-app purchase of $2.99.
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Monkimun’s new app Monki Shake It is designed as a language-learning app for young children, particularly those learning a second language. It also has value for the early stages of learning a first language — it’s definitely one I can apply to my therapy sessions for speech-language pathology.
I am not a second language-learning expert, so I can’t definitively say that this app is perfectly designed with that goal in mind. I am, however, an expert in learning English as a first language, and I enjoyed this app a lot. The tasks are well designed for my students at an early language level, to learn following directions and vocabulary.
The animals in Monki Shake It complete six different tasks, the first of which is free for all users. The rest are available through a single in-app purchase. In the first game, shake or tilt the iPad to pick up the first labeled musical instrument, floating in the water. As each named instrument is found, a sticker is added to the toolbar on top. After all five instruments are found, one of them is added to the game’s tree house as a sticker for additional interaction. Play additional rounds to add all of the items.
The other games are similar in format, all completed with an easy tap or tilt. Save lost baby polar animals and reunite them with their mother by sliding the animal down the polar cap. Just like with the musical instruments, each successfully reunited animal (including an Arctic hare, polar bear and seal) is indicated with a sticker on the top toolbar, and one added to the tree house at the end.
In the fruit game, feed the animals in the forest, where a multitude of fruits grow on what appear to be birch trees (side note: I want this fruit salad tree in my yard!). The user is instructed to feed the animal the specific fruit heard only through narration and the specific number posted on the sign post. As the animal is fed, the narrator counts down and the number changes on the sign post.
The fourth game teaches the vocabulary for common childhood toys, including a ball and a doll. This game is the most fun, tilting the iPad to drop the selected toy down through the maze to the animal at the bottom.
After completing all four of the language learning activities, take a quiz by flying an airplane into the labeled item. This was fun, but initially a little hard to control. Tilting the iPad led to many mistakes, even for words I understood. It wasn’t until I watched Ellie’s demo video that I realized I could move my finger to guide the airplane and improve my accuracy. This was a good summary of the vocabulary learning, though, and a great way (navigation aside) to see how much vocabulary your child has learned.
The sixth advertised activity is the tree house, where the user collects stickers for repeated successful completion of each game. I like this aspect, keeping the same four games engaging, in order to earn all of the stickers. This means the vocabulary and sentence structure are heard repeatedly, allowing for more complete learning.
Overall, this app is very well designed. There were never any glitches for me. The in-app purchase and any external links are protected by a specified swipe. There are controls to turn off music, and it’s easy to change languages to learn Chinese, English or Spanish.
I did wish for the ability to turn down the animals themselves. The sound needed to be loud to really hear the vocabulary well, especially when I was playing in Spanish, which I don’t know that well. But when the sound is loud, the animals’ cute laughter turned a little maniacal, at least for these grown-up ears. It certainly didn’t bother my daughter.
I also wanted to be able to repeat the prompt if I forgot it or didn’t hear it accurately, something I couldn’t figure out how to do. I did find if I just guessed randomly, after I was wrong the app would repeat the prompt. But a repeat button would have been much easier.
In addition, I felt the vocabulary wasn’t labeled enough. After the user finds each item, its name is not repeated, which would have been a great chance to reinforce the item. Also, when the wrong item is chosen, it’s clear the item is wrong, but I would have liked the app to tell you what the wrong item was, too.
I felt like the price was a little bit high for the amount of vocabulary learned, although the quality
development makes the price worth it. Overall, I did wish for a little more vocabulary in this app, perhaps additional words added after completing each game the first time.
This app is a fun option for kids learning a second language, but it's also an excellent choice for kids ages 2-6 who need more support in their first language. The simple tasks, repetitive vocabulary and overall design are great for speech-language therapy.
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Heather H played in Spanish, but wasn't brave enough to test her nonexistent knowledge of Chinese, even in a children's app. SmartAppsForKids.com was paid a priority review fee to complete this review in an expedited manner.
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