Dino Lingo for Kids Review

Ever since my son was born, I knew I wanted him to be able to learn Spanish in addition to the English language. As I speak borderline Spanglish, I knew I was going to need help to teach him. Recently Influenster sent out these children's language learning DVDs in their Mom Voxbox from Dino Lingo. Although I did not receive an actual DVD, Influenster allowed parents to view a sample video online and I was thrilled!!

First I want to tell you about this wonderful program, and then I want to go into my actual thoughts.

What is it:

Dino Lingo for Kids is a language set where cartoon dinosaurs introduce the most common 200 words of a target language. This language set consists of 5 DVDs, each DVD focused on specific learning topics. Colors, numbers, family, animals, food, fruit and vegetables, vehicles, body parts, clothes, nature and verbs and actions. Dino Lingo is ideal for fostering a toddler's cognitive development and has won the 'Influential Parents Award' in 2010 and 2011 in education category

Who is it good for:

Children up to 7 years of age, plus anyone who wants to learn basic words

How many languages:

20+ different languages

The science behind it:

• Full immersion - hear common phrases all in the foreign language
• Contextual variation - each word is repeated in 4 setting throughout the video
• High-pitched female voices - voice babies and children identify best
• Pronunciation - phrases are pronounced by native speakers
• Dinosaurs - six colorful and cute dinosaurs present the material
• Vocabulary songs - children love songs and singing them
• Gradual interval recall - word presentation is repeated at timed interval to trigger memory
• 2D/3D animation - children prefer "real" dimensional characters
• Neonate characters - characters have baby like faces and are not scary
• Animism - Regular objects are animated which children love, i.e. talking cars
• Subtitles in foreign language and English - this allows parents to follow along
• Sudden surprises - keeps the attention of children

Price:

$99.99, found at http://www.amazon.com

My Thoughts

So I was thrilled because I went to the link to sample a video, put in the code and immediately my 16-month old son said, "Oooooooooooh," with a big smile.

He sat on my lap and was totally engaged in the video.

After the video was over, my very initial thoughts were:

• It is a really cute program with very appropriate material for kids, i.e. animals, numbers, etc.
• I love how they are repetitive in showing an object and saying/spelling the name, as this is great for association.
• I love how they use basic phrases in Spanish that can be used everyday, i.e. One dinosaur says, "Hola, como estas?" Hi, How are you? And another replies, "Estoy bien!" I am good!
• I like that it is simple, so I can follow along and repeat the words to my son, as well as say the English translation, i.e. They show a cat and say, "Gato." Then I say, "Gato...Cat."

 

Overall:

I believe that this is a wonderful program that allows me, as a parent, to engage in television learning with my son. I am definitely going to be buying the rest of the Spanish series. I might even try another language as well, maybe French! I would recommend it to anyone that has children and would like to expose them to another language, or develop their current language. You can even try a free lesson here: http://dinolingo.com/languages/free_lesson.html

Dino Lingo Links:

Main website www.dinolingo.com
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/#!/DinoLingo.1
Twitter http://twitter.com/dinolingo

Let me know if you have any questions!

Bonnie

Note: I was able to sample a video in the Dino Lingo series complementary through the Influenster Voxbox program for testing and review purposes. All opinions are honest and my own.