For grown-ups
Why the syllable
Children who learn to read Spanish or Portuguese usually start with the syllable. A consonant meets each vowel in turn (m with a, e, i, o, u gives ma, me, mi, mo, mu), and words are built from those pieces (pa-to, lu-na). The five vowels keep one sound each, which makes the pattern easy to hear. English works differently, which is why SílabaTots is its own app.
The three activities
- The wheel. Pick a letter, then tap a vowel to hear the syllable, or tap Girar to hear all five.
- Build. The app says a word with a picture. Tap the syllable tiles in order to build it. A wrong tile is simply spoken again; nothing is marked wrong.
- Clap. Hear a word, then pick how many claps it has. Say it together and clap along.
Everything is spoken with your device's Spanish or Portuguese voice. If your device has none, a note appears and you can read the syllables aloud yourself.
The words
Every word is made only of the syllables on the wheel, with no written accents, so what your child builds is exactly what they spun.
Español: pato, sapo, luna, mano, mono, sopa, pino, lata, mapa, moto, pelota, paloma, tomate, pepino.
Português: pato, sapo, mapa, moto, sopa, lata, pipa, mala, pena, tomate, menino, pepino.
What it does not do
No score, no timer, no reading level. It does not listen to your child. It is a first step with syllables, not a full reading course. The Spanish and Portuguese in the app were written by our team, not machine-translated, and are waiting for review by native-speaking teachers.
Privacy
No account. The only thing kept on this device is the language you picked. Nothing is sent anywhere.