Best Educational Apps for Kids: What Parents Should Look For

Start with what you want your child to learn

App stores are full of apps that call themselves educational, and the word on its own tells you very little. Before you search, decide what you would like the app to help with: recognising letters, hearing the sounds they make, learning the names of animals, counting, or a first word list in another language.

An app with a narrow goal is usually better than one that promises to teach everything. When each screen serves one idea, a young child can understand what to do without help, and you can see whether the app is working. If your child can tell you the sound of a letter or the name of an animal after a week of short sessions, the app has done its job.

Read the store description and the screenshots with that goal in mind. If you cannot tell what a child learns from them, the child probably cannot either.

Check that the app is safe and respects privacy

Safety is the first filter, before content. Young children tap everything on the screen, so an app that shows adverts or links to other apps can lead them somewhere you did not choose.

• No ads: adverts interrupt learning, and children cannot always tell an advert from the app itself.
• No pressure to buy: watch for locked levels, timers that push towards a purchase and buttons designed to look like part of the game.
• No account and no personal data: a learning app for toddlers rarely needs a name, an email address or a location. Read the privacy policy and the data section of the store listing.
• Age rating and family programmes: on Google Play, look at the age rating and whether the app follows the Families Policy.
• Links and sharing kept away from children: settings, store links and sharing should sit behind a grown-up step.

Look for design that fits small hands

An app made for children should be easy to use without reading. Watch your child use it for a few minutes: if they keep asking for help or tapping in the wrong place, the design is working against them.

Large targets and simple navigation

Buttons should be big enough for small fingers, and a child should always be able to get back to the start. Fewer choices on each screen keep attention on the learning content rather than on menus.

Sound and real images

Children who cannot read yet learn through what they hear and see. Clear audio, such as a letter sound or an animal’s name read aloud, matters more than animation. Real photos help children recognise animals and objects when they meet them outside the screen.

A child lock

A child lock keeps a toddler inside the app, so they do not close it, open another app or change a setting by accident. It is one of the most useful features for younger children and is worth looking for in the description.

Prefer active learning to passive watching

An educational app should ask the child to do something: tap, listen, choose, match or answer. Activity keeps attention and gives the child a chance to remember, which is how learning sticks. An app that mostly plays videos is closer to television than to a learning tool.

Look at how the app reacts when a child makes a mistake. Good apps let the child try again calmly and show the right answer, without loud failure sounds or lost points. Feedback should be quick and clear, so the child knows what to do next.

Short activities are better than long ones. A few minutes of focused practice, repeated over several days, does more than one long session. Apps without endless levels or rewards that keep children playing make it easier to stop.

Think about where and how the app will be used

An app that works offline has everything it needs inside it. That means it works on a journey, in a waiting room or on holiday, and it cannot load ads or content you have not seen. It also makes the experience the same every time, which young children like.

Language matters too. If your family speaks more than one language, an app that can switch language lets a child practise the same words in each of them. And if several children share a device, learner profiles that keep each child’s progress apart avoid arguments and confusion.

Examples from our own apps

We build learning apps for children ourselves, with these checks in mind. You can see all of them on the icode24 apps page . Two examples show what the points above look like in practice.

Animal Sounds helps toddlers and preschool children learn animal names with real photos and real recorded sounds. A tap reads the animal’s name aloud, each animal has short facts to read together, and a quiz checks what a child already knows. It is free, has no ads, works offline and has a child lock.

Phonics Parrot, our letter sounds app , focuses on one thing: the common English sound of each of the 26 letters. Big letter cards play each sound, and two simple games, Listen and Match, turn practice into play. It has no ads, works without internet and has a child lock that a grown-up turns on with a double tap.

A quick checklist before you download

No app replaces books, conversation and play away from the screen. The right one, used for short sessions with an adult nearby, can be a helpful and enjoyable part of a child’s day. These questions help you find it:

• Can you say in one sentence what your child will learn?
• Is the app free of ads, purchase prompts and data collection?
• Is the age rating right for your child?
• Can your child use it without reading or constant help?
• Does it ask your child to do something rather than only watch?
• Does it work offline, and does it have a child lock if your child is very young?
• Will you have a few minutes to use it together and talk about it?