Little Wordsmiths teaches early vocabulary the way research says it sticks: a picture first, a spoken word second, the written word last. One library of words, available as an app, a printed book, and a cartoon series. No child left behind.
A real card from the library. Tap it to hear the word, switch the language, or move to the next one, exactly what a child does in the app.
Every language in the library, right here on the page.
Browse the full dictionary ›Every word in Little Wordsmiths follows the same four-step method, grounded in how young children acquire language, meaning before symbols, sound before spelling.
Each word opens with a bright, unambiguous illustration. Children connect meaning to image before they ever see letters, the foundation of comprehension.
One tap speaks the word aloud, clearly, slowly, and in any of 26 languages. Multilingual homes can pair English with the family's home language.
The written word appears with its syllable breakdown. Letter-by-letter tracing practice builds the bridge from listening to reading and writing.
Words are organized into 25 everyday categories (animals, food, home, school) so children revisit and build on what they know, A to Z.
This is the same letter-tracing exercise children use in the app to move from hearing a word to writing it. Trace the red letter with your mouse or finger. Each part turns green as you cover it, a crossing asks for a second pass, and the app celebrates the win exactly the way it would for a child.
Children already see, hear, read and write each word. Practice Reading adds the last piece: the child reads it themselves, sweeping a finger under the words while each one lights up as they go. Two rungs, the word on its own and then the word inside a sentence.
The child sweeps a finger under the headline word and it lights up as they read it. Guided reading is off by default, so the sound only follows the finger when a grown-up turns it on, and the child does the sounding out.
The same sweep, now across a whole sentence, with each word lighting up in the brand rainbow as it is read. Reading a word on its own and reading it in context are different skills, so the app records them separately.
Before reading, a child can hear the line read aloud. Of everything studied in guided repeated reading, hearing a fluent model first is the component most consistently linked to gains in fluency.
The read-along is where the first two rungs meet the page. A child drags a pointer under the line, and the sentence gives way one word at a time. It is deliberately not a tap-along: the finger has to do the reading.
A word lights up in the brand rainbow only once the pointer has swept most of its width, and only if the words before it are already read. Tapping a word does nothing, so a sentence cannot be rushed through.
The sweep makes no sound to start with: the child does the sounding out and the moving pointer just keeps the pace. A grown-up can switch on guided reading so every word is spoken as it is read.
"I read it myself" appears only after the final word is swept, with a small haptic tick to mark it. One sentence, one honest finish, then on to the next.
Sweeping is the only way to read a word, but never the only way to finish one. The active word works with VoiceOver and TalkBack, and a "read this word for me" button appears for a child who has tried and got nowhere.
A child reads in whichever language they are set to, not in English with a translation beside it. Every word in the library carries its own sentence in all 26, so the line a child sweeps is the very sentence they met on the word card, in their own language. Right-to-left scripts mirror the whole reader: in Arabic or Urdu the pointer rests at the right and sweeps leftward, matching the script.
A sample from the library, every entry pairs an unambiguous image with clear audio and a syllable breakdown. Tap any card to hear the word.
Decades of research agree on one thing: the words a child knows by age five shape almost everything that comes after.
By age 4, children from language-rich homes have heard roughly 30 million more words than children without that exposure. The difference is measurable in vocabulary, processing speed, and later reading.
About 90% of brain growth happens before kindergarten. Language input during these years builds the neural pathways that reading, reasoning, and learning later depend on.
A child's vocabulary at age 5 is one of the strongest predictors of reading comprehension at age 10, stronger than many school-level factors. Words first, reading follows.
Children learn best when the same vocabulary shows up in different places. Every Little Wordsmiths format draws from one shared word library, so the app, the book, and the cartoon reinforce each other.
Familiar faces matter to young learners. Sky the Owl and seven child characters from around the world appear consistently across the app, the book, and the cartoon, so every new word comes from a friend, not a flashcard.
Sky the Owl · Adam · Alysa · Carlos · Olivia · Rohit · Zuri · Prof. William
By age 4, children from language-rich homes have heard around 30 million more words than children without that exposure (Hart & Risley, 2003). Little Wordsmiths exists to put a language-rich environment within reach of every family, across 26 languages, three formats, and every device a child has access to.
Download the app on iPhone, iPad, and Android, then explore the whole library of words, in 26 languages.