The Alphabet Apple by V-tech is designed to let preschoolers take a good bite out of learning their letters. Insert two AA batteries (not included) into the sturdy-plastic, portable unit, and youngsters can slide the "worm" in the apple to select one of five settings. The first four settings instruct kids in letter recognition and sounds, complete with letter-finding games using the push buttons. A fifth option offers nine different melodies that play (regrettably, at a nonadjustable volume) at the press of a key. With its colorful, kid-friendly design, the Alphabet Apple provides the seed for a solid core of learning. --Tony Mason

Our daughter received it as a gift and my first concern was will it be another Sesame Street Talking Alphabet? Hard to understand, loud and annoying. The answer was a resounding, NO!

The voice is very clear, and deliberate--not shrill. Letters that might be confused due to similarity of sound (you know the ones you have to clarify on the telephone like "S as in Steven,") are for the most part easy to understand and differentiate. B, D, C, Z, M, N, F, and S are not easily confused. I will say that "F" is borderline but "S" will NOT be confused for "F".

The voice is pleasant and at a pretty decent volume level. Unfortunately there is no volume control on the Apple which could be a problem for children with hearing impairment and need a little more volume. It also would be nice when parents decide they need the volume (which really isn't annoying) to be taken down a notch.

The each button is clearly marked with a letter of the alphabet, a picture of something corresponding to the letter, and the word for that thing. B,bug. It's light and the colors and graphics are great. There is a built in handle to make carrying from place to place easy.

My daughter liked the same thing I do about this game: multiple activities and skills. There are five things kids can do with this so they will not be bored after the first week of playing with the Apple. It should be easy for most children to slide the selector (a worm) to a different activity choice.

1. Learn The Letters. Straight forward. Press a letter, hear what it is.

2. Learn The Letter Sounds. Select a letter then hear the letter and the sounds it makes. ("O says 'oh' and 'ah'.") Kids get to learn long and short vowel sounds. Nice.

3. Find It. Kids are asked to find a specific letter or a letter that makes a certain sound. (Some sounds are made by more than one letter so they may have more than one choice.)

4. Before And After. Kids are asked which letter comes before or after another letter?

5. Music. Press a button and one of nine tunes is played. (A little tinny. I found it annoying. Your kid will LOVE it.)

When your child makes an incorrect choice, the Apple never says they are wrong. It explains the choice they made. For instance if asked, "Which letter comes after the letter E?" and they choose S, it says, "S comes after the letter R." It doesn't ask the same question again--at least not right away. I haven't decided if this is good or bad. I don't want it to say, you're wrong, but my instinct is to ask the question again and see if the child gets it.

On the other hand, when they make the correct choice the Apple doesn't exactly give them praise, it simply affirms pleasantly, "D comes before the letter E." I would like it to say "That's correct..." or "Good job..." and then affirm the answer. I guess it's a style teaching issue, but I feel a little praise helps kids feel good about the success and motivated. I know my daughter's face lights up when using the Sesame Street Talking Alphabet and Elmo says, "That's right!"

There is an on/off switch. If the child doesn't make any selections after several seconds the voice prompts in friendly way, "Press a button." After a minute of inactivity it says, "Bye, bye" and turns itself off.

I was very impressed by the small parents' guide that comes with the game. It not only explains the toy very well, but has great tips on how to enrich your child's learning/play experience with the Apple. For instance things like asking "what do we do after dinner?" to enhance the idea of before and after.

This is almost a five star toy but it does fall short on those few points I mentioned. Even so, I find this is really the best of what I've seen out there. Your little one will really enjoy it and learn at the same time.

76 of 76 found the following review helpful:


VERY highly reccommended  Feb 16, 2000
My daughter was given this for her second birthday, and a year later she still loves it. It lives in the car so as soon as we get in, she knows she can play with her apple. She practises her letters and hums along with the tunes. There are, I think, four different settings, so each letter of the alphabet can do four different things (you change the setting by pushing the worm up or down).

71 of 72 found the following review helpful:


Loads of fun - if you love vtech toys it's a must have  Jul 25, 2000 By Shaun Schooley "Shaun"
I purchased this as a gift for a friend's 20 month old daughter and while she wasn't that interested I found this thing incredibly amusing (I'm sure she will too in a few months). It has five different settings on the side that allow you to play with it differently - learn the letters, learn the letter sounds, find it, before and after, and music.

It was relatively quiet (a big plus) and seemed to be pretty sturdy. Really liked that it corrected you by giving the right answer rather than saying you were wrong.

58 of 58 found the following review helpful:


LOVE THIS TOY!  Aug 19, 2000
This is one of the best educational toys that my 3 year old has! She carries it everywhere! This toy has so much to do.. from learning the letters and sounds, to words and songs! It's a great toy for a long trip! I just can't say enough about it!

64 of 65 found the following review helpful:


Excellent interactive learning toy  Nov 09, 1999
This is a great toy with several different "games" to play. There's music, asking the child what letter comes next, etc. My 2 year old got one for her birthday and she really likes pushing the buttons. I'm sure she'll love it even more when she can really answer the questions and hear that she got it right! By the way, it doesn't scold when you get an answer wrong it answers you back in a positive way.

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