How we teach
Every Sweet Learners game and video is built on what developmental research says about how toddlers learn words — from a screen, and from you. These are the rules we follow, and what each one means in the games.
1.Real things, not cartoons
Under three, children learn less from a screen than from the same thing in person. What closes the gap is realism: a lifelike picture of a duck connects the word to the duck they will meet. Our videos and Trivia use photo-style pictures, one thing at a time, on a plain soft colour, so nothing competes for attention.
In the games: Trivia shows three photo-style pictures and asks for one. Point & Say uses bright drawings on purpose — it is a tapping game about the joy of hearing a word, not a test — and the name is spoken the same slow way.
2.Look, ask, wait, tell
Speech therapists ask parents to wait at least three to five seconds after a question, without filling the silence. That silence is when a toddler finds the word. Every video clip says “Look!”, asks “What is this?”, then waits about four and a half seconds with only a quiet clock, and only then gives the answer.
In the games: Trivia asks “Where is the monkey?” and waits. It does not rush, and it asks again rather than moving on. A wrong tap gets a gentle “No, that’s not it. Try again.”
3.Say it in a sentence, then on its own
Toddlers recognise a word faster inside a familiar frame — “It’s a…” — than alone, because the frame lets them listen ahead for it. So the answer comes first as “It’s a duck.” and then as the bare word, twice.
In the games: When a child finds the right picture in Trivia, the game says the name again after the praise, so the last thing they hear is the word.
4.Slow, warm speech
The way parents naturally talk to babies — slower, higher, clearer, with pauses — is the speech children learn words from fastest. Our voice is one person, deliberately slowed, and every recording is checked so a mumbled or garbled take never reaches a child.
In the games: Every name in the games is a recording of the same kind: one unhurried voice, syllables clearly separated.
5.Nothing under the voice
Background music measurably reduces what infants learn from television. There is no music under any speech, anywhere. The only sound effect is the ticking clock, kept quiet, and it stops before the word is spoken.
In the games: The games make a small friendly sound when something is touched, and otherwise only speak.
6.Slow pace
Nine minutes of a fast-cut cartoon measurably worsened four-year-olds’ self-control straight afterwards. Our videos change picture about once every fourteen seconds and nothing moves except a small pop-in and a bounce when the answer comes.
In the games: Nothing in the games flashes, scrolls on its own, or counts down. The child sets the pace.
7.Say it again — and watch it again
A two-year-old can learn a word from one hearing and lose it within minutes; repetition is what makes it stick, and spacing the repeats out beats piling them up. Every word is said three times, and the same video is worth watching again tomorrow — comprehension rises each time.
In the games: A picture can be tapped as many times as a child likes, and Trivia deals every item once before any repeats.
8.One thing at a time
Toddlers learn the name of what they are looking at. Clutter splits attention. So: one subject, large, on one colour, with its name written underneath — the printed word is looked at only a few percent of the time, but that little bit predicts later letter knowledge.
In the games: Big tiles, no menus, no text a child has to read, and every control a single tap.
Your part
The strongest thing in all of this research is an adult watching along and saying the words. Sit with your child, point at the screen, and repeat the word together. That is why every video opens with “Say the words with me.” Paediatric guidance allows high-quality content from 18 months with a caregiver, and about an hour a day from age two — our longest video is fifteen minutes.
Watch the videos at Sweet Learners on YouTube.