Dingo's Echo
Letter sounds, by hearing a sound and finding the letter that makes it
How it plays
Your child taps the big Listen button and hears a letter's sound on its own: /s/, not "ess". Then they tap the letter that makes it. A right answer says the letter's name and sound together. A wrong one steps back quietly and the sound plays again, so there is always one fewer to choose from. It starts with two letters and adds more as your child gets them right, in the order most Australian schools teach them: s, a, t, p, i, n first. It needs sound on.
What it's for
Letter sounds, by hearing a sound and finding the letter that makes it. It adapts as your child plays: after a few rounds that go well it steps up a little, and after a couple of hard ones it quietly steps back. The level number only ever goes up.
There is no score to lose and no way to fail. A wrong move is met with a gentle nudge, and a level ends when it's won.
Away from the screen: I spy, with sounds
About two minutes, with things most homes have.
- Play I spy with sounds, not letter names: "I spy something beginning with /s/."
- Say the sound on its own, without an "uh" after it.
- Take turns.
Three questions to ask while they play
- Can you make that sound too?
- Which letter makes that sound?
- Can you think of a word that starts with that sound?
Play together
Things to say or ask
- Say the sound with Dingo. Feel it in your mouth.
- Which letter makes that sound?
- You listened really carefully.
Taking turns on one device: One player makes the sound aloud like Dingo; the other finds the letter. Swap each sound.
Talk-about cards: a question a day for a week, for the car or the dinner table. Print them, or read them from your phone.
If they find it hard
Tap the big Listen button as often as you like. Or try A Rhyme at a Time first: hearing rhymes comes before hearing single sounds.
A sheet to print
One A4 page, in black and white or colour.
What it practises
- Letter sounds. Knowing the sound each letter makes: /s/, not "ess".
AC9EFLY11 (English, Foundation); EYLF 5.4 (Early Years Learning Framework V2.0) - Hearing single sounds. Picking out one sound by ear.
AC9EFLY09 (English, Foundation); EYLF 5.1 (Early Years Learning Framework V2.0)
The codes are from the Early Years Learning Framework V2.0 (for children from birth to five) and the Australian Curriculum v9 (Foundation to Year 2). Each links to the official wording. Every skill, and the games for it.
What it costs, and what we collect
Nothing, and nothing. There is no account, no advertising and no tracking of any kind. Which games have been played is remembered on your own device and is never sent anywhere. The full version is here, and it's short.
Where it lives
Dingo's Echo lives in The Rustly Bush — letters and phonics. It works on a phone, a tablet or a classroom screen, and once it's been opened it keeps working with no signal at all.
Updated