Kadho Gives Toddlers a Head Start with the New Mochu Pop App

Thanks to Kadho for sponsoring this post. As always, all opinions are my own.

My kids are like sponges. It’s cliché, but true. I’m always amazed at the ability my kids have to retain nearly everything they hear. I wish I could have a fraction of their retention because I’m convinced my memory has gone way downhill . . . probably because I’m so sleep deprived with young kids in the house.

One of the things that is so cool about the way kids learn is that picking up languages is so much easier for them than it is for us as adults. By age 3, about 85% of the wiring in kids’ brains is already formed. There’s a neat new app from Kadho called Mochu Pop, that puts that ability to good use. Mochu Pop is a FREE language immersion app designed for babies and toddlers that introduces the most important sounds from 4 different languages.

What’s really cool about Mochu Pop is that it’s all based on science. I studied linguistics while I was working on my English degree in college and one of the things that really stood out to me in one of my language classes was that the sounds babies hear when they are young form the basis of their ability to learn language in the future. This is why babies from Spanish speaking families can roll their r’s while babies (and older kids) from English speaking families struggle with it. The sound has been part of their overall language development and their brain has formed the pathways needed to do that.

Mochu Pop exposes kids to those foundational sounds from 4 languages. By doing that it preserves a child’s ability to hear the sounds from those languages and give them a jump start if they ever want to master those languages in the future. It’s a really cool concept!

The app itself is really bright and upbeat. My toddler was so excited when I gave her the chance to sit down and play. The music and colors in the app really drew her in and she was more than happy to test it out for me. On the surface it’s a basic matching game. Various colored balloon shapes float to the top of the screen while some upbeat music plays. The instructions tell the child to pop only the balloon of a certain shape or color.

Each time your child pops one of the matching balloons she hears a sound. This sound is one that’s an important part of whichever language they have selected. For example, the English version plays a lot of vowel sounds when the balloons are popped. The child gets used to hearing those sounds as they play the game and the theory is that when they go to learn a language when they are a bit older the process will be simpler.

I’ll admit, the game is kind of fun to play. I’ve been trying to learn Spanish for more years than I’d care to admit so I sat down with the Spanish version of the game. Popping those balloons is surprisingly relaxing and as you play, your brain gets used to hearing the sounds that you need to speak the language.

Mochu Pop just won the 2015 Platinum Award for Best App for Children and Toddlers, from Best Mobile App Awards and I suspect it’s an app you’ll be seeing a lot more of.

Check out Mochu Pop in action in the video below. Download it for free in the app store or visit the Kadho website for more details.

If you want to take your child’s language development a bit further, Kadho just released a new FREE ebook, Mochu Says Goodnight. This is a fun way to strengthen the language skills that are introduced in Mochu Pop and a great bedtime story option. My toddler loves sitting down with me to read interactive books on the iPad and I’m sure this one is going to become a new favorite.

Have you used technology to introduce your child to a second language?